Home garage painters

MX442

MX442

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For the home hobbyist painting in the garage, what kind of set up are you all using? Making a plastic tent, or no tent, etc? What are you using for ventilation? Will I be successful without an exhaust fan and leave the door partially open? How foggy does it get without a fan? What is a good exhaust fan on a budget?

Thanks for the help.
 
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All I use is a box fan under the door.
It pulls air from above the door and exhausts it on the floor.
I get my cleanest jobs this way, painting out of the air flow.
 
I would not go with that box fan setup. The way that box fan is set up is an explosion looking for a place to happen in my opinion. Just my .02.
 
As long as you keep the area ventilated, it'll never build up to
the levels it takes for that to happen.
 
The interesting thing about motors like that in a box fan is that they are brushless (no ignition source) induction motors, and pose no ignition hazard unless they malfunction.

Of course, a malfunction at the perfect moment might prove... interesting. But very unlikely.
 
crashtech;29329 said:
The interesting thing about motors like that in a box fan is that they are brushless (no ignition source) induction motors, and pose no ignition hazard unless they malfunction.

Of course, a malfunction at the perfect moment might prove... interesting. But very unlikely.
Click to expand...
I'll be the first to admit that I don't know anything about those fan motors. I'd feel safer using a squirl cage setup out of a furnace to keep the motor out of the airstream of paint fumes.
 
I have plastic wrapped over standard wood studs to make a box. My ventilation is two box fans, with hepa filters in front of them. Sucking filtered air instead of pushing dirty air through the filter.

This is just for a frame, it will be a little more involved once I do color on panels.
 
i use a hydroponics exhaust setup with the fan mounted outside of the garage, charcoal filter with paint filter wrapped around it on the inside of the garage. takes out about 80%-90% of the smell. works good, shocking how much pigment sticks to filter and charcoal. my booth is very small and i dont shoot more than one or two motorcycle fenders/tanks at a time...
 
I crack the shop doors and i have three box fans, each in a different window at the opposite side of the big doors. it gives you a good draft. BUT, it also lets bugs and dirt in... I want to make some filter up and use my entry doors as the air inlet. i guess it all depends on the way your shop is built as to your options. there is my 2 cents...
 
I erect a plasic wall on 3 sides of my shop witht he door being the one without. the door(16') gets opened enough to put 2 squirrell cage fans on both ends and in between is sealed off. I have 2 windows on the opposite end that I open and put furnace filters on. the shop gets a thorough cleaning before I put up the walls. been workin pretty good so far.
as for fans, I though I read that the main problem that can result is with startup. that's when sparks can happen, so my fans are turned on before I start spraying and dotn get turned off until im done.

got done last sunday spraying a 19' sleekcraft boat that wouldn't fit all the way in my shop without a major rearranging, so I had the door open. luckily, only the trailer tongue was outside and it was raining lightly, so dirt in cc was minimal and not hard to fix.
 
never mentioned . you have neighbors and animals that are not wearing masks . no offense but if you blew that into my backyard you would have a serious legal problem. a neighbor can nail you over this and you will have 0 defense .
 
Shine has a good point. Best to make sure whatever you are doing isn't going to affect the neighbors. All it takes is 1 call, and the authorities HAVE to investigate it. This is happening more and more after the new laws that were passed.

It is worth considering heavily, before spending any money on a setup. You very well may live in an area where it isn't an issue......but for anyone else reading it should be the #1 issue before you decide to paint in your garage.

I know people who have just received a warning and had to stop.....and others that have had pretty big fines levied on them.
 
Thats the problem with shooting clear in your garage, the whole neighborhood knows what you are doing.

It's hard to hide.
 
Shine, that's part of the reason I asked.

What can I do, on a hobyist budget, for controlling paint fumes?
 
filter in - filter out. if you use dry filters on the exhaust it will trap the solids and cut down on the fumes going out. i live in the sticks but my exhaust is still stacked 20 ft high and i use exhaust filters ..
 
I see fiberglass paint arresting filters listed on some of the web stores. I'm under the impression that this just traps the overspray dust and does nothing for fumes. Is this adequate, or is there also an organic / charcoal type filter that will also be needed? Are we protecting the neighborhood from overspray dust, or VOC's, or just smell? Not to sound naive, where do the VOC's go when spraying? Trapped in a filter, or dispersed in the atmosphere?
 
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