Airbrushing “booths”

[Sky Potato]

Amazon link

 

For those of you who airbrush indoors, do you use a booth or anything to control overspray?

 

In my old house, I had the luxury of being able to use the airbrush in the garage with no issues. Now, that’s not really an option and if I’m going to be able to use the airbrush, it’s going to be on the dining room table.

 

I was just curious if anybody had any feedback on any of these booths, if they’re worth the 100-odd quid, or if I’d just be better off with a dust sheet and a large cardboard box to control overspray.

Edited March 14 by Sky Potato
Sorting out url

[andes]

I rely on gravity to control overspray. I have a piece of heavy corrugated cardboard I put down to protect my work surface and I just paint away. Adjacent stuff on my desktop (mostly my paint collection) builds up a very slight dusting over time, but it also builds up a very slight dusting of... well.. dust over time so I don't worry much about it. Other WIPs do get moved out of range since I may be crazy but I'm not stupid ;-)

 

I'm fortunate to have a dedicated room for hobby though. If I was painting in the living room I'd not be so cavalier.

[Tomcatgunner]

So I use 1/2 - 2/3rds of an old shipping crate, so it's 3 sides and the bottom made of wood, and I've got that setup in my garage to not have overspray out there. 

really, if you take a cardboard box, put a wood bottom in it, and then remove one side and the top, you have a stupid cheap paint booth you can discard whenever, as soon as you have another box that size (i'm so cheap i'd re-use the wood bottom)

[Tacitus]

Originally I used the same Gravity/area control method, but I started noticing "spittle" - aerosolized paint can travel a relatively long distance.  

 

So I got a spray booth.  In fact it was probably the same one you linked.  I was a little disappointed in the particular spray booth I got, and ended up replacing it with the one from Master Amazon.com: Master Airbrush Extra Large Dual Fan Lighted Portable Hobby Airbrush Spray Booth with LED Lighting for Painting All Art, Cake, Craft, Hobby, Nails, T-Shirts & More. Includes 6 Foot Exhaust Hose 

 

The "booth" provides a couple of benefits:  The over"head" light, and the air.  Its like a little "vacuum" for your aerosolized paint.  Instead of floating over the back of your work space and then landing somewhere the vacuum sucks it up into the blue filter you see at the back of the painting space.  I go one step furhter and attach some papertowls to the end of the exhaust hose so even if anything makes it through the filter it gets trapped on the towel.  But that's probably overkill, which for the cost of some paper towel isn't so bad.  Now I just make sure the front area of my workspace is completely covered with old newspaper to prevent "pre-spray_ on the table edge/top, turn on the air and the light and I feel pretty decent I'm not going to paint something I shouldn't. 

[Sky Potato]

So I have one of these - Hobby zone airbrush station

 

Its a lot more simplistic compared to the fancy ones with hoovers and lights built in.

 

All I did was place a dust sheet down on the edge of the desk and sprayed kind of down into back left corner of the station (I’m right handed). Obviously face mask etc. Given the replies in this thread, I’m in no real rush to upgrade to one of the fancy booths.

 

I’m pretty chuffed with myself, I got 85 models primed today, I’ve got 70-ish left to do tomorrow (including more vehicles). The biggest issue I had today was remembering how to get the Stynylrez to behave itself out the airbrush, it’s been probably close to 18 months since I got any airbrushing done.

[pawl]

I don't use a booth as I don't have space, unfortunately.

I simply make sure the room has a little airflow, turn on the nearby air purifier (it's only little but it does a reasonable job - similar to this one), and make sure that I'm wearing my respirator, even for 'just' acrylics.

 

When done I turn the purifier up full for a bit and open the windows fully. Longer if I've been spraying anything particularly unpleasant.

 

For overspray I simply place a little kitchen towel below and behind what I'm spraying. It's simple and cheap, but it works! Oh, and a pair of disposable gloves for my hands!

Edited March 20 by pawl

[sbarnby71]

I've  owned that booth for about 4 year now, it was a lot cheaper back in the day, around £80.  I do like it as I feel it helps with the fumes and keeping my area clean.  That being said, the hose and nozzle on it are massive (I mean diameter), length is ok, but I can't pop it out of a window as intended as the nearest window is about 6m away.  I ended up building a box filled with foam that I plug a shorted length of hose into and then hope that filters enough bad things, but to be fair I'm only spraying GW paints, so they are not really smelly or harmful.

 

With the booth I feel I don't need a massive amount of space to separate my normal painting area.  Also it has some lighting in it and the turn-table is a big help with painting from different angles instead of getting your fingers on wet paint as you try to rotate a piece.

[Captain Caine 24th]

I've used the master airbrush booth for maybe five years. It's fine enough. The internal lighting is very good and helpful. I like that it breaks down for transport. I've never actually used the turntable. Previously I made a very cheap booth with bathroom fan and dryer exhaust pipe. 

[Ammonius]

I use a cardboard box.

[Rusted Boltgun]

I've used a cardboard box up until now but only used a cheapie usb airbrush for priming.

It has been surprisingly effective.

 

I used it in my old garage so overspray / spillages / general mess weren't a problem but I'm going to need to keep my new workshop nice.

 

I think I'm going to start with a large back curtain made from an cheap shower curtain - I used to use this method for RC car bodies and it worked fine.

 

For longer sessions or using an airbrush for detail I'll be heading down the booth route so thank you to everyone who has contributed to this thread.