Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Hello folks,
So I have recently made some upgrades and additions to my Hobby area, as I had to move it's location to make way for our little one arriving in April.

I'm down in the basement now, and I acquired a starter airbrush kit. I was going to build a 'booth' to vent the airbrush overspray, but the location I'm in doesn't really allow it to vent to anywhere, so to speak.

My main question is, can I build a DIY airbrush booth with a vent and all that, and then just have it basically vent into another box filled with a bunch of absorbent / filtery materials. Pretty much instead of having it vent outside...it vents into a 'big spray pot', if you will.

Is this adequate? Or am I creating a box of potential BOOM?

The only thing I will (for now) ever be spraying through the air brush is acrylics, flow improver, and airbrush cleaner.

EDIT: Here are 2 pictures of my area.



My current plan would be to have the airbrushing take place just to the right of my hobby desk, on a seperate table butted up to it.

Unless you are using flammable paints, there is nothing to go boom. You should be fine, but it would be best if you could vent outdoors. That said, a sealed plastic container with some sort of absorbent material should work just fine.

The box it vents into can't be too well sealed or it will either stall out your vent fan, or pop like a balloon.

Desktop spray booths are pretty cheap so you might just be better picking up a pre made one 9f them, of if you are aftrler a project, use the specs on an existing one as a starting point. Guaranteed there will be youth e videos of how to do this


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also in a confined space think about the fan noise. You probably need quite a high airflow to be effective so you can either go for a small fast noisy fan, or a larger slower more quiet fan.

Thanks for the insight and thoughts, Folks.

Much appreciated.

Get an indoor dryer vent kit for about $15 at a big box hardware store. It's just the flexible hose that comes out of your dryer that connects to the top of a plastic bucket with some holes in the top or sides. You put some water in the bucket and change it out as needed. The added bonus is that since it uses dryer hose, there will be lots of compatible options for attaching it to the back of a custom spray booth.

As you described, it's basically just a big spray pot. But for cheap.

I use something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Master-Airbrush-Portable-Painting-T-shirts/dp/B00BMUH8L6/ref=zg_bs_12898811_2?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=79726P1ZXHT04QTY1VYF

It doesn't even bother venting into another box, because the filter in the back of it catches 99% of the paint anyway.

Over the decades I've built a number of paint booths. And I'd encourage others to do the same as long as one has a modicum of tools and skills. I used .5 inch plywood and incorporate a lighting system as well. I use furnace air filters cut in half as the primary 1st filter. The rear connects to a dryer hose and can be vented easily through a window or you could fashion an additional filter box to afix to the end of the dryer hose. Be careful that you confirm that the booth still draws in enough air though. Now a few caveats here. I'm very new to WH but I've built models for years. As such - every booth I build I construct so that I can paint lacquers, enamels as well as acrylics. And believe me ..... I always clean my airbrushes with Lacquer Thinner as the last step. As such flammability of the vented fumes could be an issue so I use sealed squirrel cage fans to avoid any potential for ignition.

Hope this helps.

Thanks everyone. Will update on what I end up with.