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I spray my finishes in an automotive paint booth. It works great, with super lighting, and excellent venelation/filtration......... However, the logistics are a pain always going there to spray. I'm going to build a spray booth. I've got a shed roof behind my shop. My dust collector and air compressor are under it. (as well as my lawn mower ) I'm considering building a booth under this roof. I think I can go as big as 8' X 10' but I don't think that's necessary. Smaller will be easier to control temperature and humidity when I'm using it.

How big or small should I go?

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
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I have an 8 by 12

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If you can't do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

12' x 24'

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jw ( o)===:::

1 acre

Sorry, couldn't help it, I spray outside the shop

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Steve Smith
"Music is what feelings sound like"

10' x 16' I do cabinets in my shop also.

I know too big is better than too small. My shop is 12'X20' so there's not really room for a booth in there. A "take down" booth is an option but since I've already got a roof behind my shop I figure the materials cost won't bet that bad. All I need to 3 walls(+ the shop wall) and a floor. I don't plan on finishing anything but guitars, and I only plan on finishing ones I build. I won't do any sanding, filling or anything in there, just spraying, and curing. My fear is coming up with (what I think is) the perfect compact size, and then finding that, with a drying cabinet, and mixing bench it's too small.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Woody, my booth is about 6'x4'. Check out pictures in my shop post (see my signature line)

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Wood, I would make it big enough to move around in safely. Consider parts hanging (necks/bodies) and how well you can navigate around them.
Maybe you could do a mock up with cardboard and walk through the motions of finishing the guitar to get a feel for what might work best for you. You can always mount your air dryer/regulator outside the booth to save inner space but I find it very helpful to have that within a couple steps.

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jw ( o)===:::

Open on the front 36" square including the near-vertical tilted filter bank with explosion proof exhaust out the top.
Instrument hangs in front of the booth on a pivot hook attached to a rope going over pulleys over to the wall and back down for changing elevation.

I can easily make it 12' X 10'. That's half of the shed roof behind my shop. I'm tight, and I hate the idea of heating/cooling/ controlling humidity in that big of an area. I may do that and divide it after I decide how big I need. I've got alot of my tonewood stored in a shop at my Dad's 25 miles away. I could use part of this addition for that.

Rod, I was hoping you'd post. I was curious about the size of your booth. I could try something like that inside my shop but I've got benches all around my walls.

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I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/PAASCHE- ... veQ5fTools
this link is to a small bench top that will do the trick for one body at a time.

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If you can't do something well, learn to enjoy doing it poorly.

A question about controlling the humidity and temperature in such an outdoor shop. A spray booth has a massive amount of air passing through it, flow generated by the exhaust fan. If you are sucking in outside air how can you possibly control the temperature and humidity? I've thought about this and figure the only way to do so in an outside spray booth is to have an air intake from the house piped via a wide duct into the spray booth.

I've sprayed nitro in a tent spray booth I constructed in the basement. It is a 'box' made of vapor barrier plastic that hangs from the ceiling. The roof and floor of the 'box' are sheets of plywood. There is a chute/duct made from the same plastic vapor barrier that connects via velcro to the window frame. The door is flap the is fastened with velcro also. I used an ordinary household fan attached in the window (not explosion proof) and then gassed the sh*t out the entire house when used it. I've finished two guitars in this thing despite being a bad idea. Currently the plastic near the exhaust fan is covered in overspray and I worry the thing is a massive fire hazzard so I'll not use it anymore. This nitro thing is a pain the ass, I'm going to switch to water based and just do it infront of the window,

about using a non-explosion proof fan, I tested the fan outside by spraying nitro into it, and nothing happened so I used it.

Cheers,

Stefan

How many guitars do you do at a time?

I do 2 at a time in a 4' x 5' room and it's tight but works. If you can split your 8 x 10 space into 8 x 5, that should be plenty for 2 or 3 at a time. I don't recommend any dimension under 5' though. Mine works but if I had an extra foot, I'd be much happier.

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http://www.chassonguitars.com

I spray in a auto booth.12x20.Intake air comes from another room12x20 through a filter.

About 4' x 6'...basically a glorified closet on an exterior wall for the fan. Incoming air filters are in the door behind my right shoulder and the exhaust fan is just above floor level to give me a downdraft system. Wire racks are behind me and I have shot up to 6 instruments at a time, but these days only 2. I have a black light cabinet beneath the wire racks to help cure lacquer during the winter.

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Hank Mauel

I am just getting ready to pour the concrete floor in my shop extension. The extension is 10' X 24'. 10' X 10' 6" of it will be dedicated to the spray booth.
I figure this'll give me plenty or room for storage / paint prep area & space to spray 3 - 4 guitars at a time, comfortably.
Most of my recent spraying has been done outside. I'm really looking forward to NOT blowing hordes of mosquitoes into my next finish!
I plan to use radiant heat in the spray room. Warm up the "stuff" - forget about the air, is my current thinking. There's so much air going through, you'd need to have New Mexico on the other end of the duct for a ready supply of warm air.
I have heard of some guys using the warmed air in the main shop, but I wanted there to be no shared air between the shop & the booth. Keep dust out of the booth & the smell out of the shop.
I expect I will still need to watch the weather... Some days will be too moist to spray nitro.

I'm going to enclose half of the area in my behind the shop shed. It will be 10' X 12'. I'll probably put a wall somewhere in it, for a smaller booth, but I'll wait and see how it "feels".

Thanks for all the replies.

_________________
I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/

Woody, remember that you will have an exhaust fan that will be moving a bunch of air through the booth, so you won't be controlling heat and humidity there. Since you will be sharing a wall with the shop consider having the in-feed come from the shop through filters, that way it has the conditioned air already. You don't mention if you will need to shoot in the winter in subzero, this design helps with that too.

My booth is just a 10x12 garden shed from Sears, well grounded. I stood the walls up on some 2x12 footers to get more head room. It draws air from a window in the shop and exhausts to the great outdoors. Depending on your area this may be an issue and your out-feed may need a lot more, check with local regulations on that.

Also, on the fans, get one with a non-sparking blade, usually aluminium and totally enclosed. Explosion proof is just a totally enclosed that it guaranteed not to let any parts out in case of a bearing going out. This is probably overkill since you will hear the the motor is going long before ti explodes. Being totally enclosed is enough so that it won't spark any fumes.

FWIW,
Alan D.

What paint booth?
Kent Bailey

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Woody,

I have a 6' x 6' room in one corner of my shop with an explosion proof exhaust fan and explosion proof lighting. It has proven to work just fine for my needs.

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Bill Hodge


One does not simply, own enough guitars!

I have a 30x30 shop and built an 8x8 spray "room". I used a window fan from the 50's that allowed me to put the motor inside a cabinet. The screen door that you see in the background is the door to the spray room. It has plexiglass window and a furnace filter built into the bottom. I use radiant heat in the main shop and there are a few leaks that allow me to have filtered air moving through the spray room. The toughest part was having a louver door system that keeps out the cold in the winter.

I also have a neat thing that happened by accident in the spray room. I have a closet rod to put wet guitars hanging. I had a large mirror from ???? that I needed to store in a "safe" place. I hung it on the wall behind the closet rod. What this does for me is when I have sprayed a sunburst and tried to see if it was even I couldn't because of the limit of my arm length. But when I looked at the guitar in the mirror it was 5 ft away and was if I was looking at the guitar from 10 ft. It really helped to see if things looked good from a distance without even putting the wet guitar down...... hmmm a little more black on the bass side...... Hope this makes sense because everytime I use it I keep thinking of putting that tip somewhere on the forum.

Karl

I've got an explosion proof fan I got a while back when a local body shop got a new booth. I'll take filtered air from my shop. I love the mirror. I'll have to do that.

_________________
I didn't mean to say it, but I meant what I said.
http://www.brackettinstruments.com/