Finishing Room??

Jeff Horton

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OK, starting to realize I need/how nice a finishing room would be. I do have the space with some rearranging to box in a dedicated space. The question I have is how much space? What is the minimum that you can spray in and be comfortable? What is the preferable size?

I really hate to give up the space but I don't think just adding plastic sheeting from the ceiling would work for me. But the last few day I have found that I couldn't do anything because I was waiting on the paint to dry. Since I really want to build furniture I am giving this some serious consideration.

Jeff
 
Mines 16x16 on the inside.
42" entry door for a 8' wall. Should have been a door for a 9' wall. Oops:eek:
Taking tall cabs in there on a two wheeler, you gotta remember the top of the door opening:eek:

Wish mine was 20x20 or at least 20x16.
Swinging 12-14-16' molding around in there gets to be fun.
 
Currently I am using the shop to do my finishing, but I am in the process of cleaning up a 16x24 area of the building as a designated finish room. It has a 8x10 door and 10' ceiling.
 
OK, starting to realize I need/how nice a finishing room would be. I do have the space with some rearranging to box in a dedicated space. The question I have is how much space? What is the minimum that you can spray in and be comfortable? What is the preferable size?

I really hate to give up the space but I don't think just adding plastic sheeting from the ceiling would work for me. But the last few day I have found that I couldn't do anything because I was waiting on the paint to dry. Since I really want to build furniture I am giving this some serious consideration.

Jeff

Jeff, I posted pics of our finishing room in this thread:

http://familywoodworking.org/forums/showthread.php?t=1488

Feel free to borrow any or all of our ideas.

Nancy
 
I have had several temporary booths and here is the way that I figure it. Take the maximum size of what you are going to finish and add three feet to each end and three feet to each side minumum. So for a piece that is two feet by six feet I figure that I need a space of eight feet by twelve feet to be comfortable with plenty of room to spray, hang guns, refill, move around, drag hoses and so forth. You can do with less on the ends if you are really careful. The heigth depends upon if I am going to spray it or not.

You will be a real happy guy if you can have a permanent setup. I will envy you.
 
Mines 16x16 on the inside.
42" entry door for a 8' wall. Should have been a door for a 9' wall. Oops:eek:
Taking tall cabs in there on a two wheeler, you gotta remember the top of the door opening:eek:

Wish mine was 20x20 or at least 20x16.
Swinging 12-14-16' molding around in there gets to be fun.
Hi Jeff,
This stuff Steve mentions is the most important for him and we can see why too. His point of moving a tall piece by your self, (do you plan to work alone?) through a low door ain't gonna get it. Do you plan on painting long pieces? What are you interested in building, what sizes would that be plus 25% walking around. Do you have an interest in shooting lacquer? It dries and you don't have to stand around keeping bugs from swimming in your oil base enamel. It also allows you to keep cutting wood. I spray outside , it seems to be the biggest finishing room around.:rofl:
Shaz
Actually, I'd like to have one but my space indoors is at this time spoken for. :D
 
I also spray outside... there are a few rainy periods that I am slowed down, but not that many... I have found that solvent based lacquer is humidity sensitive but can be used over a VERY wide range of temperatures - I have sprayed close to freezing, and over 100 degrees (not fun at either extreme, but it can be done). I am largely switching to water base lacquer, which is far less humidity sensitive but more temperature sensitive. In the summer I can start far earlier in the morning and well into the evening, when the humidity would be too high for solvent lacquer.

I stay at least 3 feet away from the cars, and have not had any sign of overspray.

If you do build a finishing room, I strongly recommend "positive pressure." Simply, that means blowing air into the room, whether from outside or from your HVAC system. If you try to suck air out of the room with an exhaust fan, you will get just as much air back in, but with less control of where the air comes from. More important, you need an explosion proof fan for exhaust, which are really expensive, but you can use a regular fan to push air in.

I know of two sad but true stories about solvent based lacquer (which is part of why I only spray outdoors). A furniture restorer in upstate New York sprayed lacquer in his barn/shop, and left. Fire, apparently started by the exhaust fan, destroyed the barn, all his tools, and all the antiques in process. In Austin, a furniture maker had the shop doors open, finished spraying, closed up but stayed inside to clean up and shut down, passed out, and died of the fumes.
 
You guys are scaring me.:eek: 16 x 16 and bigger?? Wow. I don't have that kind of space. I have to do some measuring but I was thinking last night (before I read this) that this might not work out. I have a roughly 30 x 40 space to work in and I really hate to give any of it up. I have just gotten it to where I really starting to like the arrangement. Plus I keep thinking about the time it would used compared to not used and I am not sure this is a good use of space for me as a hobbiest.

I have an area on an outside wall that might be 14-16 foot long, but I wouldn't want to give up more than 10' wide space. I can spray outside in the summer and have. I don't expect to spray enamel that often but that is what I am doing now (paint) and it take hours to dry. :lurk:

So, going to think a lot more on this and thanks for the input!
 
If you do build a finishing room, I strongly recommend "positive pressure." Simply, that means blowing air into the room, whether from outside or from your HVAC system. If you try to suck air out of the room with an exhaust fan, you will get just as much air back in, but with less control of where the air comes from. More important, you need an explosion proof fan for exhaust, which are really expensive, but you can use a regular fan to push air in.

That is an excellent suggestion and I had not considered it. I only spray water based, but I have noticed the air coming back in from the fan I have running. I definitively switch my fan around on my next finishing endeavor.

Jeff, I too wish I had a finishing area, but I just do not have enough space. Spraying waterbased has done pretty well for me. I have not sprayed paint, but I have heard of people having success with pigmented wb lacquer.
 
The one bad thing that I have read about a positive pressure set up is that you must have a well designed airtight booth or you will get overspray and fumes coming out anywhere that there is a leak instead of through your filters. I have never tried it but it sounds logical. It would never work for me as my booth is temporary with only a few screws in each corner holding it togeather. With a negative pressure it actually helps hold it togeather as I can see the sides (plastic) sucking inward.

I am trying the Target waterbased stuff now. I really like the lacquer. I tried the EM Urethane with colorant over the EM 8800 Sealer and it took a lot of coats to get good coverage. I tried it over white Zesseer Shellac Base B I N sealer and found the same thing. I could recoat after about thirty minutes but still do no like doing all of the coats. Maybe I do not have the process down yet. I really like doing one tack coat and one flow coat with two part automotive urethane but is not worth the risk or cost of a safe setup to me. The waterbase might be the answer in the long run.

I am kind of off subject here so will try to get back on. Jeff, if you have movable tools how about designing a fold out booth on hinges on one wall. Then just fold it back up when done.
 
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The one bad thing that I have read about a positive pressure set up is that you must have a well designed airtight booth or you will get overspray and fumes coming out anywhere that there is a leak instead of through your filters. I have never tried it but it sounds logical. It would never work for me as my booth is temporary with only a few screws in each corner holding it togeather. With a negative pressure it actually helps hold it togeather as I can see the sides (plastic) sucking inward.
.....

Remember that I spray outside, so my "negative pressure" comes from my university research days, when I ran computer centers. Since I used a lot of HVAC services in the big mainframe computing days I got to know the facilities folks pretty well. Since I was sympathetic and understood, they told me lots of lab stories (cried on my shoulder)... The key to them was having an ample exhaust port, through filters or up stacks or whatever (think chemistry and bio hazard), but force air into the room. The positive pressure never became measurable (since they had ample exit ports, and didn't want to spread their hazard, whatever it was) but it allowed them to use conventional fans to bring the air in, and the fans did not become contaminated or contribute to the hazard. They would often complain about the research PhD who insisted that they just suck air out of a room, and without a vent for make-up air, would then complain about why the fan didn't work :huh: , etc.

After you fight the problem for a while, you realize that you have to manage both the air in and the air out, and it often turns out to be better to put the fan on the "air in" part, which is called positive pressure even if the pressure differential is almost immeasurable (should work with plastic walls). For extreme hazards you must use negative pressure, since you cannot tolerate any leakage, but for modest hazards (the stinky experiment) positive pressure was preferred.

If my spraying moves indoors I expect to use a fan to bring air in, and a window-size exhaust port.
 
Charlie,

Your way sounds like a good solution. The next time that I set my booth up I am going to give it a try. I like the idea of not having to buy expensive fans for the non waterborne stuff and it might just work even better.

To bad that I did not know last week as I had it up and could have given it a shot.

Thanks!

Allen
 
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