Paint Booth Recommendations

T

thinktankgroup

Hi all!

We're opening a one-of-a-kind innovation/fabrication lab (our kr150 r3100 arrives today!), I'm trying to get a paint spray booth / mixing station so we can put some great finishes on our materials.

Does anyone have any insights or advice on paint booths that you've used? There's many different types of paint booths, and I need something that can be multi-purpose and do a great job of making it easy to get a quality paint job.

BACKGROUND:
- We're working with materials like wood, foam and metals
- We will be spraying typical automotive style paint finishes and high-gloss coatings
- Polyurea sprayer
- Finishing furniture, foam, crafts, anything

QUESTIONS:
- Why wouldn't I want to get an enclosed spray booth?
- What brands are best?

Thanks in advance for any insights that you can provide!
 
it really boils down to your budget. you would certainly want an enclosed booth to control the dust. open booths do nothing but get rid of the overspray but do nothing for keeping the finish clean. there are tons of budget booths out there....i have one. i think most of them are made by the same manufacturer then sold through dealers that like to appear that they are the manufacturer. you'll notice that they always give you what looks like a technical drawing of the booth when your looking at models online and all the drawings look the same from one seller to another. i have had mine for 10 years now and while its functional, the build quality isnt great. for just a couple grand more i could have gotten a really nice economy unit from a good manufacturer like global, spray zone or many of the others out there. if i was to do it over again i would certainly have gone that route. better units seal better and usually nut and bolt together instead of using self drilling screws. i remember ordering mine with 2 sections of 34" fan duct that they charged me a bunch of money for. i got the booth and wondered where they were since i didnt see it anywhere. after a call to the company i found out that my ductwork was the 2 flat sheets of unidentified sheetmetal in the crate. apparently i was supposed to weld this up myself lol. it was a $35 piece of sheetmetal they charged me $200 a piece for. wtf. i ordered ductwork not sheetmetal. just go with a real mainstream company.
 
jim is right. over the years i have owned many different booths. pretty much all the same . when i moved to the farm i just built my own. been using it for 20 years now. i got my duct work built by a local heat and ac company for pennies .
 

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I almost purchased a Marathon booth years ago. At the time I liked the guy I was dealing with. This was before all the ebay guys selling booths.

It boils down to money. Crossdraft, semidowndraft, or full downdraft and then the option of heat/cure for a really expensive booth. I built mine to be a semidowndraft without heat. This is a problem in the winter as my shop isn't large enough to supply air. I had to add a air/heat exchanger in the shop wall to heat incoming air to replace the air the booth pulls out of the building. Otherwise I would have to open the shop door and pull winter air into the shop.
 
i use a torpedo heater (gasp) to heat my shop. at 30 outside i can keep my booth at 75 . my main shop is 40x60x12 . if i had it to do over it would be 8ft walls sheetrocked with a/c .
 
ive been using a torpedo for prob 15 years now. i use it after spraying when i need to bake something or ill put it in the shop and turn it on to help out the regular shop heat when the booth is sucking out all the shop air in winter. never once had an issue using a torpedo heater.
 
yes i built the doors with 1 1/2 tube . used plywood and plan was to get galv sheared to fit them with 20 filters in them.
 
What is an affordable price since the link you provided does not list pricing?

This would be for the weekend warrior at home.
Years ago I bought a fairly nice semi downdraft booth on eBay for $7500. I’m sure they are more now but it has been worth every penny.

Don
 
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