DIY Paint Cell inside attached garage (1 Viewer)

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

Joined
Mar 14, 2006
Threads
8
Messages
189
Location
Calgary, Alberta
I have started building and installing what I hope will be a functional paint cell inside my garage. The paint cell should be able to be deployed in a matter of minutes if I so desire and tuck up out of the way when I don't want it.

Why paint at home? Well, even considering the expense of putting in the equipment, it has to be cheaper than getting a professional paint job, something I just cannot afford right now or want to afford anytime in the future. I like to be relatively independent and learn (sometimes the hard way :bang:) how to do things myself.

Why bother and why not just paint in the raw garage? Well, for a couple of reasons. I want to try and minimise crud on the surface finish, when I get that far, I don't want to spray paint everything in the garage the colour of my truck, and most importantly, I don't want to stink the house out. I have an attached garage and the last time I did any major solvent work (fibreglassing) the house stank of Styrene for 2-1/2 days. My wife won't appreciate that, let alone thinking of the health hazards.

So, with that in mind, I envisage having a rack of filters at the back of the garage suspended from the roof (swing down when in use). I envisage a rack of filters and a blower (in this case sucking out of the cell) at the front jammed under the garage door, where the filters (course and fine) remove the paint before entering the blower. I envisage using plastic sheeting (vapour barrier, 6 mil poly) as the tent and some sort of 2x2 frame at the bottom all the way around to weigh down the tent sides, prevent the cell from billowing in under the negative pressure and provide a length of something to roll the poly up on. I also envisage using self adhesive zippers on the back wall (upper filter box) to seal the cell and provide access in an out. Not quite sure about the front yet. May involve velcroing the tent to the garage door. I also have an plan for emergency egress to allow the garage door to be opened without taking down the whole shebang.

In the next few days, I'll be converting the following into the paint cell...
DSCF2158.JPG

An old "variable speed" (via adjustable pully diameter) household furnace blower.
DSCF2159.JPG

Why am I posting this? Maybe I'm missing something. I'll probably need some hints and advice when it actually comes to painting and maybe I help solve somebody elses questions in the process. This may also turn out to be a glorious screw up, but nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Regards,

Jim
DSCF2158.JPG
DSCF2159.JPG
 
The beginning.

I've started on the filter boxes. I plan to make four "wings" to start, each containing industrial 2" x 18" x 24" filters. BTW, furnace filters at you local favourite home improvement store are an absolute rip off. These filters are 1/4 the price. Now if I could only find my furnace filter size at an industrial outlet, I'd be made.

Two of these wings will be joined up with a spacer, to make a 10 ft wide paint cell) to suspend from the roof at the back (air inlet). Two of the same will be used at the outlet end, pre-blower (sucker). The blower will sit in the middle.

Because the blower sucks :hmm:, and the inlet to the blower is in the sides, axially and then blown out the rectangular front, I need to enclose the blower in its own mini box. The sketch of which is below...
DSCF2168.JPG

I will build another slightly larger frame that will sit in front of the filter box which makes up the front of the blower box and when taken apart, will allow the filter box to concertina in to the larger frame for storage. The sketch of which is shown in the middle.

I started the filter box making yesterday. This is as far as I got. Takes me about 1/2 hour for the one box, made of 1"x4" and 1"x2" lumber.
DSCF2166.JPG DSCF2167.JPG

More to come this week.
DSCF2168.JPG
DSCF2166.JPG
DSCF2167.JPG
 
All the paint booths I've seen use the fan as an exhaust and have the doors or other openings covered with the filters for the inlet air.

Any reason you're choosing to do it this way?
 
Inlet & exhaust

All the paint booths I've seen use the fan as an exhaust and have the doors or other openings covered with the filters for the inlet air.

Any reason you're choosing to do it this way?

Sorry if it wasn't clear but that is generally my intent other than the inlet filters (upper rear) will be semi-permanent and not in doors. I don't believe I really have room for doors per se. They'll be access "corners" with zippers. The blower (in this case sucker) is indeed at the exhaust (lower front, jammed under the door).

I'll try to refer to the sucking blower as a fan and be less misleading.

Hopefully all will be clearer when I have progressed a little further.

Regards,
Jim
 
Mind's Eye Sketch

This is what I have in mind...

Paint Cell Sketch.jpg

Maybe that's better, maybe I can't sketch. Oh well, hope to have it completed so I can take real pics.

Regards,
Jim
Paint Cell Sketch.jpg
 
Good Luck to you.
I did something similar about 10 yr. ago helping my son on his 40. Still took over a month for the paint smell to get out of the house. The one good thing that did come out of it was a few years later the wife decided it was time for me to build my own garage seperate from the house.
 
:popcorn:

BTW Jim, I painted my now sold Harley in the garage and was told by the wife to never do it again :rolleyes:. So a few months later I painted my buddies Honda in the garage. I just made sure she was out for the day. Mine is also an attached garage and I had no cell or filters at all. I will be spraying my 45 myself for the same reasons you stated. Given the distance forward in time that that event will take place I have not put any thought at all into how to do it - until now. I quite like your plan here and will plagiarise it to my advantage. The house smelled strongly of high VOC's for a good 24 hours even with the windows open and furnace exhaust fan on. With the children's bedrooms directly over the garage I will have to do something for sure - or send them all away for the weekend.

Kevin3 or 4?...
 
:popcorn:

BTW Jim, I painted my now sold Harley in the garage and was told by the wife to never do it again :rolleyes:. So a few months later I painted my buddies Honda in the garage. I just made sure she was out for the day. Mine is also an attached garage and I had no cell or filters at all. I will be spraying my 45 myself for the same reasons you stated. Given the distance forward in time that that event will take place I have not put any thought at all into how to do it - until now. I quite like your plan here and will plagiarise it to my advantage. The house smelled strongly of high VOC's for a good 24 hours even with the windows open and furnace exhaust fan on. With the children's bedrooms directly over the garage I will have to do something for sure - or send them all away for the weekend.

Kevin3 or 4?...

Hi Kevin(4),

When I'm done with the paint cell and have tested it, you're more than welcome to plagiarise the design. I just hope for my sake it works. You're more than welcome to drop by sometime to take a look. Perhaps wait a couple of weeks till I get back to real wrenching / painting etc . and stop tarting up the garage. I'm healthy again and have some time this weekend so I hope to make progress.

Jim
 
Yes I would enjoy a visit. I want to see your 1HZ as well as any tools I don't already have access to :D.
 
Some progress

I have actually been able to make some progress in the last couple of busy weeks and weekends. I finished the other 3 filter boxes in one evening before a lack of evenings caught up with me.

DSCF2170.JPG

The weekend before last was a washout due to Saturday trail inventorying out in the Ghost - Waiparous area in preparation for hopefully being able to open 4 new loops to trucks in the winter months. These will be the first new trails added to the system since the management plan came in and effectively shut everything down. Progress. That Sunday, I twisted innocuously and with a badly timed muscle cramp / spasm, buggered an old rib muscle injury and literally couldn't then move.

This last weekend, I got a little further and started on the front fan box panels (they allow the rear filter panel to nest inside for storage) and framing up the fan itself.

Here is a shot of the unfinished framing to the fan...
DSCF2185.JPG

Adding the wood allows me to sheet the fan in poly and allow screwed fixing of the wings when in use to make up the air suction box at the front of the garage.
DSCF2170.JPG
DSCF2185.JPG
 
Taking shape

Here are a couple of shots of one of the wings placed approximately where they will sit next to the fan. The fan framing progressed a little in that the one side is complete (complicated side with the pulley). The other side won't take much work now.

DSCF2186.JPG DSCF2187.JPG

I still need to figure out how to keep the motor out of the fumes yet allow the drive pulley to sit inside the fan suction box, as the air is drawn into the fan from the sides. I have an idea and may work on that tonight. It involves use of plastic windscreen washer jugs and epoxy...

To be continued...but not for long. I have a truck to work on.

DSCF2188.JPG

In the pic above, the different sizes of frame (left filter box, right front panel) can be seen. The left box nests into the right hand front panel for storage, which is always at a premium in my garage. The garage door will sit on top of the left hand side box, on the filters and back of fan. The fan itself as well as the majority of this suction box will protrude out of the front of the garage to maximise space inside the paint cell for painting.
DSCF2186.JPG
DSCF2187.JPG
DSCF2188.JPG
 
Last edited:
Finishing up fan framing

It maybe overkill, but one of the objectives of the exercise was to ensure that the evacuation fan motor was not in the paint fumes. I cannot guarantee that the dilution is sufficient to ensure that a combustible mixture doesn't ensue so better safe than sorry.

The issue with the fan I have is that it did not appear easy at first to be able to separate the motor from the belt assembly. What I did was cut a plastic washer fluid jug in half, down the sides and along the bottom, cutting off the top and then punching a hole for the motor pulley spindle, then a slot from the top to the jug half to the top of the punched hole. This jug half was then fed up between the pulley and motor using the slot to allow the plastic to fit upto the spindle. Once in place, the spindle spins in the punched hole and I taped up the slot.

With a lot more finessing of plastic parts and copious use of Tuck tape, I was able to create a barrier across the inside of the upper frame to be between the pulleys and the motor.

DSCF2202.JPG DSCF2204.JPG

DSCF2203.JPG

I chose the plastic from the washer fluid jugs because it seemed to be sturdy enough to hold form as well as flexible enough to mold around and cut. If I had time and this was a professional job, I'd have cut card templates, cut sheet steel or aluminum and welded a fancy barrier. That would take me even more time and I want to get wrenching.
DSCF2202.JPG
DSCF2203.JPG
DSCF2204.JPG
 
Last edited:
Fan shroud box completed

I framed up the side opposite the pulleys the same as the pulley side. I didn't need to take quite the same approach to create a barrier on this side and used for the most part vapour barrier.

DSCF2206.JPG

DSCF2207.JPG DSCF2209.JPG
DSCF2206.JPG
DSCF2207.JPG
DSCF2209.JPG
 
Last edited:
Finished extraction fan box

The final vapor barriered extraction fan box looks like this.

DSCF2211.JPG

DSCF2212.JPG DSCF2213.JPG

Now on to the suspended hinged filter box set-up. Now I know the finished width of the front extraction box, I can make the suspended filter box length the same.
DSCF2211.JPG
DSCF2212.JPG
DSCF2213.JPG
 
Last edited:
Master of overkill

Yesterday I made a spacer bar to attach to the ceiling and tonight a spacer box to separate the two filter box wings. The latter three pieces were screwed together and a piano hinge attached to the upper edge.

The spacer bar was lag bolted to the ceiling and the filter box assembly clamped in place using squeeze bar clamps until I could screw in the other side of the piano hinge.

In the down position it looks like this...
DSCF2218.JPG DSCF2219.JPG

I taped the four filters in and the spacer bar and centre spacer will be vapor barriered when I get motivated and before I finish.

The spacer bar is required because my back corner zips are only 7 foot long, the space I now exactly have under the bottom of the filter box in the down position. Also, when the paint cell side bars are swung up, they'll be at least 4 inches from the ceiling, and now the rear filter box will fold up last so that the sides and rear don't interfere. The spacer is 7" tall, so plenty of room to accommodate the 4" wide side bar folded up.

After seeing all this come together and knowing how much work has gone into it so far, it'd better bloody work and keep the fumes out of the house... I feel like the Master of Overkill.
DSCF2218.JPG
DSCF2219.JPG
 
Folded up

Here is the rear filter box assembly folded partially up (no hooks in place yet).

DSCF2221.JPG DSCF2222.JPG

When I have this all folded away, I'll staple paper over the filters to ensure that the don't collect dust whilst I'm doing other stuff in the garage. I hear and know from experience that plastic sheeting attracts dust electrostatically so I'll probably have more issues with the paint cell tenting than with dusty filters. Oh, well, we'll see.

Next job, sheet the front filter and suction box and then start on the sides. A couple of evenings and I should be done...Hmmm, I've said that before :D
DSCF2221.JPG
DSCF2222.JPG
 
Paint cell dimensions

I'm somewhat limited by my garage set-up and light fixtures. After all is said and done, I should have an inner dimension of 10'4" x 15'6". Big enough to paint a 40 series frame and 3/4 tub easily and still be able to walk around the parts. As I'm going to be painting the vehicle in parts, even though I could theoretically paint an entire truck, I'll never likely do that...Never say never though.

The paint cell is big enough for what I need now.
 
great progress

so looking ahead to completion on the cell what is your first job to tackle afterward? Sheetmetal and primer? or is it still chassis work?

Perhaps a question for the other thread...
 
What comes next?

so looking ahead to completion on the cell what is your first job to tackle afterward? Sheetmetal and primer? or is it still chassis work?

Next job is run down to Consolidated Compressor and blast the cowl and chassis. Primer them and start working on axles and repairing the rot on the cowl. These are both starting points for the rest of the truck to sprout from.

I have the axles. Need to get them inside and apart to check a couple of items Peter is going to help me identify (bearings) and then order the parts. I can start work on the cowl repair then in the meantime (lots of work there.) Once I get the axle rebuild bits, I can start to place the axles (60 series) with the intent of out-boarding the springs.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top Bottom