DIY Paint Cell inside attached garage

[Awl_TEQ]

Any firm date on the blasting? - I have never been there and will need to eventually blast my chassis and body - I would be interested in riding shotgun if you need a hand just to check out the facility and equipment. Give me a shout if you want - no worries if not

 

[SabreTooth]

Progress...

So, I finally got motivated again to get in the garage and continue, thanks in part to Christmas and the associated rush being over as well as a brief visit from Ratpuke delivering Henry Brimmer calendars for the club.

I sheeted the holes in the swing down filter bank suspended from the roof...


I then sheeted and inserted filters into the "suction" box wings that now look as follows all put together...



When the complete suction box and extraction fan is under the door, I'll make wood spacers for the ends of the wings to stop them falling in on each other as well as screw, with plates, the wings to the fan box. The gaps will be sealed with strips of vapour barrier and Tuck tape.

I'll need to check that the fan still works as it looks as if I either built it crooked (I did use a square) or the wood has pulled the frame out of shape. As long as the bearings are free and the fan doesn't rub, I should be OK.

 

[SabreTooth]

Blasting

Any firm date on the blasting? - I have never been there and will need to eventually blast my chassis and body - I would be interested in riding shotgun if you need a hand just to check out the facility and equipment. Give me a shout if you want - no worries if not

Maybe this week if I can get the rest of the paint cell finished tomorrow or Monday. Also depends if Consolidated Compressor is open next week.

 

[SabreTooth]

Details

I stated in the beginning that the front and rear wing sections would sit nestled in each other for storage. I wasn't entirely sure this would work when sheeted. To my relief, they do.


I thought I would start with one filter each end (lower front corners of paint cell) and see how it went. I can always add another. Given the fan suction, I can't see there being a problem unless the paint blocks the filters. In that vein, I decided to add a prefilter to the fine filters to catch most of the overspray.



As to why I have filters, it's to try and catch the paint overspray before it enters the fan and gets blown all over my concrete driveway. I'll put out a tarp the first time, just in case.

 

[nspctr1]

cool, keep the pics coming

 

[SabreTooth]

Coming together

I did make a little progress in the last couple of days. The day before yesterday, I set up the front suction box under the garage door to get an idea of how it would look as well as to judge gaps and such for the side walls. This is what the extraction box looked like from the outside...



and the left hand side from inside the garage...


I changed the original plan to have the extraction box sit outside the garage, just so I could get more space inside the cell for painting, hence the door resting on the rear of the extraction fan frame. I'll fill the holes at the sides with cardboard or more sheeting when I'm actually going to paint.

 

[SabreTooth]

Side panels

For the sides, firstly I put up 1" x 6" boards on the ceiling from front to back. This is to support the weight of the sheet and to support and fasten the rolled up sheet side when not in use. I had to use sheetrock wall plugs on some places as the boards don't meet up with joists. With two wall plugs (the spiral, grippy type) every 2 ft, that should be more than sufficient to support the weight. I have had good success with this method of ceiling support, used on my strip lights in the past.

I started hanging the sheet at the back of the cell. I used 1" x 2" strips to staple the sheet to. This was then screwed to the 1" x 6" boards. With the stapling and the sheet sandwiched between the two pieces of lumber it isn't going anywhere.

I had to deal with a ceiling height step and this was the reason for changing the original plan from a swing down framed side to just free hanging sheet. The prior solution was just too complicated and was intended to provide a solution to another problem, which I will now solve more simply and elegantly. K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid (Words of wisdom to myself)

I then stapled a 2" x 2" to the bottom of the suspended sheet. The result of which is as follows.

 

[SabreTooth]

Sides...more

Part of the design scope was to enable the garage door to be opened with the sides down, no mean feat. Why? Well, I may need to get stuff in and out, and in the case of an emergency, I may need to get out in a hurry. I'm hoping not to ever have to test the latter.

The overhead garage door path "cuts" through the side wall about 20" or so from the ceiling. I stapled a 1" x 1" x 8' above the door path, at about 16" from the ceiling and, after a process of evolution, stapled a 1" x 2" x 8' at 26" below the ceiling and offset slightly to the rear of the cell. I then found some old nylon strapping material and suspended that sandwiched between the 1" x 6" and 1" x 2" at the ceiling level down to the 1" x 1" and 1" x 2" to support them a little better, although the 6 mil poly is plenty strong.

Now comes the tricky bit. Cutting a horizontal slot for the garage door path and then being able to open and close said slot. I was going to use velcro but ended up with a better solution using a self adhesive zip. The end result looks like this.



You can also see some black velcro straps sandwiched at the top for later use in suspending the rolled up side when not in use. Note the use of black zip over red Tuck tape. I find that the adhesive used on these these zippers doesn't stick well to poly but does stick well to Tuck tape. The Tuck tape sticks reasonably well to the poly sheet, so all is well, just a round about way of getting the zip to stick to the sheet.

The 1" x 2" at the 26" level is to support the sheet towards the front of the paint cell when the zip is open. The rear sheet carries the cantilevered weight up front. Works OK. The front of the 1" x 2" sags down about an inch presently with the zip open. I'm sure it would sag more if left for some time as the poly sheet will likely stretch. I only intend to have the garage door path open for short periods of time, if at all, anyway.

These are the zips I used. Edit: Hey, it even says they can be used for paint spray booths

 

[SabreTooth]

Side again...

Side unzipped...


Garage door fully up, running in "slot" opened up by zip.


Close up of zipped end (and blue nylon supporting strap), zip fully open.

 

[SabreTooth]

How side attached to door...

I wanted to be able to have the paint cell provide some dust protection when the door is down fully as well as in "paint" mode with the extraction box jammed under the door. Velcro solves the problem of how to attach the front of the sides to the door in various positions.

View from inside door fully down. Note a few gaps around the door spring "motor" mechanism.

The black diagonal is velcro, the black horizontal is the zip.

View from outside

Note the excess poly flap is on the outside, such that any, albeit, small suction, will tend to seal the flap against the door. The floor "flaps" are intended to be used in the same way. I doubt this will provide any additional sealing but I could always tape them to the door if I really needed to. As for the floor flaps, I can weigh them down if required.

View from inside with the door up on the extraction box.

 

[SabreTooth]

One side completed

I do still need to deal with sealing the top of the door gap shown here. Not just the gap between door panels but the one at the top of the door to the front garage door wall (unseen behind top door panel).



Likely another application of velcro and sheet to the ceiling. If not dealt with, there is a massive gap to outside air. There are also a couple of other gaps at the front to deal with, particularly where the side sheet meets the door spring roller. I'll use cardboard again here to seal those gaps. Pics later.

Here is the finished side all rolled up and stowed away


I put up an extruded aluminum bar (free-to-me from work a ways back when we were dismantling equipment prior to a move). I can now mount my radiant heater either inside or outside the paint cell. Will be useful inside prior to painting to heat up and dry off the article to be painted, and after, to help dry the paint.


Tomorrow, I hope to finish the other side, now I know what I am doing . A lot of the time spent so far, was time spent thinking.