Airbrushing - do you need a spray booth with exhaust/filter?

[Essexkiwi]

New to airbrushing and about to pull the trigger on an H&S Evolution or Infinity purchase, and I'm also looking at spray booths.  The portable plug-in type with filter and exhaust fan that seem to be for sale everywhere.

 

So I'm wondering are they are even a necessity or not if you're wearing a decent respirator?

 

And are the cheap ones worth buying? I'm a little suspicious that they would hardly do anything, or be impossible to find replacement filters for. 

[Marshal Loss]

To be honest, I've never used one, but that's because I'm too lazy to buy one and fortunate enough to have a well ventilated and open space in which to paint. But they're not a complete substitute for a respirator, which I'd recommend using regardless. Booths also help prevent the room you're in from filling up with dust and fumes. Hopefully some people that actually use them can provide more detailed information on which ones are worth the purchase.

[Arkhanist]

I have a cheap exhaust booth that works as just a suction booth, or can vent out the window with a hose. I rarely use it these days. I do use a decent respirator mask.

 

For acrylics, I don't think a booth is really necessary. A dual action airbrush such as an evo gives you a lot of control over the paint flow, so unlike a single action spray gun (or spraycans) you're putting a relatively small amount of paint out the front with a lowish pressure, it's not billowing everywhere and settling all over the place.

 

Acrylics use water as the solvent so you're not going to stink up the room, and I find there's virtually no visible acrylic dust that spreads beyond my newspaper spray area. I do use a mask because my face is quite close to what i'm spraying usually and I don't particularly want even a small amount of dust in my lungs - you only get one set! I do have decent ventilation in the room, and often open a window after an extended session just in case. My cheap tank compressor tends to overheat if I run it for more than an hour, so that does provide a bit of a limiter on my airbrush session length.

 

I always use a disposable glove on the hand holding the model (models are blutacked to cardboard strip or an old paintpot)  - I always  spray some on my fingers otherwise!

 

That all said, the suction provided by the booth is enough to draw in some paint dust before it settles - I can see some speckling on the filter on mine. And it does help extract some of the airborne solvents if you use something more aggressive than acrylic. So if you're spraying on a nicer quality desk than mine, or using enamels, a booth might be worthwhile.