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Practical Spray Booth Size for Priming?

Antonitis

Member
For those of you that prime... I'm designing a spray booth area for my -12is.
  • Are there a lot of parts that are longer than 6' in length?
  • Would a 6' wide spray booth accommodate the majority of parts?
  • What would be your idea size booth?
I'm talking assembly here, not painting a completed plane.

I'm planning to construct an open-face down-draft booth with active exhaust ventilation to the outdoors through a series of filter materials.
I'm seriously considering using coroplast (corrugated plastic) 4'x8' sheets as the material. Seems like it would have the strength, is light-weight, and cost effective.

The picture here is what I'm thinking... with a larger overhead part, and larger side panels.
 

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I used a boat trailer in the driveway with a shelf resting on it. Worked quite well. I'd lay the parts down on the shelf (a 4'x5' piece of plastic I had, plywood would certainly work) and if they were too big, they could hang over. No problem. During the winter or inclement weather, I'd sometimes simply spray it in the shop, either on a work bench or on newspapers. Both the SEM rattle can primer and the Stewart EkoPoxy dried reasonably quickly and the spray settled out before too long. I'd leave the shop during that period.

Don't over-think this.

Dave
RV-3B
 
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For those of you that prime... I'm designing a spray booth area for my -12is.

The longerons, some skins, and maybe the flaps are longer than 6'. If a spray booth is the route you're taking, I think you're headed down the right path.

But...

Honest to gosh question - why go to that trouble when you can just take parts outside and spray 'em sitting on sawhorses or hanging from something convenient like a swingset or a wire stretched from your house to a tree?

I get that the winters in Illinois can be cold and sometimes it rains, but unless it is crazy cold or raining, you can prep for paint, run the stuff outside, squirt it, and run it right back into the shop to dry/cure.
 
The longerons, some skins, and maybe the flaps are longer than 6'. If a spray booth is the route you're taking, I think you're headed down the right path.

But...

Honest to gosh question - why go to that trouble when you can just take parts outside and spray 'em sitting on sawhorses or hanging from something convenient like a swingset or a wire stretched from your house to a tree?

I get that the winters in Illinois can be cold and sometimes it rains, but unless it is crazy cold or raining, you can prep for paint, run the stuff outside, squirt it, and run it right back into the shop to dry/cure.

Good point. That's definitely something I had considered. Maybe I'm just getting puchy, wanting to build something while waiting for my empennage kit to arrive.
 
Coroplast

I actually made a simple one. Four sheets slotted so they formed an open box. Cheapo
Wally baby gate on top. Bildge blower exhausted to a dryer fitting in the shop wall. Only used it a few times on super cold Winter days. Worked pretty well and quick to assemble/djsassemble then store flat behind a tool chest. The more useful is a conduit frame suspended from the garage door rails. I hang shower curtains to make a paint booth. Quick and easy. Shower curtains fold up and store in a box. That works better because it's bigger. One curtain each side and one on top. I prefer to prime and paint outside or in my barn whenever weather permits.
The coroplast concept works pretty well but I recommend making it so it can be assembled and disassembled quickly and easily.
Cool idea, make a wall folding unit. Top is hinged to a wall. Lift it up. Unfold the three sides. Turn on the exhaust fan and paint. Minimal floor space. Just an idea.
 
In simple terms, excluding the wing spars.

Yes.
Yes.
4.5mx2.5mx2.5m

Depending on what you are spraying 'forced air' resperators are a very good idea as is a exhaust fan and filters of some sort.
 

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Sorry, pushed the wrong button, here's an internal pic.
 

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I built a downdraft paint booth using cheap bilge blower motors from Amazon. It worked well for all my priming.

Heres a short video of it.
 
90% of my priming was done on a drop cloth in my driveway.

The other 10% was done with an elcheapo pop-up spray booth I purchased on Amazon. This was in the dead of winter with 75% humidity and 52f in my garage at night with just a single quartz lamp to get the temp and humidity in the ball park inside the "spray booth".

51961462004_8cd40d37af_c.jpg
 
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