First time Spray Booth / Spray Setup

[record83]

Well, it has become apparent to me that one thing this world lacks is guitars and people building their own...I have decided to combat that problem!

I am going to do my first finish job. Just a Maple neck with Rosewood fingerboard (keeping it simple for my first time) all aerosols. Problem is, I really have no where to spray! My basement has no ventilation - I considered "spray and run" but we have central air that would suck the fumes into the house... My dad won't let me spray at his warehouse... I don't have a friend willing to let me do it (don't blame any of them).

The ONLY place I can think of is my garage. I live in the Chicagoland area, so it's cold. I have one of those propane powered heaters, so I can get it moderately warm for spraying, but it's a 4 car garage, so it will take some time. I was thinking of cracking one door with a fan at the bottom and rigging a sort of a 3-sided "box" with painters/construction vinyl curtains with a hole cut out at the bottom for the fan.

Will this be adequate? I won't be spraying directly at the fan (will be on the floor). The setup needs to be temporary as well. So I have to basically collapse the "spray booth" so the space can be used for other things.

I don't know how long the stuff lingers. I know it's super toxic and I don't want to put anyone in harm's way. I figured in the garage with the fan sucking all the air out should be good. Any input?

 

[anorakDan]

Propane heater plus paint fumes equals potential disaster. Don't try to do any painting when it's 50 degrees F or lower. Just wait, be patient. It will warm up soon. You want a nice warm day with low humidity. If you have to paint in the garage, make sure the place is as clean as you can. No sense messing up wet finish with airborne dirt. You want a powerful fan to move the fume-laden air out and you need an actual respirator for your lungs. Those paper face masks will not cut it. Invest in a quality respirator with filters made for what you're doing. Figure out exactly where you're going to hang your wet body before you start spraying.

Or, you could treat that boy to a nice oil finish. Tung oil is very easy to use and doesn't smell too bad. You could put that on in the basement and not get everyone in the house mad at you. I've never used Tru-Oil, but there's folks here who have.

Best of luck with the project!

 

[Cagey]

First, central air doesn't suck any air into the house. But, that doesn't change anything in your situation.

That garage is pretty big - you'd need one helluva heater to bring that up to temp. With moderate insulation I'm guessing you'd need about a 100,000 BTU unit. But, assuming the one you have is adequate, you then have the problem of it being propane-fueled, which means an open flame. Acetone (lacquer thinner) is extremely combustible. So, that's a non-starter. Unless you want to start an explosion...

The general rule of thumb with lacquer is 65/65 - that is, no colder than 65 degrees, no more humid than 65%. In my experience, even those numbers are pushing it. You can get away with different things, but you're tempting fate.

I live in southeastern Michigan, so we have similar weather. I just hunker down. I figure it'll probably be April-May before I can start finishing again. At that point, it'll be warm/dry enough that I can spray in the garage with a bay door open and not have to worry about anything. Lacquer dries remarkably fast, so you don't need a clean room environment. It's unlikely anything will have time to settle on it while it's vulnerable.

 

[Tonar8352]

If your fan does not have an explosion proof motor you may have a fire. Lacquer is not considered flammable but combustible. One little spark and it will blow so be very careful with the fan.

You will not generate much fumes with an aerosol spray lacquer. Get a good respirator, wait until it warms up and spray it in the garage.

 

[MedianMusic1]

I've been in the same situation, waiting for the temperature to warm up and for the humidity to be just right. It can be very frustrating once you get into a rhythm and have to postpone your project because it's raining outside. That's why I decided to build an indoor spray booth. I built one for a recessed windowsill and another that fits in my closet. I've sprayed two guitar bodies in them so far and plan to spray some more this spring/summer. Check them out below...

http://youtu.be/Z0kTzsALVPA
http://youtu.be/09vo1ARoVXM

 

[swarfrat]

Speaking of ventillation...
In college I covered a speaker cabinet I built in tolex when it was about freezing outside. Contact cement also has working temperature ranges issues, nasty nasty fumes, and I was using a lot of it, shut up in my friend's shop, and working late - after midnight.

After I rolled the tolex, I decided to put the cup for the speaker wires in. I dropped one of the washers and it stood up straight on its side. It was like 1AM, my brain was fried on contact cement, and I was starting to freak out thinking I was hallucinating until I realized that there's this BIG HONKING MAGNET just on the other side of the plywood.

 

[Cagey]

I've been in the same situation, waiting for the temperature to warm up and for the humidity to be just right. It can be very frustrating once you get into a rhythm and have to postpone your project because it's raining outside. That's why I decided to build an indoor spray booth. I built one for a recessed windowsill and another that fits in my closet. I've sprayed two guitar bodies in them so far and plan to spray some more this spring/summer.

Pretty ambitious stuff. Nice job on those. I love being able to get away with doing things that otherwise wouldn't be possible/practical.

I would like to offer some 20/20 hindsight, though, which has probably already occurred to you but may help others in similar situations.

First, in both cases you essentially permanently consumed some otherwise useful space. That's fine - man's gotta do what a man's gotta do. If the space is available for a worthy cause, then that's what it's good for. But, why build an enclosure inside an enclosure? You didn't leave any other space to be used for anything else, so the closet/window was basically rendered moot. Could've just sealed off and ventilated that entire space much more easily than what you did. I understand it's an apartment, but latex will stick to anything. Repaint the area when you boogie. Sears' Super Sunday Sales Spectacular will let you know when Easy Living Eggshell White is on sale. Plus, without the inner enclosure, you'd have more room to work and less interference from floating curtains and sidewalls.

Second, all that and you shot rattle cans at your bodies?

Go get an HVLP spray rig. You'll be glad you did. I've had great success with an Earlex rig. Worth looking at. Professional results on a DIY budget.

 

[MSP]

Yeah, don't spray in your basement.  The fumes will go throughout your house and stink the place up.  Not only that, but a "spray and run" method will add stress and that's the last thing you want when you're spraying--especially when you're just starting out.  You want a relaxing environment where you can take your time to get it right. 

Definitely buy a good respirator!  I like a cap for my head, too, because the stuff gets in your hair.  Well, it does when you spray like me.  I also like a spray outfit (overalls or something), because it's handy to have and you will ruin fewer of your clothes.

Were I you I'd wait for a more ideal place to do this.  Spraying in a bad environment is very frustrating.  Dust, fumes, humidity, freezing temps, etc. all add up to no fun, way too much sanding, and other more literal headaches.  And who wants a hobby that makes you sick and annoyed? 

P.S. Just to reiterate: look after your health when you spray.  I was an idiot when I started out and I did terrible things to my health.

 

[Cagey]

Just to reiterate: look after your health when you spray.  I was an idiot when I started out and I did terrible things to my health.

Good advice, and too often ignored. I've worked a couple places where they had monster spray booths with waterfalls and everything to finish things, and the spray guys were like zombies. What was weird was they had all the right gear and environment, but they got careless/cavalier about it. Gotta shoot a quick cabinet? No need to get all dressed up and respirated and what-have-you. Just shoot it and STFU. Except after a couple years of that kind of thing, you end up whacked in the head with funny things growing off you here and there.

 

[MSP]

Yeah, we had the same kinda attitude.  When I was young the other guys in the shop just laughed and said, "We'll all probably die of cancer, but hey, you gotta die of something, right?"  And then sprayed with jeans and a t-shirt, a rag wrapped around their face.  Unbelievably stupid and I'm very thankful that I got out when I did and that I did wear a mask for most of the really toxic stuff.  My nose still has blood in it every day, nearly twenty years later.  Who knows what it did to the rest of me.

 

[swarfrat]

My dad used to make the same joke. He died, at 58. And I miss him.

 

[xDave]

I worked on a paint line as a temp once. At the end of the day the guy took me in the storage room behind the booth and told me to use that stuff in the barrel to clean my hands. It had a familiar odor, kinda like glue. Curious, I took a big sniff. At lunchtime for the next shift a guy walks in. He was about 7 feet tall, 2 foot body 5 foot head. When he yelled "what are you still doing here" he sounded like he was talking through a fan. Moral of the story: don't use reagent grade toluene to clean your hands.

 

[Johnny]

When I was young, I would work in my Dad's foundry.  These were sand castings, so they had to be cleaned and sanded after being cast.  To clean the castings, we used a sand blaster to get all the dirt off and rough up the metal so the paint would stick better. The sand blaster was a big metal box with a window so you could see what you were doing and a couple of what were essentially heavy rubber gloves that you would stick your hands into (from outside the box) to be able to handle what was inside. If this makes sense, it would seem like a similar setup would be really nice for painting.  It would allow you to handle the guitar and sprayer totally inside the box while standing totally outside the box. Thus, no inhaling of nasty paint fumes.

Seems like you could make a paint box similar to those shown in the videos with some big rubber gloves attached to the frame.  Is this a stupid idea?

 

[Cagey]

No, it's not a stupid idea, and I've seen that done, but only for much smaller parts. You need too much range of motion for something the size of guitar bodies/necks to be restricted by a glove box.

 

[Johnny]

Yeah, I did wonder about that.  The old sand blaster box had fairly heavy (and clumsy) gloves. They also only went about halfway up my biceps.  You'd need longer ones to have a chance but then you'd probably be risking not being able to get a good even coat.