Work Table Spray Booth Project

With my last post I talked about a custom designed cooler for the trunk of my Goldwing motorcycle that I am working on.  I realized early on with that project that I want to paint it once I have the fiber glassing work completed.  So this project was born out of that need to paint something during the colder months of the year and when I have a project small enough to do so in my shop without creating a mess or a hazard to my health. 

  I did some research once again online and found all kinds of designs for a small spray booth or box that would sit on my work table when the need called for it.  I wanted it large enough to handle a good size project or part but not so large that it would be a pain to pick it up and move it out of the shop when it was not in use.  So with some refinement and design work on my computer this is what I am also working on at the same time the motorcycle cooler project is underway.

My design is nothing fancy but does have some nice features.  The inside dimension of the booth are 20" high, 20" deep, and 29" wide using 1/2 thick plywood. On the base of the booth is a 16" turntable that is used so that any part can be rotated while painting it.  This was easily created using a 6" Lazy Susan bearing that I picked up at my local home and builders store.  This is attached to the inside base of the booth and then a 16" diameter 1/2" thick diameter piece of plywood is attached to the bearing.  Simple and easy to set up.

At the very top of the booth you can also see the Plexi-glass window that will allow additional light into the spray booth without the need for more lights and added cost.

In the back of the spray booth is a 20"x 25" furnace filter which will do the job nicely of cleaning up the air that the booth will extract while in use.  This filter is simple dropped into place from the top of the booth. With the filter removed as shown in the photo above you can easily see the two 50 cfm (cubic feet per minute) bathroom fans that will exhaust the air while painting. The filter will slow the air down a bit but should give more than enough airflow for the booth.

Here a good shot of the rear of the booth that I put together in the computer.  The white tubing in the view is flexible vinyl duct hose that is used with bathroom exhaust fans.  This is connected to various 3D printed elbows and joints that tie both exhaust fans into one exhaust hose which will be routed to a window and to the outside.

Here's a better look at the 3D printed parts that will be needed for the project.  The red elbow on the top exhaust fan is a 3" diameter 45 degree elbow.  The yellow pieces are 3" connectors for the white flexible hose and the green piece is a 3" 2 into 1 fitting.  The only reason that the yellow connectors are separate from the green fitting is that if all the parts were printed as one piece it would never fit into my 3D printer.

Here is what I have printed so far and it gives you a better look at what the real pieces look like.  The elbow at the upper left corner is the 45 degree elbow I spoke of earlier.  The other two cylinders are what will be connected to the 2 into 1 fitting.  The other various pieces in front of these connectors are the support tabs that will be used to hold the Plexi-glass window in place on the top of the spay booth.  I will need to add an electrical on/off switch to the paint booth yet and this I plan to mount on the rear of the booth.  The switch will allow me to turn off the fans when the both is not being used but still leave it plugged in while on the worktable.  

I still have a few more supplies to get into the shop before I can start construction of the booth but just getting some of the 3D printing out of the way will be a good thing to accomplish.  The 3D printed parts above took 14 hours to make.  I figure to get all of the parts made the number of hours will climb to around 27 hours of print time.  But where else would you ever find custom made fittings like these that didn't cost a small fortune. I'll post more about this project once I get into more assembly along with progress on the custom cooler for my bike too. Stay tuned for further details in the coming weeks.  Have a good day on your current project too!