Home built spray booth


Post a set of plans?

  • Yes, I'd really love to build one.

    Votes: 10 90.9%
  • Don't bother, we all have one already.

    Votes: 1 9.1%

  • Total voters
    11
  • Poll closed .

Red Oak & Western

Active Member
In the mid-80's, Model Railroader published an article on building your own spray booth. I built one based on the article, using a sealed motor exhaust fan purchased from W.W. Grainger and aluminum sheet and angle purchased from Home Depot. It's been in use now for about 20 years (oh how time flies!) Total cost was about 60 (1980) dollars. Not sure what it would cost today. The whole thing is bolted together, so no special skills (welding, etc.) are required. If there is interest, I can try and find the article or work up plans from mine, including spec'ing out part sources and prices. Shown here without the filter in place. The actual opening is 20"w x 14"h.
 
I did a look-up in MR's article data base (http://index.mrmag.com) and it came back with 17 hits. The August 1983 Model Railroader has an article titled "A Deluxe Spray Paint Booth". It's within the time frame when I built mine, but I haven't had time to go through my back issue collection looking to see if that is actually the right issue.

BTW: a quick lookup on the Grainger site showed the blower I used (495 CFM) is selling for $144, a 265 CFM blower is priced at $77.
 
You better believe I'm interested. That is something I want to do in the very near future. I've toyed around with several ideas, even have a copy machine blower to use, but haven't taken any steps. It would be great to have one made with metal.;) :)
The Grainger price for the fan is very good. The dual fan booth that MicroMark sells is only 185cfm...and look at the price of the booth:eek: :eek: :)
 
Well, if it cost $60 to build in 1980, that's about $160 in 2006 dollars. I notice that Walther's has a Badger Spray Booth on sale for $240. I'm sure your's is better quality than the Badger model but I'm just not a good enough craftsman to make one assuming that the price difference would remain constant today. I'd probably screw up $80 worth of materials before I got a decent quality spray booth built. :)
 
I made mine about 20 years ago too, using half inch plywood and a bathroom fan. Has worked fine for me all these years. I have a furnace filter in front of the fan, and a small under the counter fluorescent light inside. Bathroom fans normally have induction motors with no brushes, therefore no sparking. Been using mostly Floquil paint with no problems.
 
Yup, that's the filter holder in front of the fan opening. It uses a standard 1" x 20" x 12" furnace filter. I checked the impeller blades last night and after 20+ years of use, there's still no paint build-up.

The blower does have an induction motor. Been using Scalecoat paints all along.

And Jim, if you can build a structure kit, you can build this booth. There are no complex cuts, joints, or anything.
 
Worked up a materials list and spec'ed out the prices today. Looks like the total cost would be between $245 and $255 depending on 1) the blower: a Dayton 4C447 (limited availability) @ $63.60; or a Dayton 1TDR3 (replacement for the 4C447) @ $77.15, and 2) the shipping charges on the aluminum stock: $19.80 to my address.

Still interested?
 
Darn, that's getting close to a ready made and the work is done. I am still interested in the plan. I have a copy machine blower (squirrel cage) that probably would work and I may be able to find the materials cheaper through connections. It would be worth the effort for me to give it a try. If I can stay around $150 I would be happy. ;) :)
 
I'm cross threading. I had a booth post, a couple weeks ago, about using a old rangehood I had. Well, after looking up prices to compare to you plans, I found this site ranghood plans . This might be helpful to people.
 
Unfortunately, I was afraid your price would come out to just about what a manufactured paint booth would cost. Back in the days when everything was made here, I bought a paint booth for about $280. I think that was about 1970. With offshore manufacturing, I can still get a manufactured paint booth for about the same price or even less today. It's tough to compete with slave labor. :(
 
I bought mine on eBay (a little over a year ago if I recall correctly). A metal fab shop was selling them, and as they had just started, the price was around $125 + shipping (in my case totaling less than $150). The quality was great, easy to bolt together, the motor and fan were great, and I haven't had any trouble with it. I know the price went up to around $175 in the weeks after my purchase, but it would still be well worth it. I don't see any on eBay now though...I'll have to see if I can go back and find their user name...
 
I'll still go ahead and make up a set of plans. May take a week or two; my work schedule is crazy: some days I work from 6a - 3p, then a couple of days later I'll work from 2p - 11p. Sort of throws the bio-clock out of whack.

What has really driven the cost up is the price of the aluminum. I purchased mine through a metals dealer in Gilroy, CA, back when we lived on the west coast. Paid $42.50 for the aluminum to build the spray booth and enough 1" square steel tubing to build a rack for the pickup (still have the receipt). When I priced out the aluminum locally here on the east coast, it came to over $300. On the web, the best price I could find is $98.97 plus shipping. If you can "get a deal" -- through connections, a local scrap dealer, or whatever, it still might be worth it.
 
RO&W, I really appreciate the thought, but I don't want you going to so much trouble. At first, all I thought all you had to do was copy plans. I can wing it or maybe find some other plans on the Net. Thanks for the kindness.
 



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