Advice on makeshift spraying area

Kalimna

Greetings folks,

I am not quite, but nearly, at the stage of spraying the mini-guitar bodies I am in the process of building. I don't have a dedicated spraybooth/area and wondered what might be the best option for spraying the rattlecans?

My work area is an integral-to-the-house double garage with only the garage door being non-insultated. As such it is open to the outside, but not nearly so much so as an out-building. Within the house itself might be tricky as all our rooms are in use, and I want to keep these guitars secret from my boys until Dec 25th.

So, do I MacGyver a spraybooth in the garage with some large cardboard boxes (easy to acquire from work)? Spray outside when it is a less windy/wet day (not necessarily straightforward as I live in central Scotland)? Or tape up with impervious sheeting a room in the house?

Any help greatly appreciated,

Adam

Corvus

Hi Adam

I used to spray in a small garage with the floor damped down. Wait 5-10s mins for any floating dust to settle on it. I had an old car colling fan in a DIY-frame running off a battery charger as "extractor", hung in the doorway. There was enough draft around the main door to feed air in (if there's no air coming in, a fan sucks in air around it and doesn't work so well). The fan just helped get the overspray clouds out, not really essential.

If you keep away from walls you don't raise dust & crispy spiders off them with airflow, especially with cans. So you can avoid sheeting out the place. Don't forget the ceiling, can also bring down dust etc.

I had cheap halogen heaters from ebay and waited for a non-damp rainy day, the heaters don't heat the place so much as speeds drying up. Avoiding a cold day with damp air means less chance of 'bloom' - trapped moisture, cloudy look.

Outside can work on a decent day. In the past I've resprayed motorbikes and all sorts of car parts outside, pick a calm not-too-cold day it can work well but I'd pick the garage if poss.

Pick a good mask. If you can smell anything with it on, it's not doing it's job,

cheers
Bill

Kalimna

Bill - thanks for the advice, seems very reasonable. To start off, I do have a pretty good mask (a full face visor 3M with whichever filter is appropriate to the task). Unfortunately, the chance of getting a truly non-damp/not-cold day (well, several days really) between now and the beginning of December is slim. So the garage it is. I may still sheet over the bandsaw/sanding machines etc to prevent overspray settling on them.

When you say damp air causing bloom (a phenomenon I have read about, so am at least familiar with the concept) is a problem, what does 'damp air' mean? I have an electronic hydrometer (from an acoustic guitar humidifier thingy) currently reading 60-65% humidity. Would you consider that too damp?

Again, thanks for your help,

Adam

Corvus

No worries Adam. I don't know about humidity % but best avoid those days when you can feel the damp in the air, sort of thing. Just after rain, fog, single-digit temps maybe, like that. And if you're in the garage and can get a little bit of heat in there, doesn't need to be hot, it should be fine. Thinner coats are less prone to bloom as well than heavy wet coats.

Kalimna

I think if I don't actually open the garage door, then there will be a reasonable temp in there - maybe just into single figures. It rains a fair bit here, but we live with that Thin coats, ok with that.

And if it looks like it might be dodgy, then I can clear the utility room and use that

Cheers,

Adam

WezV

If you do get bloom just mist a light coat on it