Finish/Spray Room or Open-Face Booth?

[Tom Bain]

I have space for a dedicated finishing area in my new shop and I'm trying to decide exactly how I want to configure it. I use a variety of finishes, but try to spray whenever it makes sense (typically waterborne and sometimes shellac). The maximum space I have for a "room" is 10' x 12', and I'm now wondering if that's going to be too small? Will I be bumping into the walls all the time and not have enough room to maneuver? Alternatively, I could just build an open face booth type set-up which could be up to 10' wide. The downside being that the piece being finished would be exposed to the shop, dust, etc.... Also, this is all a DIY build in a hobby shop (not commercial and not purchasing an industrial spray booth or anything like that).

Any thoughts on the trade-offs between the closed room versus open-face booth approach?

[Jim Becker]

I only spray waterborne finishes plus a little shellac as you mention. I'd be perfectly happy with an open ended booth...if I had a booth...

[Andrew More]

A couple of thoughts:

1) If you've got an room area, then enough ventilation makes open/close a moot point, because all of the particles get sucked into the ventilation.
2) You haven't told us the size of the projects you're working on. If it's a jewelry box, then no problems, if it's an entrance way, then you might have issues.
3) A nice "lazy susan" setup makes being able to get to the other side of the room mostly moot. I usually use them with smaller pieces, but I suspect it's not that hard to make one large enough for furniture.

[Tom Bain]

A couple of thoughts:

1) If you've got an room area, then enough ventilation makes open/close a moot point, because all of the particles get sucked into the ventilation.
2) You haven't told us the size of the projects you're working on. If it's a jewelry box, then no problems, if it's an entrance way, then you might have issues.

Andrew — Good points. Project size is all over the map. I do make both small and large furniture pieces, and I have a kitchen makeover at some point in the future (so lots of cabinets). I’m not too concerned with ventilation in either scenario. I plan on building a filter wall with an industrial fan to provide exhaust. The reason I was leaning toward a dedicated room initially was for when the pieces are drying and being able to close the door to the finish room and keep working in the rest of the shop without fear of contaminating the finish.

[Mark Daily]

If you need to keep working while finish dries I think an enclosed room would be best.

[Tom Bain]

“Need” to keep working is a strong statement, but it sure would be nice :)

[Jim Becker]

I can relate to the "need to keep working thing", honestly. When I'm spraying something larger, it pretty much renders my shop as unavailable for other projects. Smaller stuff I can finish at one end while working at the other end on my CNC or on the bench. Rethinking my earlier response, I'd modify it to being adaptable to an open booth if I had a shop large enough to support it so there was a decent level of separation from the production area as well as appropriate air flow to support it. Otherwise, a "clean room" would be preferable. I unfortunately have space for neither solution in my current shop, so yea...things come to a stand-still when I'm in spraying mode. And then I get to clean up afterward from the fines that settle out of the air if they were not caught by the air cleaner.

[Tom Bain]

Jim - I hear you! My prior shop was too small to do any spraying inside. I would just wait for a nice day and spray outside, and hope that (1) the weather forecast was accurate and (2) not too many bugs would land in my finish :rolleyes:

[Jim Becker]

I had a stink bug trying to bugger my spraying operation yesterday... LOL So even inside, there are things to worry about relative to bugs!

[sean meltvedt]

Outside is not an option here; Summer would see endless bugs, Winter would be spraying snow :)

[Alan Lightstone]

Come on. I watch all those "Building Alaska" shows. Build a spray booth, connect it to an outhouse, and watch the bears play with your furniture, LOL.

I never measured my finishing room, but I think it's a little smaller than yours, and it works out fine. But I am limited to 6' width on projects, height no issue. I'm thinking you'll be fine.

[Al Launier]

Andrew Moore above gave exactly my thoughts as well. If appropriate, you always can always make a portable "cube" booth using PVC piping with a plastic sheeting wrap held to the piping with snap clips.

[sean meltvedt]

Alan-between your comments and your signature, I laughed almost to tears:)

[Bob Riefer]

One room in my barn is sort of a multi-purpose room. The main use right now is my teenagers lift weights in there.

The room itself is separated from my shop by a door, so it stays pretty clean.

Since I can't take over the entire room (yet!) I affixed some curtain track to the ceiling, used some plastic lined canvas drop cloths as curtains, some tough cardboard as a floor covering, and a simple adjustable cart with swivel casters as my lazy susan. I can get a 3-sided booth setup (or broken back down) in about 60 seconds now. The three sides each measure 6' long.

I stand and spray from the open side of the setup, and a box fan with filter is in a window directly opposite of me. I only spray water based finishes at this time with this setup.

I would like to add a second set of curtains that would allow me to create a 6x12 space when needed since I have found the 6x12 to be restrictive in some cases.

The entire setup cost me about $100, but I did have a box fan on hand already, and used scrap materials for as much of the setup as possible. So that $100 was mostly ceiling track and curtain material.

427203427204

[Tom Bender]

Bob is leading in a practical direction but you may want to go a step or two further.

1. Set up your exhaust fan and exhaust filter permanently

2. Set up a rotating table with adjustable height, it could be raised on a reinforced cardboard box

3. set up a movable wall of intake air filters maybe 4ft x 8 ft. To size this figure on 400 fpm based on fan capacity at 1/4" wc

3. Build your booth to the size required for the project. Use plastic to make the walls. You will need to seal it to the floor and ceiling with tape and weights. Reconfigure as needed.

4. Spray away then go make dust in the rest of your shop.

5. You may want a second, smaller exhaust fan that you can leave on for longer curing.

[Bob Riefer]

Bob is leading in a practical direction but you may want to go a step or two further.

1. Set up your exhaust fan and exhaust filter permanently

2. Set up a rotating table with adjustable height, it could be raised on a reinforced cardboard box



Tom's points are right on, and I only have clarifications regarding 2 of them for my particular setup...

1. My exhaust fan is setup permanently. I built a wood box that holds the fan and filter, and is screwed to the window frame. AC foam/gasket material creates a seal to the window itself, but allows enough movement that the window can be opened/closed. So I can easily open when needing to filter, or close when wanting to keep heating/cooling in the shop. (poor man's solution? yes.. but effective :-) )

2. My little cart built out of scrap lumber has 2x4 legs that friction fit into pockets in the swivel caster base, and also into the underside of the top. I have a few sets of legs of different heights that I just swap in when working on something taller or shorter. I also have a "extension top" that friction fits over the top seen in the picture above for when I want to about double the size of the surface.