Need ideas for a cheap spray booth

[Matt Day]

In my last house I made a spray booth contraption of our 2x4’s and that would hang off the open garage door. It worked okay, but was far from smooth.

I’ve moved and have a need to spray a 8’ x 2’ desktop, which is probably about the biggest project I’ll spray. So I’m looking for a cheap and easy spray booth setup and need some ideas.

Currently my thought would be to buy a pop up canopy (easy up style) and add poly walls to it with Velcro/clamps/something else.

Any other thoughts? I thought about a big camping tent, thinking the mesh walls would block debris but not all of the wind.

[ChrisA Edwards]

I just finished spraying my second batch of Plantation Shutters.

My first batch, I built a temporary spray booth out of 2x4's and covered it with a heavy duty plastic.

This second time, I built the structure out of 2" PVC pipe and just used Tee and Elbows. In a few places I used PVC adhesive, but left it to the point where I could disassemble it and store it for future use. This one, I covered with a lighter weight plastic drop cloth, covering the 4 walls, ceiling and floor.

I made it 10'L x 8'W x 7'H.

[johnny means]

Why bother with a spray booth? A clean room will do just fine. Spray your finish, let it flash off then vent with a fan. Plenty of finishes get sprayed on site without a booth.

[Matt Day]

Why bother with a spray booth? A clean room will do just fine. Spray your finish, let it flash off then vent with a fan. Plenty of finishes get sprayed on site without a booth.

I’ve got a basement shop with only one small half window. Spray in there would kick up too much dust. Garage, basically the same thing, and outside too much wind and too seasonal. I don’t mind spraying in winter in the garage because I can keep things inside them bring out to spray and back in soon. So, no clean room available.

[Paul F Franklin]

Looked into this a little a while ago. For not much more than just a pop up canopy, you can get one with three sides enclosed, so you wouldn't have to fuss with separate poly. My thought was I'd add a fan or two in the back wall with filters in front to get enough air flow to minimize overspray settling on the work. I haven't had to do it yet as the weather has been nice enough that I spray outside, but when winter comes I may need to take the plunge.

[John TenEyck]

I use poly hung from nails in the floor joists to make a temporary spray booth in my basement shop. My DC fan is the exhaust and an open window supplies make-up air. I've used this arrangement for about 8 years now and it works really well for the shellac and waterborne products I use. No way I'd spray solvent based products, however, besides shellac. The booth is about 8 x 10 ft so I can spray house doors lying flat, and similar large projects. 1200 cfm is not nearly enough, but somehow it is as I've never had a problem with overspray.

John

[Bill Dufour]

I picked up a free dome tent with no poles at a yard sale. staked the corners down and tied the top to a tree branch. I reached in through the open door and used it for a sandblast booth.
Bill D

[Wayne Cannon]

From an idea in a spray-finishing book,
Mine is a knock-down spray booth of 1-inch foam insulation panels connected together with Velcro straps. Mine is 8 feet wide (two panels) and 4 feet deep with a top -- easily extendable -- not quite 8 feet high to fit in my garage. I took a 36-inch belt-drive "whole house fan", and reconstructed it into a round duct of flashing with the motor outside of the duct and the belt through a slot in the suction side of the fan. It is very easy to assemble, and it disassembles into a 5-inch thick stack, except for the ducted fan.

[glenn bradley]

Yep, 2" foam board.

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Waterborne only.

[roger wiegand]

rigid foam insulation and duct tape; whole house ventilation fan aiming out a window in the back. Not good for flammable solvents obviously, but keeps the overspray off everything in the shop and vents the fumes pretty effectively. I still use a respirator. (Actually much like Glenn's picture that I just looked at more carefully)

[Matt Day]

I recall seeing plans with rigid foam board. I’ll look into it more. Definitely cheaper than a pop up tent. More to store though.

[Matt Day]

Turns out rigid foam board is expensive - $15/sheet or so. And if I need even at minimum 6, that’s almost $100. I’d rather stick with a pop up canopy at that price.

[Bernie Kopfer]

Yep, 2" foam board.

440422440421440423

Waterborne only.
Ive used this system (single fan) for years. Carefully taped the panels together so that they can be folded as a unit and store it above the garage door. Takes 5 minutes to slide down and set up.

[John TenEyck]

Turns out rigid foam board is expensive - $15/sheet or so. And if I need even at minimum 6, that’s almost $100. I’d rather stick with a pop up canopy at that price.

Exactly why I use plastic sheeting. Cheap, and easy to store.

John

[Stan Calow]

Harbor Freight has a couple of framed - plastic things that might work. I dont have opportunity to look right now, but I've seen them in the past and thought that would be a good use for them.

I used shower curtain liners on sections of conduit in a pinch before, but it would be nice to have a better set-up

[Matt Day]

Here’s what I ended up doing.
10x10 pop up canopy with straight legs for $70 at Ace. Nice tent actually.

I attached the legs to 1x all around, then wrapped in plastic on 3 sides. 2 box fans mounted vertically blowing out the side door of the garage, garage door closed, back window open. A couple $15 5000 lumen led lights from Menards (one from above one on the side for flat light).

It barely fits in my garage but it would be nearly impossibly to have it work outside - too much wind for what is essentially a big kite.

I had the fans already, so this cost about $125 total.

[Jim Becker]

That worked out nicely, Matt!

[Matt Day]

Thanks Jim! I’m pretty happy with it. Took a while to plan and build it, but should be pretty quick to setup next time. I really like having it inside the garage so I don’t have to worry about wind or rain or snow even.

[John TenEyck]

That's a nice setup you put together and should work really well. When the filter material slags up remove it and don't replace it. It's better to have flow than worry about $15 fans. If you are spraying from more than 6 ft away most WB finishes will be dry by the time it gets to the fans.

John