Paint Spraying Station for the Hobbyist

[Neill]

I have had an HVLP sprayer for about 10 years and never used it.  Yesterday I hooked it up to my compressor and practiced using water and then some old 2 # cut shellac.  It seemed to work pretty well.

My shop is in my basement. The first thing I noticed was the amount of mist in the air.  I have a mask and opened the window to help with ventilation.  My concerns are the mist settling on all my tools and exposure to the pilot lights on my gas hot water tank and furnace.

My question is, for those of you hobbyists who have limited shop space, what have you done to set up a spraying station?  I assume there are some commercially available solutions and I will probably search them out.

I really don't want to move the operation outside or to my garage because I don't want to be dragging my air compressor up and down the stairs.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Neill

 

[Les]

I made one with pvc pipe and plastic. Put a window fan in the side with a double filter in front of the intake side. Made it so I could take apart and store as I'm limited on space. One thing you should be aware of is I only sprayed water based solvents. No oil based. Oil based requires a lot more safety concerns.Since I made it, I found internet sites that sell pvc connectors for green houses. This is what I would use if doing again.

 

[Neill]

Les,

Thanks.  I found some plans on the web using the materials you mentioned.  They seemed kind of intricate for what I needed but I guess I could modify them to suit my needs.

Nice to know that it works so well for you.  Also thanks for the tip.  I kind of thought about the water based finishes as being a safer alternative.

Appreciate your input.

Neill

 

[polarsea1]

I do exactly as Les does. I bought snap on tee fittings and clamps from A to Z supply via the internet. There's a small attic fan over the entry door to my shop and windows at the opposite end. I can modulate the airflow by sliding a foam damper in front of the fan or opening the windows more or less.

Waterborne is the way to go, you really could get in trouble spraying solvent based finishes around a pilot light.

 

[10digit]

Neill,

This may sound oversimplified, but have you looked into extending your compressed air from your basement to your garage?  My garage is attached to my house and I was able to drill a 1" hole through the sill plate and have an air hose in my garage with about 8 feet stored in the basement.  Each time I need to work on my car, fill a pool float, or spray with my HVLP conversion gun, I just roll my 20 gallon compressor across the cellar and connect to the hose.  I am running about 25 feet of hose and never have any problems with pressure.  Only downside is that I can only spray in warm weather which is May-October in the Northeast.  I also only use water based products.

 

[Chris Hughes]

I used to sub out all my finishing, paint or otherwise.  I have been let down more than once, sad to say, so now I spray all my own stuff.  At first I only sprayed water-born product until I used Ceramithane and could not get my gun clean again.  As a carpenter I always hated oil-based products mostly because of the smell.  A friend of mine that is a contractor rep for a local paint company hookes me up with a HVLP gun and worked with me for an hour and now I shot everything with oil.

I use the oil products mostly because they lay down like glass and are very easy to thin for a gun.  Claen up is fairly easy as well, after use I pour the excess back, add some thinner to the pot, shake, pour out the thinner, rinse again, spray out the enough thinner to clean the internals against a peice of particle board and store the gun with a little thinner still inside.  I also made an air pig for reserve air with helps if you compressor has a problem with make up rate.

The problem I have had with water born paint is that I had to turn the pressure to my gun up to get good product flow and to get the paint particulates smaller that I ended up with alot of overspray.  I do not have that problem with oil.