Built myself a small spray booth.
Posted: Sun Aug 03, 2014 4:43 am
Posting this as a DIY inspiration for others.
So I do most of my airbrushing indoors (away from wind which carries dust, dirt, hair, and so on all over my fresh paint jobs) and I've recently moved away from airbrushing tamiya acrylics and ventured more into enamels and lacquers. As a result something had to be done about the fumes - apart from the horrid stench of enamel thinners and the toxicity of lacquer thinners, I find even lightish exposure to them can trigger my migraines, which is obviously not high on my list of "things I want to do today.
Solution: BUILD A SMALL SPRAY BOOTH.
My girlfriend donated the lazy susan - otherwise it's a black plastic tub with a hole cut out of the "ceiling". Attached to that is a desk fan blowing air upwards, which results in air being pulled through the box from the open front and exiting via the fan.
The light is a low-power LED fitting from a Fluval Edge aquarium that wasn't getting used. It's quite bright for how small it is.
This duct goes outside. The little desk fan actually manages to move quite a bit of air through it.
Total cost: $16 for the ducting and the bracket to attach it to. The rest of it was just stuff I had lying around the house.
Result: a significant decrease in the odour and fume exposure. You can still smell it a bit, but you're no longer in any danger of being suffocated by the stench or vapours. It's not perfect, I highly doubt it'd compete well against a professional spray booth, but for $16 nobody can really complain that it wasn't worth it.
So I do most of my airbrushing indoors (away from wind which carries dust, dirt, hair, and so on all over my fresh paint jobs) and I've recently moved away from airbrushing tamiya acrylics and ventured more into enamels and lacquers. As a result something had to be done about the fumes - apart from the horrid stench of enamel thinners and the toxicity of lacquer thinners, I find even lightish exposure to them can trigger my migraines, which is obviously not high on my list of "things I want to do today.
Solution: BUILD A SMALL SPRAY BOOTH.
My girlfriend donated the lazy susan - otherwise it's a black plastic tub with a hole cut out of the "ceiling". Attached to that is a desk fan blowing air upwards, which results in air being pulled through the box from the open front and exiting via the fan.
The light is a low-power LED fitting from a Fluval Edge aquarium that wasn't getting used. It's quite bright for how small it is.
This duct goes outside. The little desk fan actually manages to move quite a bit of air through it.
Total cost: $16 for the ducting and the bracket to attach it to. The rest of it was just stuff I had lying around the house.
Result: a significant decrease in the odour and fume exposure. You can still smell it a bit, but you're no longer in any danger of being suffocated by the stench or vapours. It's not perfect, I highly doubt it'd compete well against a professional spray booth, but for $16 nobody can really complain that it wasn't worth it.
