[Jacques Reed]

I have wanted a spray-painting cabinet for a long time. For years I have been getting by with waiting for a calm, dry day to open the shed door and then cover everything in the shed before spray painting. I could spend half a morning getting ready just to paint a few items. Weather-wise it seems the available days to paint are getting fewer. Too windy, too humid, too hot, too cold. I won’t mention Climate Change. Add other commitments, and I was lucky to have a day each month to paint.

During our long Covid lockdowns I started looking into paint cabinets/booths on the net. A commercially made one was prohibitively costly. Some of the homemade designs were OK, and some were more for model makers or furniture restorers. Some I had safety concerns with also.

The design criteria I set for myself:

Build it to similar dimensions and specs as a commercially available booth.
Use standard hardware whenever possible. Bolts, Tek Screws, Pop Rivets, brackets etc. No welding required if possible.
Use standard size sheet metal and MDF panels whenever possible. MDF was used for the table for rigidity. I wanted to be able to place heavy things on it such as wheels, or heavy castings. I then covered it with Galvabond steel to keep it from absorbing paint. MDF also will be used for the rear panel to support the duct outlet.
Include an ATEX rated explosion proof fan of similar capacity to a commercially made cabinet of similar size. Single phase for home power also required. That was the first thing I acquired over a year ago.
While searching for 30 mm RHS I found a gate frame manufacturer a few km away and looking at their frames it gave me an idea to build it from them in an “H” pattern. The centre frame at 800 mm from the front of the cabinet creates a plenum 400mm deep to the rear of it and a support for the filter medium.

I contacted the small family business, and they were very helpful. They could leave the hinges and handle off and move the centre support 30 mm to accommodate the 90 mm high filter medium. Their gates are normally two piece telescopic and adjustable, but they made the side gate frames fixed at my request and only the centre gate frame was adjustable. That came in handy to match up the standard width of the MDF and sheet metal table and top. They also supplied a few lengths of 30 mm RHS for the various supports. Their costs were very low, in fact I could barely buy the steel for what they charged. Their workmanship was impeccable. Everything was on spec to their quoted sizes.

The sides were standard 0.75mm Galvabond sheet 1210 mm x 1830 mm cut exactly in half. The table and roof were standard 0.75mm Galvabond sheet 1210 mm x 2440 mm cut exactly in half also. The MDF table and rear panel were cut from a standard 6 mm thick 1220 mm x 2440 mm panel with minimal wastage and just 3 cuts.
Shown are the stages from the start. Trial fitting of the Andreae Filter medium shown. Just the roof and back to complete in the next week.

Hope this is of some interest.