Home Made Spray Booth by Mike Glidden

Home Made Spray Booth

by Mike Glidden
--------------------

I thought that this would be a cool article to submit. I first came up with the idea from seeing discussions on building spray booths on ARC. Since I am moving into an apartment in the next few months that it would be a good thing to think about building.

First I started with some .050 aluminum sheet metal from the scrap bin at work. Also from the bin I found some .080 extruded angle for the corners. I cut the bottom piece for the booth measuring 24 in. wide and 18 in. deep. Next was the top, measuring 24 in. wide by 12 in. deep. The back was cut to 24 in. wide by 14 in. tall. The sides were cut 18 in. deep at the bottom and 12 in. at the top and also 14 in. tall. The extruded angle was cut to join the top sides and bottom allowing relief for the adjacent angle in the corners.

Next, before assembly I cut the opening for the fan. The circular hole was cut to 6.25 in. diameter to allow for the 6 in. fan to extend through. I used a jig-saw with a sheet metal blade. Next came assembly. I drilled 5/32 holes ever 2 to 3 inches and attached the parts using pop-rivets or cherry-max rivets of the same size then sealed the edges with pro-seal. Once the box was made I turned my attention to installing the components and wiring.

I spent nearly two hours at Home Depot trying to find the right parts. The most important being the fan. I searched through the bathroom fans and found one 8 in. fan rated at 80 CFM, very-very loud but it was all they had for my budget. From reading other posts on ARC this fan sounded like it would work. It was on sale for $17 but fortunately they we out of stock so I went to the heating and ventilation isle looking for ducting to use for the exhaust. That is where I saw a fan called an inductor fan. It is an in-line fan used to add extra boost in central A/C ducting. They had a 6 in. fan rated at 250 CFM, far more powerful than the bathroom fans. I thought it would be loud as heck but it turned out that is almost silent. I also bought a 6 in to 4 in. reducer for the fan to dryer vent exhaust. Next I bought a light switch, replacement extension cord and external box used for putting lights in a basement. The total with all the hardware was $80.

I cut tabs in the back of the fan 1 in. wide and 2 in. deep. I bent every other tab up and left the others so they would extend into the booth (check out the pics and you will see what I mean). After sliding the fan through the opening and seating the already bent taps against the back of the booth I bent the remaining tabs up inside the booth thus sandwiching the fan into place. I then secured the tabs with aluminum foil tape.

I wired the fan to the junction box on the outside and drilled a hole through the side of the booth to extend the work light cord through and into the junction box. I wired the light to work independently of the light switch. The work light has a built in switch on its cover so this would have been redundant. The replacement extension cord was wired into the junction box for power.

I installed a common A/C filter in the back of the booth to filter particulates and painted the booth black and let dry.

I’m sure this could be done with wood for you wood workers but I am actually better with metal and have all the tools plus it is obviously lighter than wood. So there you have it, I hope you like it.

Thanks,

Mike

Click on images below to see larger images