.................................. Return to Sumner's Home Page....
Return to N Scale RR Main Menu.............. Return to Misc. Menu
=========================================
..............Previous Page..............................Next Page If There Is One
=========================================
…...................... --- Paint Booth for Air Brush ---
=========================================
Needing to repaint some locos and some structures with an air brush I decided I'd like to have a miniature paint booth with an exhaust fan.
I had bought an 8” duct fan to help move warm air from the main part of the shop to what had become the train room which formerly was mainly used for storage. The 8” fan just wasn't moving as much air as I wanted so I bought a high velocity 11” fan and enlarged the hole at the top of the shop wall for that fan and like it a lot better.
I have a similar one on the other side of the shop that is connected to a thermostat in the attached green house that pretty much takes care of heating the shop as it is 90+ degrees on most sunny winter days, which we get a lot of here in SE Utah.
Above you can see the new 11” fan in place and it moves a lot more air than the 8” fan did and is a lot quieter also. I decided to move the $24.00 fan and the flexible exhaust hose that I had for it to exhaust duty for the air brush paint booth.
The pictures should tell the story from here to the end of the build.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
If I don't like the opening shape or size I might modify the existing box or just look for a larger one and attach it to the exhaust fan/filter enclosure. This setup is quite flexible that way.
.
.
One has an option on where they want to exhaust the air to.
I’ve found that with acrylics I usually don’t vent the fumes outside. I’ll pull the vent hose over to the right of where it is in the image above and never really smell them. For other paints it just takes a minute to put the board above under the garage door and attach the vent hose. I do have the advantage of a lot of air in the shop since it is 27’ x 41’ and has a 10’ & 12’ ceiling.
The paint booth has worked very well. I have a large 2-stage compressor in a different area for supply (way overkill for this) and above you can see the hose from it going to the regulator and the hose from it to the gun, just out of sight, lower left in a holder in the vise.
=============== iwata HP-B PLUS ================
I researched guns quite a bit before buying the iwata and haven’t been disappointed at all in spending the money on it. I also bought a nice gun (good reviews) on Amazon for around $50 and was going to use it when possible. I don’t use it much at all as this gun is so easy to spray with.
I was using the black ModelFlex to the right once and was going to run out so thought I’d give the cheap DecoArt acrylic a try. Put some in small cup, added some water to thin it a bit and it sprayed as well as the ModelFlex. I use the DecoArt with a brush as it is cheap and I can get it at the local hardware store. I’ll try more in the gun also now after using it here.
I hadn’t painted with the air brush for probably about a year at one point and not much with it before but do have experience with a large gun. I paint a lot with a brush and forgot how easy and fast it is to use the gun vs. the brush for painting something like the interior of these bridge members. Also you don’t loose as much detail buried under paint.
=========================================
e....................................................Next Page If There Is One
