HVLP -- no booth needed. Pics.

[Jamie Buxton]

I was spraying this weekend, and took some pics of my setup.

The first pic shows my wood shop changed over to a paint shop. The stationary machines are wheeled back to make a big open area. The floor is covered with a plastic dropcloth (the heavy kind from the paint aisle at the Borg). That's it. There's no booth, and there's not even covering on the machines.

What I'm spraying is an eight foot by eight foot bookcase. You can see one module on its back in the middle of the shot. Two more modules are partially visible beyond the jointer/planer. The backs are standing up against the far wall of the shop. (I shoot backs separately, because the HVLP blows all the finish out of a concave thing like a bookcase or drawer.) There's also a drying rack near the far wall which contains a bunch of loose shelves.

My sprayer is an Accuspray 23K turbine and a Fuji XPC gun. I'm shooting a waterborne that General Finishes intends for spraying -- that is, it dries pretty quickly.

The overspray that lands on the drop cloth seems like it is part dust and part fluid; it builds up into a crust on the drop cloth, but not a nice flat finish like on the workpiece. The overspray that lands farther away is just dust. The finish droplets are all dry when they get to the table saw or the jointer.

The second pic is a shot of the drop cloth. The third pic is the top of the table saw. You can see where I've scribbled in the dust. At the point I took this pic, I'd sprayed about 3/4 of a gallon. As you can see, there's not much there, and it is all dust.

[Jefferey Scott]

Jamie, My spray setup is almost identical to yours. No booth, but I hang plastic sheeting and try to enclose the spray area as best I can. But to be honest it really doesn't help a lot. Dust still settles on everything which is a minor annoyance. I spray water based conversion varnish and lacquer exclusively. Maybe someday on the spray booth, but until then it's finishing in the shop which I'm sure a lot of us have to do.

[Jim Tobias]

Jamie,
I also do something very similar to what you describe. I do stand up a couple of large sheets of cardboard that are about 7' tall directly behind where I am spraying but about 4 feet away. But it is not surrounded, just a backstop. I cover the floor in the immediate area and spray away. My JDS air cleaner is above and a couple of feet behind the cardboard. I put a throw away filter on the front of it and spray. I find, like you, that other than a little overspray dust here and there, most of it lands within 6 feet of where I am spraying.
I went through the whole "building a booth" thing with PVC poles and plastic and an exhaust fan. I had more problems keeping dust specks off the object being sprayed than ever. It just isn't worth the effort to set all of that up every time.
I do spray waterbased finishes so there is no explosive issues.

Jim

[John TenEyck]

W/O any exhaust you all would be wise to ventilate and vacate your shops for some time when you are done spraying. Even though the smell may not seem bad, WB's have several VOC's which you don't want to breathe.

John

[Jim Tobias]

John,
I totally agree. I usually spray as the last thing before leaving shop. But , I am NEVER in shop without a mask due to allergies and sinus issues anyway.
Jim

[Sam Murdoch]

Here a my story of my no booth HVLP set up - not trying to hijack your thread Jamie - just sharing another low tech option.

I finished a kitchen last summer using a Fuji Turbine and some ML Campbell water based product - Aqualente. I had no spray booth but lots of parts so I took my finishing outside - into the annex as my friends call it - my driveway. I managed to pick a near perfect week of weather which helped a lot. I had no tent or cover for my first attempt - just a pair of sawhorses with a turntable for the spray booth with a drying rack set out of the overspray zone. Worked great for the clear coats on the drawer boxes but when I started with the opaque color on the cabinet parts I discovered that my greatest aggravation came from bugs landing on the wet surfaces.

I managed to get good results and was able to do several coats from primer to finish for batches of stuff each day, but I learned a few things which others might care to know if Jamie's technique proves impractical.

1) I finally woke up to the realization that I needed a drying tent. I needed a roof over the drying parts to keep the bugs off. Carrying everything back inside was too risky - too much juggling and jostling - besides which, that would have just brought the fumes back into the shop so I built myself a very crude tent with a tarp using my drying rack as the base.

2) You've got to know where the wind is coming from. I staked a very very light wind indicator ( a stick with a few 1/4" strips of surveyors tape) near my work so that I could see how not to spray - and where not to set up my drying rack to avoid overspray on drying parts.

3) Best to not be finishing in full sun.

All in all not a bad option for occasional finishing. If and when I do this again I am now on the look out for a used one of these -

430626_L2.jpeg
I think a pop up like this would make an excellent spray booth especially with my FUJI and waterbased products. I could leave both ends open. Put a box fan or 2 at the back end with my spray table in front of the fans and then stack my parts behind and to the side for drying completely out of the overspray or bug zone. The added bonus of an admittedly bush league set up like this is that the shop is still available as a woodworking shop as you wait for the paint to dry. And if you do some late day spraying after an hour you could just close the flaps and let the parts spend a safe night in the tent.

[Bill Neely]

A few years ago I installed a small attic fan above the door of my shop, I have sliding windows at the other end. I cover a lot of the shop surfaces with throwaway plastic drop cloths and put one on the floor in the area I am spraying in. I built a frame in front of the fan so I can adjust the airflow with a piece of styrofoam used as a baffle and also adjust the window openings. Works pretty well but it also limits me to fairly good weather.

The first few times I sprayed I hung 1/2 pvc pipe from the ceiling and clipped visqueen to it with those greenhouse type clips so I could direct the airflow and protect everything from overspray, too much trouble.