The deepening black dust accumulating on my workbench convinced me I'm overdue for a paint booth; however, the store-bought booths always struck me as too small and too expensive, but nor do I have room to build the kind of booth I really want, so I am forced to compromise.

After a lot of thought I finally decided that, rather than completely build a booth from scratch, I would use a clear plastic storage container as the basis of my booth. When I got down to the local DIY store I found they had a container just the size I wanted, and as a bonus it's collapsible--space problem solved!

So without further ado, the ingredients:



One collapsible plastic storage bin (about $12 at the current exchange rate)
Three 12V computer case fans salvaged from an old PC
One set of 12V LED strip lighting (easily the most expensive part of this endeavor; paid about $25 at an electronics supply place years ago, but never used for anything)
One 12V adaptor saved from some appliance that got thrown out years ago
One package of Japanese range vent hood filter material (about $5)
4-6 of those little metal clips that come on bags of coffee

First step was to route out the reinforcing ribs on the bottom of the container with the Makita hand trimmer. this is to allow the fans to mount firmly to the base. Made for lots of static electricity and plastic snow--ne'er was there ever a messier combination!



Next, the Dremel with circle cutter attachment was used to cut out the holes for the air to flow through:



Ran into some issues with that precision piece of engineering equipment so there won't be any awards for good looks won.

A few minutes with a hacksaw and a couple of rasps to clean up the mess left by the power tools:



Next: mounting the fans!

Drilled holes and mounted the fans with hardware from the stash. From the back:



And from the inside:



Next comes the challenge of getting the wiring sorted.

Everything looks like its where it should be .

Well, I thought the same until I hit the teachable moment tonight. Got the wiring harness all done and everything connected when things took an unexpected turn.

To make a long story short, it turns out the case fans require 12VAC, rather than DC as I had thought. I had no idea that quite by accident I had actually been using an AC-AC adapter (didn't even realize there was such a thing) when I was testing the fans. And obviously the LEDs require DC. So right now I'm at the point that either the fans work and the LEDs strobe (guaranteed headache during marathon painting sessions, I'm sure), or the LEDS work fine but the fans don't. Going to have to do some more circuit design if I want to continue to run this with a single adapter.

I've called in some expert help, but I'm open to any suggestions from this exceptionally talented group of handy-men and -women.

Can't you use a diode bridge to convert the AC to DC for the LEDs. An electronics book may have a plan for one.

Yep, Darrell, that's exactly the plan. My technical consultant (my Dad) actually has an encapsulated bridge that he's sending me, which will save me having to build my own bridge. I'll just have to add a capacitor in parallel on the output side in order to flatten out the wave form and I SHOULD be in business.

The best laid plans of men and mice .

I take it you did not use a voltmeter ?

Alas, no. I had read enough of the label on the adapter to know it was 12V output, but since it never occurred to me there was even such a thing as an AC-AC wall wart I didn't even notice that it was 12VAC. No labels on the fans at all, so had no idea what kind of voltage they needed, but I figured since PC power supplies typically put out 12V I figured that was my best bet. When I wired them up for a test and they worked I thought I was good to go, but it was just shear dumb luck that I happened to unwittingly grab an AC output adaptor to attach to fans that I assumed were DC, but were in fact AC.

"The strangeness of life cannot be measured." - Lt John J. Dunbar

Here's the photo of everything all wired up (the point at which I discovered my power problem:



I'll just have to stick in a bridge rectifier on the black leads to the LEDs.

In the meantime, while I wait for the rectifier to arrive, I figured there was no reason to put off getting the filter installed. My original plan had been to use the clips from coffee bags, but then it occurred to me they might interfere with the sides folding up when I collapse the box. The solution was simple enough: I pulled some self-adhesive Velcro from my stash-o'-random-crap...



...and, voila!...



...the filter sticks right to the Velcro, making it easy to replace whenever needed.

Looks good so far Mark! Are you going to use more than one filter?

I just picked up a used Broan Range Hood Fan unit from the habitat restore for 3 Loonies! I picked up some foamcore board as well for 70% off at Micheals last week to use for the actual booth, using the fans dimensions as the starting point.

The reason I ask about filters is that all the prefab ones on the market speak of 3 filters including a carbon one. My plan is to use the fan hoods carbon filters, and regular furnace filters too, to reduce the amount of particulate matter that ends up needing to be vented.

Anyway, yours is looking good, I look forward to your next post...

Dave

Thanks, Dave. I'm actually rather embarrassed to have such an accomplished craftsman as you drop in to peek at my Frankenbooth, but then again I should have worried about that before I started posting...

In answer to your question vis the filter, I'm really only planning to use the one filter--actually one filter folded in half, so I have two thicknesses of filter. I figure those case fans aren't all that strong, so I don't want to block the air flow too much, but I also realize that since I can see through the filter it means quite a bit will probably get through. I'm not terribly concerned about that for a couple of reasons: first, I've been painting without anything at all for quite a while now so anything is going to be an improvement; and second, I only work with acrylics specifically to avoid all the issues with toxic fumes and toxic waste in the house.

There will almost certainly be a Frankenbooth Mk.II in my future someday, but for now I think this will do quite nicely.

Anyway, even without the lighting at 100% yet, I think this thing is now ready to be put to use, which is good because the build phase of my Hummel is nearly done!

I know what you mean Mark, I too use acrylics virtually exclusively. That said I will still try to make a 3 filter system, mostly because I have access to cheap filters.

Shoot some pics when you hue your Hummel. Inquiring minds want to see.....

Dave

Oh, and btw, thanks for the compliment, as misguided as it is.

For the MkII version, use a full size (for the box) filter, and set it off an inch from the fans. That'll give the fans a MUCH larger area to pull air from, and therefore you can have a thicker filter and still maintain flow.

Also, even on my store-bought filter, I've put a 12x12 furnace filter behind the outlet fan, and it catches particulate as well. That's with the multi-filter before the fans. Your filters aren't going to catch much.

That's not a bad idea, Jesse. Maybe a more robust filter on the back, with the filter on the inside there to keep the fans from getting gummed up too quickly. Not much room for stand-off on the inside since it will prevent the box from folding properly. Now if I can just find a furnace filter here in Japan....

Rectifier and capacitor arrived today. Here they are:



And here they are wired in and mounted to the back of the booth:



And now here's the whole thing with working lights and fans (along with my Hummel WIP):



And the whole thing folded up for storage:



Still have to locate a decent filter to put on the backside, but have been clipping an old T-shirt to the fan exhaust in the interim. One thing I have learned is that the computer case fans just don't draw enough air, so will definitely a beefier fan in the future.

This one is just the Mk I like Tony Stark's first Ironman suit--built to meet an immediate need using whatever is at hand. As soon as I have my AI-controlled automated design and fabrication system set up in the basement I'll get to work on the Mk II...

How big is that thing folded up ?

This is where the "plenum" between the fan and filter comes in handy. It lowers the pressure drop across the fans, boosting their performance.

You want to shoot for 100 feet per minute across the main cross section. So if you have a booth that is 24" wide and 12" tall, (2 sq ft), then you want 200 cfm.

Don't have my tape measure handy, but I'm going to say about 20" x 15" x 4".

@Jesse: You've well exceeded the level of science that went into building this!

Still keeping an eye out for a suitable filter...

Yoi gogo māku, soreha iku nōhau?

Your booth is nice, I do like the fact it folds into a very compact footprint, although its Probably more important for you than it is for me. I still have to build the foamcore booth portion of mine, but I've been busy at the course trying to clear ice off of several greens. Working more or less alone as its off seaso here obviously, so I am the whole of the staff and crew!!!

But I have gotten allof the filters ready and have pilfered a plug to attach to the wiring so I can run the machine.

You going to paint up the Hummel soon?

Just curious....

Anata no atarashī Frankenbooth o shiyō [auto-censored]e o tanoshimi kudasai!

Mark,
You can get more powerful computer case fans that will fit the holes you have.

Cheers Rob.

Rob, will certainly keep my eyes open for some I can scrounge.

Dave, Hummel is painted and camo'ed--about to post an updated photo in the Panzer IV campaign thread. BTW, Well done on the Japanese. Took me awhile to completely work it out until I figured out what the [auto-censensored] really said...

Lol...I re-typed it 3 or four times, and each time it wouldn't let me spell [auto-censored]e!

Funny hey? And thanks, I have my brother in law and his ex wife, along with the interweb tot thanks for my interspersed Japanese.