Airbrushing --- Part 2

[kgg]

This is a followup to my topic "Airbrushing" for dying leather with a short video of my setup at the end of this long post. The video was done setup on my deep-freezer just for ease. 

Airbrushing has a natural pocket emptying progression just like sewing machines. Get a Airbrush and a Compressor it'll be easy but what about where to actually do the airbrushing??? The great outdoors when it's + 30 C or - 30 C or the comfort of your leather room, basement, etc. That leads to dealing with any unwanted fumes contaminating the area or dealing with possible over-spray landing on other projects / tools / leather.

My solution was to build a fairly inexpensive spray booth and indoor filtration system for indoor use. I didn't want to cut a hole through the side of the house and deal with spray staining the siding or poke a hose out a window particularly in the winter.    

To that end I decided to use:

1) A clear 102 litre  (27 US gallons) plastic tote for a couple of reasons.

i) Lighting: Allows room light inside the tote

ii) Interior Surface: All totes are not equal the one I choose has a real slippery surface and even a permanent maker will not mark it unlike other clear or colored totes.

iii) Size: 102 litre (27 US gallons) 

iv) Price: $20 CAD

2) Exhausting:

i) The interior lighting via a 12v DC LED at a 45 degree angle.

ii) The interior of the tote by using two 140mm 12v DC computer fans that suck at 1.8m/s each (measured with air gauge), are almost silent and will empty the interior air space of the tote in 1.7 seconds with 1.8m/s at the exhaust vent of the bucket. 

iii) I connected two 5" x 8' flexible ducts to the fans.

iv) Price: $40 CAD as the LED and fans were left over parts from other projects.

3) Filtration:

i)  one 5 US gallon bucket and cover.

ii) Window Air Conditioner fabric, HEPA filter,

iii) Price: $12 CAD

4) Power:

i) 120v AC - 12 DC, 150 w Power Supply

ii) 120v AC Power Bar to supply spray booth fans, light and airbrush compressor

iii) Price: $35 CAD

5) Miscellaneous items

i)  3mm nut /bolts / washers

ii) 3D printed housings for Fans, Duct Connections to Fan Housings, 5 gallon Filtration Bucket, Power Supply, Airbrush Holder, Rotating Platter Support and LED supports

iii) The Rotating Platter was a 5 gallon bucket lid with a 1/4" bolt and some cardboard

iv) Price: $20 CAD

Total Cost: $127 CAD 

Now you got to remember that I am an cheap old geezer and depending on what you have kicking around your costs / results may vary.

All comments appreciated but be gentle as I am not comfortable with video's.

kgg

 

 

[DieselTech]

Nice work. Great setup. Yeah I made the mistake of air brushing a couple projects in the house. Fiebings pro dye bout gassed me out. 

[fredk]

I recently discovered these semi-circular LED light units on TEMU, I bought one at £7 but the price is variable up to about £12

I thought they'd be good for photo lighting or spray booth lighting

[dikman]

Very neat setup. Lots of 3D printing (as usual with any project you do ) which gives you an advantage over the rest of us mere mortals when making custom fittings. The clear box is a good idea, I might pinch the idea for when I'm powdercoating small items - my cardboard box booth has fallen apart.

[Northmount]

Nice!

I setup on top of my deepfreeze too.  A bathroom exhaust fan on the bottom of a cabinet above the freezer, ducted into my furnace room, just the other side of the wall.  I setup a cardboard spray booth  with open front.

The furnace room had 2 gas fired water heaters and a condensing furnace.  The water heaters are vented up through a chimney.  There is enough air flow that the furnace room never sees the atmosphere go above the LEL (lower explosive limit) for the dye or paint, or finish, so no worries there.  Combustion air is drawn from outside, none of the air from the furnace room ever gets drawn back into the house, standard design according to safety codes for furnace and water heater requirements and fresh air makeup to the house.

Compressed air comes from my shop compressor in my detached garage.  Just had to run a hose between house and garage through an underground conduit that was already in place for power, network, phone lines.

My only cost were the air hose and good quality quiet bathroom exhaust fan.  All else is was scrounged materials from my hoard or free like cardboard.