I have built and used many spray booths over the years, each with their own good and bad points.  With each new design I worked to build on the good and eliminate the bad.  And after almost a year using this one I can honestly say I wouldn't change a thing.  This is by far the best spray booth I have used for large scale and small scale projects.  It was an easy afternoon project to build that I am sure everybody can handle.   Some of the materials are probably already laying your shop.

You can build this model any size you like.  I choose this size because I like a workspace opening wider than my shoulders so I can rest my arms on the inlet opening and paint for hours without feeling cramped.  The size had little to do with the size of the fish I paint most often.  Even if I was only painting 8" fish all day I would still opt for this size.  Fish larger than the opening can still be painted by working in front of the booth opening allowing the incoming wind tunnel to draw the paint overspray into the booth. 

I haven't taken the time to draw out line art drawing of the design, I don't feel the project is complex enough to warrant involved drawings and wiring schematics.  I will explain the reasons behind why I did things the way I did and provide some photos that should get you well on your way to designing one like it for yourself. 

A good spray booth has enough air flow to keep ahead of the overspray buildup without creating a tornado effect in the work area making it difficult to accurately spray paint.  Trying to paint in a wind tunnel is impossible.  A good design also allows ample room to rest your arms and work either inside the booth opening or outside.  It must also trap the contaminated swirling air untill it can be removed by the blower inlets in all spraying conditions.  Good lighting and easy to clean surfaces are also a big plus.  Dried paint particles build up fast and can alter the performance of any paint booth over time.  Making it important to design a system that will not allow wet paint particles to enter the blower blades or motor, often the demise for booths built with an internal blower inlet close to the painting area.  Most of my early shop built booths failed because of overspray build up on the blower blades causing the blower to spin off balance and over time ruin the bearings.  Air flow is also diminished when the blower blades become covered in dried paint dust.  So to eliminate this problem I built the blower into a remote box above the spray booth and plumbed in the dirty air via 4" plastic dust collector hose.  Heavier paint particles are slowed by gravity as they are drawn upward toward the blower box allowing the air to pass by and dry the paint. 

Choosing the right size blower is important, but not as critical as using the right size hoses with my design.  Using 4" spiral dust collector hose to connect the blower box to the spray booth will limit the volume of air entering the blower box no matter how large the blower is.  Using hose smaller than 4" will not allow enough air flow to exhaust the booth and going larger will increase the airflow above what is needed or desired.  An earlier booth design I built used dual 6" hoses and it proved to be too much air flow to paint around.  The dual 4" hose set up is perfect. 

I used a common home gas furnace blower.  You can purchase one inexpensively from most any furnace repair center.  

The details of this paint booth are covered in my Mastering the Basics - Tools and Equipment Course.  As are many other time saving tools not shown on this website.

~Ed

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