Cheap spray booth

[Steve Maskery]

Hi folks
I've been spraying, and have the headache to prove it. I have a little backlog of stuff I've made but not been able to finish, due to it being permanently winter. So a few fine days has had me busy with my Apollo (BTW I had an Apollo 600 with which I was pleased, and have upgraded to an 800 with which I am delighted).

I spray outside, as I don't have a dedicated booth, so am even more reliant on decent weather than someone with a booth indoors.

The main enemy is wind. Even a little bit.

So I've been thinking about booths. Maybe opening my garage doors and putting a hood over. Hmm, that would work.

But I've just bought a garden gazebo. No walls, but a frame and a roof for just £26, inc delivery. Should arrive tomorrow. I reckon with some cheap decorators plastic as walls (or cheap shower curtains from Lidl or somewhere) I should be in business. It won't protect me from a GF10, but the odd gust of breeze at just the wrong moment should be vanquished.

At least, that's my hope.

I'll keep you posted.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Shady]

Brill idea - do please let us know how that goes (standby for 'gazebo goes stratospheric' news item... ):wink:

A problem I've been failing to solve for some time...

 

[Chris Knight]

Steve,
I shall follow this with interest. I sprayed outside recently but the sun(!!) caused my finish to dry too quickly. The garage where I should have sprayed was a bit cluttered and I was too lazy to set it up for spraying, your idea may just be the answer to a prayer!

 

[frank]

use builders blue viscreen it wont flap about in a light breeze.

 

[Woodmagnet]

Last year you could buy the gazebo curtains in asda,not sure if they are back in yet. :wink:

 

[johnelliott]

Sounds like a good idea, but you might need some guy ropes etc, due to the whole structure presenting quite a tempting target to the gusts of wind
John

 

[engineer one]

always try to get some kind of airflow with a fan or something
steve, that way the headache is less damaging.

when i was making model cars, i made a small booth,
a lazy susan turntable, and an bathroom extractor fan, then used
tumble dryer hose to get the smell out the window.

i often found that setting up a kind of funnel behind what i was spraying
stopped a lot of bounce back, and funnelled the fumes outwards.

paul

 

[Hitch]

What about one of these for smaller projects....
http://www.northerntooluk.com/product/d ... sp?id=5616

 

[Steve Maskery]

Well it all arived today, then off I went to B&Q for some bits and pieces.
So far:

Gazebo - £26 inc p&p
Tarpaulins - 4.9m x 3.9m 2@ £3.98
Shower curtain rings - 7 packs @ £1.00
Packet of eyelets - £7.46

The last one seemed the most expensive, just 15 plus the tool in a pack. But if you want more they don't seem to do them without the tool, so it works out pretty expensive. The tarps have holes every metre, and I wanted a bit more support than that.

I've just put the frame up, and 4m x 3m is FLIPPIN' BIG!

Great!

Cheers
Steve

 

[Steve Maskery]

I've just put the frame up

whereas it would have been more accurate to say
"I've just put the top of the frame up to see what it will look like"

This morning, 8am, I was out to finish the job. It goes together very easily. Trouble is, it comes apart just as easily. Have you seen that Laurel & Hardy flm about delivering the piano? When they are clearing up? Stan moves the junk from one side to the whilst Ollie puts it all back? Well every time I put a pole in one corner, one popped out somewhere else. After an hour or so it ceased to be funny. SWMBO took one look and went back to bed with a cup of tea and the Times. If you can hear laughter in the background, that'll be her now.

The problem is that the frame is hardly strong enough to support itself, let alone the weight of the canopy. It's OK now it's actually up, the canopy holds it all together, but getting there is a nightmare, you need four people. I ended up by strapping it together across corners with those ratchety strappy thingies.

So is it pretty? Er, no, not unless your taste differes from mine. Is it a classy gazebo suitable for entertaiing the queen? No. Is it a professional spray booth? Hardly. But is it a decent DIY spray booth for the like of me, to be used once in a while and packed away in the garden shed the rest of the time? Well, yes, I think it is. I'll get my camera out and take a few pics.

Of course, the irony is that there isn't a breath of wind this morning.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Paul Chapman]

Packet of eyelets - £7.46

The last one seemed the most expensive, just 15 plus the tool in a pack. But if you want more they don't seem to do them without the tool, so it works out pretty expensive. The tarps have holes every metre, and I wanted a bit more support than that.

Steve,

These are available in different sizes, different size packs and with or without the tool, but usually only in old fashion hardware stores. Mind you, finding an old fashion hardware store these days can be more difficult than finding the eyelets :roll:

Hope it all proves worth it in the end :wink:

Paul

 

[Steve Maskery]

Mind you, finding an old fashion hardware store these days can be more difficult than finding the eyelets

Quite. I'm Googling right now.

Cheers
Steve

 

[houtslager]

try going to a ship's chandlery there they have'em by the bucket load
and in different sizes

 

[Steve Maskery]

Karl
That was my first thought too, and despite being in the centre of the country, we do actually have a couple of chandlers locally. I was surprised to find them in the kits, just like at the camping shop. Oh yes, and if you didn't want the tool they were available in Handipacks.

£1.60 for 4.

I've found a bloke on Ebay, 70 for £1.99. That's more like it.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Shady]

The problem is that the frame is hardly strong enough to support itself, let alone the weight of the canopy. It's OK now it's actually up, the canopy holds it all together, but getting there is a nightmare, you need four people.

As an aside, we (or rather, SWMBO) decided we were getting one of these in a wooden 'trellis-y' design for the patio. Just like yours, it was pathetically flimsy. I ended up gluing corner blocks in every corner, putting bridging bars across the centre of several joints, and finally screwing a sort of diagonal wooden slatting system in each of the 4 corners to take a heavy plant pot to stabilise the whole shooting match. It would, in the end, have been easier to build my own from scratch... Rewminded me of exactly why I got into woodworking in the first place - I hate shoddily produced goods that are 'just barely' fit for purpose...

So if anyone else is contemplating one for the summer, whether for spraying or just drinking under, check an example before you buy... Caveat Emptor. Most of them are incapable of withstanding anything more than a zephyr of wind, and need 'adapting'...

 

[Hitch]

Another way could be to build a frame from galvanised steel tube, with keyclamp fitting. Once youve designed it and built it once it could be easily fut up in 20 mins, depending on size!!

Its relativly cheap for the smaller sixes like 27mm and 34mm diameter.

You can also get ground fixes that would allow it to be removed easily, and replaced.




http://www.pslx.co.uk/store/Key_Clamps.htm

 

[Steve Maskery]

In the last 15minutes I've discovered that it is not showerproof :evil:

Heigh-ho.

Steve

 

[NeilO]

Steve,
i recall B&Q doing a gazebo last year that opens up similarly to an umbrella somewhere around the fity quid mark..
maybe this could be a time saver as well as a stress buster :lol:

 

[Steve Maskery]

Now you tell me!


Cheers
Steve

 

[Colin C]

Steve
you can get stuff for the roof to make to waterproof from camping shop, Nitwax is one I have used