Spray booth

[Terry]

Greetings folks,

Long story short is my Artograph 1520 spray booth died this weekend.

At about 20 years old with infrequent use over the years the motor has given up. I'm currently weighing up my options; replace the motor, buy a new cheaper booth, buy a bigger booth with more suck like the Artograph 1530, or even get a booth made for me by a local engineer. I've spotted a few of the portable booths on Amazon, Alibaba, eBay and locally etc that are certainly cheap, but I'm wondering if they're fit for purpose. i.e. do they have a spark proof motor so lacquer thinners can be safely sprayed through them without the risk of a spark putting my hobby room and me into orbit.
Booth in question similar/same as this
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Airbrush-Spray- ... 58ac8d1db5



Near the bottom of the advert it says this:
**Please read instruction manual carefully and thoroughly before operating the spray booth: Do Not use hazardous, flammable or explosive paints or materials.
Which is not what you want to read when spraying anything really. So does anyone here on F1M have one of these booths and are the fan motors induction please? Any advice warmly welcomed.
Cheers,
Terry

[Eagle50]

... a spark proof motor so lacquer thinners can be safely sprayed through them without the risk of a spark putting my hobby room and me into orbit...
Cheers,
Terry

E gads! Spray booths can be explosive..!?! Just reading that was an education for me! I hope you find a safe solution, Terry..!

I don't know the first thing about spray booths, but, off the top of my head, wouldn't replacing the motor be the cheapest way to go..?

Cheers,
Chris

[Terry]

... a spark proof motor so lacquer thinners can be safely sprayed through them without the risk of a spark putting my hobby room and me into orbit...
Cheers,
Terry

E gads! Spray booths can be explosive..!?! Just reading that was an education for me! I hope you find a safe solution, Terry..!

I don't know the first thing about spray booths, but, off the top of my head, wouldn't replacing the motor be the cheapest way to go..?

Cheers,
Chris

I've never heard of anyone blowing themselves up painting models.. but in saying that I don't want to the first.

Replacing the motor might (?) be the cheapest, but... I've never been totally happy with the amount of suck on the Artograph 1520, particularly when using my big nozzle airbrushes that chuck a lot of paint! (chuck sounds so much more antipodean ) Overspray can often escape the booth, and so requires me to wear a respirator to be totally safe. When compared to some small industrial bench spray booths I've seen used; they are so effective at removing all the spray media and odour ,no respirator is necessary. (This is all for shooting 1k paints btw. I don't and won't shoot 2k.) So the way I look at this situation, is if I'm going to spend some money, be it fix the current booth or buy a new one, I'd like to make an informed choice that will make my hobby more enjoyable, and maybe even safer.

[F1Modlz]

I have one of these built into my spray booth and can say it's ok one thing I find though is its not as powerful as first thought but has done me well touch wood for last year or so


Paul

[SteveNoble]

This is the one I use and it's been great. Powerful and safe, I wonder how I managed without it...

http://www.graphicair.co.uk/products/Gr ... Booth.html

[F1Xena]

I've got the Tamiya one, but only the single fan version. Wish I'd got the 2 fan one, but it still does an ok job. I vent it out the window and have one of those expanding duct tips to help extraction.

[daveyman]

This is the one I use and it's been great. Powerful and safe, I wonder how I managed without it...

http://www.graphicair.co.uk/products/Gr ... Booth.html

I've got the same as you Steve. Works well, filters are a bit pricey to replace tho.

[Robban]

The graphics air is superb, pricey but a quality fan inside with bearings so it will last a long time. The filters are pricey but I only have to replace them twice a year and I spray a lot.
The cheap ones are not fireproof so I would never use it, especially when using highly flammable paint.. well nearly all paints for modelling cars are that

[hquednau]

Mine is a DIY project. Just a wooden box with an exhaust fan. I found a local source for a "shaded pole" exhaust. This kind of motor keeps the flow of paint particles away from the sparking motor. Anything else is, in fact, potentially explosive (which my spouse would definately frown upon).

[Schumi]

Interesting topic.
I was looking for a spray booth last week, and the seller told me that even 2k is not a problem.
But like I friend of mine did, I'm gonna build a spray booth by myself, a kitchen blower costs only about €50,- and it's pretty easy to build a kind of cabinet around it, putting some 35watt lights in it, to give it enough light and some heat as well.

This is the one of my mate, I'm gonna build a similar one

http://www.f-chat.eu/showthread.php?t=7978

Cheers, Martijn