Hello:

I have purchased the wood and supplies needed to begin constructing my spray booth, however now I have a question. As I was looking at the bathroom exhaust fans at the local diy store, it dawned on me that for the fan, there'll probably be just wires coming out of the fan. So, I need to wire a switch, and then somehow, power to the switch, i.e. a plug in. So, since I have zero electrical experience...can someone help me out?

While at the store, I looked at a simple light switch, which has three connector screws, and one green screw (the ground)? I noticed that I could purchase two different types of cord plug ins with exposed wires on one end, one was for a lamp replacement (had two wires), and one had three wires, seemed like a beefier cord, maybe 14/3 or something on the package? As I was thinking about the light switch, I wondered if I use something like that, how are all of the wires hidden or protected so my kids or something else doesn't come in contact since unlike normal walls, the switch isn't inside a box inside the wall?

Can someone provide me with some advice as to exactly what I need, and more importantly, some detailed instructions as to how to hook everything up?

Thank you for any and all assistance!!!

I have a home made light box (For making copies of blueprints before I got the copier) that uses a lightswitch for a switch. You can see the wires in it so give me a few min and I’ll get you a picture of it.

All you would need to do is replace the light with the fan. (As long as the fan only has 1 speed it should hook up just like a light would.)

Here you go.


The white wires are from the plug.

As for what to use and how to do it I would personally just cut the cord of an old appliance that no longer works.
And for the Switch I believe what you are looking at is for a 3 way light. You should be able to find one cheaper with just 2 screws (3 counting the green ground screw)

For hooking it all up I would recommend keeping the wires in the box instead of out side but thats up to you.
Now to hook it up take your plug and attach 1 wire (if there color coded it will most likely be black or red. But for something like this it really shouldn’t mater anyway. Just remember any bare or green wires are ground.) And attach it to one end of your switch. Then attach the other wire to your fan.
You will then need a 3rd piece of wire to go between the switch and fan (on my lightbox I already had a wire on both of them and just pigtailed it together.)
This should make a complete circuit and work.

Now to be on the safe side you can hook up any ground wires you will be using. (If your worried about anyone getting zapped you should use ground wires with the green coating instead of bare.{actually any color would work but greens more correct.})
Just run a ground wire from the green screw on the switch and pigtail (use a wire nut to hold the 3 wires together) it to a ground from both the plug and the fan.
As you can see I didn’t do this with my light box.

Now you may wish to test it now buy pugging it in and making sure everything works. (AT THIS STAGE DON’T TOUCH ANY BARE PARTS ON THE WIRES!!!!!) If it works turn it off and wrap any bare spots or wirenuts and the base of the switch with electrical tape. Everything should work fine.

Let me know if you need any other advise or need something explained better.

This is a simple circuit. The battery is the same as an ac supply line except their is no polarity to be concerned about.

http://www.1728.com/spst2.gif

I simplified things by attaching a wire with 3-prong plug to the fan, then just plugging it into a power strip with a switch ... the light in my booth also plugs into the power strip ... so is my compresor motor ... the power strip is mounted on the side of the booth ... it all works out ...

John

I just built a spray booth using a bathroom fan.

The green wire is for ground you can just tape it onto the fan casing itself.

I bought an extension cord and cut the female end. Strip the rubber coating and connect the black wire to one and white to the other. Tape it up with electircal tape and its ready to go!

WC

Thank you for all of your assistance...I have all of my stuff and will begin construction and wiring this weekend.