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How do you work with an open face booth

8/25/15       
Carmine Member

This past year we have been outsourcing our finishing to another shop. Their spray area is set up as a seprate room of approx 1300 sf with a 12 x8 open booth. Their finisher sprays outside the booth sometimes 10' away from the face of the booth and finished parts are stored in the same room awaiting additional coats or just sit there until we pick them up. Basically he is using the entire room as a booth. Sometimes we will receive pieces that have dry overspray on them which will just wipe off.

We are now moving to a larger shop and are pricing booths and will be taking the finisher with us. I feel an open booth is fine but pieces should be sprayed inside the booth only. What is your opinion on this. Is spraying outside the booth normal practice.

8/25/15       #2: How do you work with an open face b ...
Robert Member

Are you describing this particular open spray booth as one that has no door or sidewalls?

8/25/15       #3: How do you work with an open face b ...
Kevin

Let me get this straight..... Youre considering buying a booth but want to know if you should spray in it? well. Yes. Spray in the booth. Longer parts that cant fit inside it can still be sprayed in front of it but the operator should take consideration of the angle of his application so the overspray will be directed toward the booth so it can be properly filtered/exhausted. Why buy the booth if your going to just spray overspray all over everything in your shop?

8/25/15       #4: How do you work with an open face b ...
chris

i have a similar set up but i always spray in the booth.
i have an air make up unit and the air is directed towards the booth.

8/25/15       #5: How do you work with an open face b ...
Carmine Member

To clarify. The open booth is a commercially purchased booth with back(filter walls), side walls, ceiling with exhaust fan and an open face 12'x10'. The spray room the booth is in is sectioned off from the shop and is approx. 1300 sf.

What the finisher will do is set up horses etc. in the vicinity of the open face. Let's say he utilizes 500sf outside the booth so he avoids having to cart or carry especially the larger cabinetry inside the booth. He turns on the booth fan and sprays away. Basically turning the entire room or at least 500 sf of it into an extension of the booth.

Now I can see setting up just in front of the booth as a the fan should still draw but 7-10 feet away from the face is ridiculious IMO. Before I forbid this practice in our shop I want to make sure this is not common practice

8/25/15       #6: How do you work with an open face b ...
afinisher

Best practice is to spray within the confines of the booth. Air velocity drops rapidly once outside the booth. After spraying items you can move them outside the booth confines to flash off without creating any special hazard. Its the overspray mist you can't really evacuate properly once you are spraying outside the booth.

NFPA rule 33 standard is very helpful in diagramming and explaining in plain English everything you need to know about setting up a spray booth/spray room/ finishing room. It costs $45 but it is the definitive resource. Local building codes typically defer to these NFPA standards if you should happen to be involved with officials in building code compliance.

NFPA Rule 33

8/25/15       #7: How do you work with an open face b ...
Robert Member

Do you have an idea on the HP of the motor and the size of the fan ?You didn't mention doors....there are none? If there are doors, are the filters kept clean and replaced when needed ?

Are the filters on the back wall kept real clean and replace when needed ?

8/25/15       #8: How do you work with an open face b ...
JeffA

Is spraying outside a spray booth normal practice? Of course it is. If anyone here says they have never done it is probably, as we now say, misspoken. Is it good practice? Of course not. Just as you already experienced, over spray gets all over the other parts in the area. Now, are you going to put a person in that booth and expect him to only spray in the booth and get done 10 hours of work in 8? I don't know that answer but you do. If you give a sprayer help and get someone else to move parts around the drying area and keep the sprayer spraying, then he shouldn't have any reason to spray outside the booth unless the parts you are finishing are too large to fit. Also, filters get dirty and start to redirect the pull of the exhaust fan. You need to give them time to change out the filters that need it more. Like the ones in the middle of the booth. But more than likely you will have over spray on parts throughout your drying area. Not all of the over spray gets exhausted out. It's a learning curve and something you will have to deal with.

8/25/15       #9: How do you work with an open face b ...
Robert Member

If your using a conventional spray gun your not only going to be wasting material via over spray but that over spray is costing you.

If its in the budget, an upgrade in spray equipment will quickly pay for itself.

8/25/15       #10: How do you work with an open face b ...
Andrew J. Coholic  Member

Website: http://www.joecoholiccustomfurniture.com

I have a 12 foot commercial booth, open face, with my finishing room that is about 30' by 16'.

When I spray, I never spray outside the confines of the booth opening. Some extra tall cabinets are sprayed right in front of the opening, and extra long trim is also sprayed right in front (and moved side to side on a cart) but spraying is always directed into the booth and no further than a few feet back from the opening.

With enough room around the booth, and a bunch of carts (I have many) for cabinets I wheel one into the booth, spray it, and move it back out to the drying area. I can fit 15 to 20 cabinets in the room this way and never deal with over spray/dry spray.

I also have several racks, and when spraying doors or trim, I move them onto the turntable - spray - and move back to the rack.

Spraying outside of the booth is not only a great way to get overspray on your product, it can be messy (lots of dust/dry particulate gets over everything) and dangerous.

Booths are available in every conceivable size. Buy one that suits your needs, and spray in front of it like it was designed to, IMO.

8/25/15       #11: How do you work with an open face b ...
rich c.

I prefer a modified down-draft booth. Make up air comes in the ceiling, a fan on each side of the booth draws off the floor. Filters line the bottom of the sides. You get a draw for the entire length of the booth, not just the end wall.

8/26/15       #12: How do you work with an open face b ...
Adam

Try not to piss into the wind when you gotta go?

8/26/15       #13: How do you work with an open face b ...
Ken Whitson  Member

You can add side panels and top panels to make a longer (deeper) booth. You will still have almost the same air flow velocity. (if you were to go wider or taller, you would lose overall velocity and would need a bigger exhaust fan) I believe most spray booth mfgrs. will sell you extra panels. If not, you can build frames with 2x4's and plywood panels. If you do that, coat the surface with spraybooth coating. Use the coating on the interior metal panels also.

Spray the finish and move the piece outside of the spray booth confines to dry for the next coat.

If the sprayroom has doors, open them when spraying to allow for make-up air. You could also make a panel of booth filters for the doors. That would allow for make up air and help keep extraneous shop dust out of the spray area.

If feasible, use wheeled carts to move the pieces around.

Although many do not like them, HVLP turbines will reduce the amount of overspray dramatically compared to compressed air gun. Theoretical efficency of an air gun is typically quoted at 30-35%; efficiency of HVLP is around 70%. Add a pressure pot and a production HVLP gun and you can spray more easily into tighter corners AND spray for longer periods without tiring. Many will tout the benefits of air-assisted airless. I never had the on-going volume of finishing that justified changing from HVLP. My experience with airless has been that the seals do not last long when running lacquer thinner based solvents through them.

Be sure to keep any overspray on the floor cleaned up. The residue can be highly flamable.

Hope this helps.


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