Airbrush Paint Booth Project

7/9/2015

Custom Airbrush Paint Booth

I have been very fortunate over the last two decades with my painting. By practicing the Rules of Paint the results have generally been excellent. My latest experience spraying a primer coat on two all-door boxcars has caused me to re-evaluate my processes. This review has resulted in my decision to build a quality airbrush paint booth!

There are a number of how-to videos on-line that give some insight into how this project should be executed. Some of videos that I found to be useful are linked below. There are small paint booths available on-line, but they are a bit smaller than what I am looking for, and a bit pricey.

A wide variety of materials can be used to make these booths, some made from cardboard boxes and others from clear plastic storage containers. I will make mine out of wood as there are some features I want to build into it such as lighting, airbrush holders, and supply storage.

While my son Jacob was at Velocity fitness training today I made a few rough sketches of my thoughts on the design for the paint booth. I had previously purchased a few of the components at Home Depot based on what I had learned from the videos. These supplies include a NuTone basic ventilation fan, a 12x12x1 air filter, and a couple of white undereave vents (one 16"x8" and one 16"x4").

Focuses will be on user functionality and air flow. There will be a turntable, top and side lighting, air-flow to the bottom rear, paint and airbrush holders, and storage for painting and cleaning supplies.

A separate component that will be sized to fit under and open window will be built to allow ventilation to the outside. This piece will be connected to the fan's exhaust via flexible dryer ducting.

Introducing an airbrush paint booth to my painting process will allow me to paint indoors where I can have better control over the air temperature and humidity. Ultimately this protected environment will yield better paint job on my models!