Clean Room Curtains?

[Erik Oerter]

I am toying with the idea of turning a portion of my shop space into a "clean room" (as dust free as possible) for finishing and other such endeavors. I am thinking of something like a really big shower curtain type setup so that the curtains can be pulled back when not needed and the space can be used for other things. Anybody ever seen a setup like this? How about a source for tracks and curtains?

Thanks.

[Joe Jensen]

I'm not sure it will keep more than large sawdust out. We had the tile removed from our house a few years ago. The contractor instructed us to put all fabric based items in plastic bags even if they were in cabinets. he also had us tape the cabinet doors to seal them. Then they hung floor to ceiling plastic to seal off the area where they were working from the rest of the house. They pressed hard against the ceiling with 2 by 4s the whole length at the top, and all along the bottom. After they left two days later, we untaped cabinets only to find a very fine layer of dust on every single item in every cabinet. Only the things that were sealed in plastic bags were dust free. In my post powerball dream shop I have a downdraft spray booth :D

[JayStPeter]

I use zip walls as a temporary spray booth.

[Bob Knodel]

http://www.goffscurtainwalls.com/ (http://www.goffscurtainwalls.com/) With a good fan and these curtains you would be set.

Bob

[Joe Chritz]

Two words....NEGATIVE PRESSURE.

The others hit it. If you don't have a system to remove the air in the clean room it will get everywhere. Curtains will help but my spray room (under construction) currently has no fan and even with a door I get some in the main area.

Your fan can be a simple as an fan sucking the air out a window unless you are spraying solvent base finishes.

Real spray booths have a draft system strong enough you can feel the breeze.

Joe

[Thomas Williams]

We have a pass through window between the kitchen and my shop. I use a clear vinyl sheet with Velcro strips to seal off the opening when I am making saw dust. I have not had a dust migration problem yet. Also, from my photo darkroom days, if you want to keep dust out of an enclosed area you want positive pressure in that area. Negative pressure will suck in the outside air and contaminates.

[Mike SoRelle]

I'm not sure it will keep more than large sawdust out. We had the tile removed from our house a few years ago. The contractor instructed us to put all fabric based items in plastic bags even if they were in cabinets. he also had us tape the cabinet doors to seal them. Then they hung floor to ceiling plastic to seal off the area where they were working from the rest of the house. They pressed hard against the ceiling with 2 by 4s the whole length at the top, and all along the bottom. After they left two days later, we untaped cabinets only to find a very fine layer of dust on every single item in every cabinet. Only the things that were sealed in plastic bags were dust free. In my post powerball dream shop I have a downdraft spray booth :D


Tile dust is up there on the evil scale with sheetrock dust, short of MDF I never generate anything as fine as that stuff, and I'm glad. It gets EVERYWHERE, including places on yourself where you weren't aware you could collect dust

Mike

[Greg Sznajdruk]

Two words....NEGATIVE PRESSURE.

The others hit it. If you don't have a system to remove the air in the clean room it will get everywhere. Curtains will help but my spray room (under construction) currently has no fan and even with a door I get some in the main area.

Your fan can be a simple as an fan sucking the air out a window unless you are spraying solvent base finishes.

Real spray booths have a draft system strong enough you can feel the breeze.

Joe

Thomas is right, in my youth clean rooms were under positive filtered air pressure. When you opened the door there was a rush of air out of the clean room.

Greg

[Greg Cole]

Thomas is right, in my youth clean rooms were under positive filtered air pressure. When you opened the door there was a rush of air out of the clean room. Greg

I've been through an IBM factory (Dad worked there for 37 years) many times. I've been in a real "clean room" where the chips n wafers are made. Positive air pressure in those rooms too..... a spray booth can't even be considered remotely clean in comparison.

Greg

[Larry Nall]

Erik, I was thinking about doing the same thing.
My thoughts thus far were 6 mil plastic for the curtains, grommets with regular shower curtain hooks, maybe a light chain weight along the bottom, 1/2" black pipe for the rails.
Larry

[Rob Will]

I once built a 16 x 24 folding paint booth for my neighbor with double barn door track and thinwall steel tubing doors (1.5" x 1.5" tubing). A strip of indoor / outdoor carpet provided a seal at the ceiling and floor. The doors were covered in white corrugated metal.

The doors along the side stacked side by side next to a bathroom wall. [[

The doors on the end folded in an accordian fashion. They looked like giant bi-fold closet doors. /\/\

There was a strip of metal left off of the end to accomodate a row of furnace filters (for clean make-up air).

Exhaust was a fan through the wall (mounted low).

Rob

[Vince Shriver]

www.zipwall.com (http://www.zipwall.com)

[Grant Morris]

My thoughts thus far were 6 mil plastic for the curtains, grommets with regular shower curtain hooks, maybe a light chain weight along the bottom, 1/2" black pipe for the rails.



I have been thinking of something along the lines of your ideas too. I came to the conclusion that using regular pipe (EMT would be better than black pipe) for the track would not work unless I made custom curtain hooks which would be more effort than it was worth. Shower curtain hooks won't slide past the rail fasteners unless you only plan to put one at each end of a length of pipe.

In my case I want to cordon off a whole area of the garage using a large U shape. I think I would be better off buying tracks that are made for this job than trying to fabricate them. They can be found fairly cheap if you shop around on the Internet. I think I would use cotton sheets for the curtains rather than plastic too. They would be much easier to deal with and more durable. I would get my light from lights within the booth so I don't need transparent walls. Food for thought...

When I did research into this, I found this place which I thought had the best parts for my application. They are reasonably priced and the track is much more versatile than the industrial aluminum pre-shaped stuff. I think you will be impressed too.

Link (http://www.konnectinternational.com/pricelist/pricelist.htm)

[Joe Chritz]

Commercial spray rooms are mildly positive pressure to keep dust migration in contained. Evacuation of overpsray is accomplished through heavy air movement out and positive pressure is with make up air.

This is not a commercial application and I doubt the OP is willing to fork over that kind of dough.

Very acceptable results can be accomplished by sucking out more than is coming in and using filters on the incoming air to contain any airborne dust.

There are a lot of ways to attack a spray room but you are correct that positive pressure is normal for commercial rooms. You don't want to suck all the dust from the other area into the room.

I don't plan on setting mine up that way because of the high cost and acceptable results by evacuating the air and filtering the incoming.

Joe

[Robert Malone]

Get 4 of these supports, 6 mil plastic, box fan, air filter and tape, you're good to go.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=95746