Recently I began sorting through paints, thinners, air brushes, etc. that have been stored since about 1990. A surprising amount of the couple hundred or more bottles of paint were salvaged by adding thinner, stirring (battery op tool) and straining. I even dug out the respirator I bought in 1990 and never used (been in a box ever since). During all this, a couple questions arose:
1) How long do the charcoal filters in the respirator live? Do they have a shelf life? This particular respirator was made by American Optical in the mid-1980's, the filter carts are rated for particle & vapors of the kind lacquers and enamels and their thinners produce, and while I was using the respirator it seems to filter out all the nasty smelling stuff (xylene, toulene, lacquer thinner, alcohol, you name it), so I assumed the filters are working. Is that a valid assupmption (no smell, no fumes in lungs)?
2) When straining model paint, the paint viscousity is obviously a charataristic that must be considered (lest I choose a mesh too fine to pass much paint and make a huge mess). Have any of you guys any thoughts on a particular mesh/strainer to use? I just got some Micro Mark strainer/funnels that I haven't used yet. I'm hoping they work. But I have many different kinds of paint, ranging from Badger pre-thinned paint to some relatively thick (old) Accupaint & Floquil. They will both be thinned before shooting, but I don't want to thin it now.
3) Now that most of the paint salvaging is done, I will dig out the air brushes and check them out (as I recall I have a Badger 150, another Badger (I forget the model #, I think it's a double action) and I believe there is a third mystery model in the box too. Several years ago (anticipating I would someday paint again), I bought a Testors spray paint "booth". It is very similar to the one Micro Mark sells now. The exhaust fan is mounted in the bottom of the unit, and it exhausts out a vent to the rear. There are three filters between the work surface (bottom) of the work area and the fan. When I tested the thing it seemed to me the fan didn't do too well pulling air through all those filters (a top "throw away" paper filter and a two stage filament filter below that). Has anyone used one of these guys for serious painting? Does it exhaust most of the fumes out of a room? I will be shooting in a room that is about 13' x 18', and the booth exhaust will be a very short lengthof 4" dryer duct to a window mounted vent. In my prior life I had build a really nice booth with a squirrel cage motor that really exhausted the room nicely. However that guy let this earth long ago... :-(
I await all your comments! Thanx.
Mike
In the swamps of Louisiana, modeling the CNR here before it actually ran here.
I'd say the respirator filter cartridges are good if you're not detecting any paint smell while airbrushing.
I've had good luck straining paint thru cut up pieces of nylon stockings or panty hose stretched over the paint cup or jar. The mesh size is adjustable depending on how much the nylon is stetched and a rubber band or O-ring keeps the piece attached to the mouth of the cup or jar. This method of paint filtering can be dangerous if a wife happens to see those cut up pieces of her nylons.
Happy airbrushing and regards, Peter
I use a tea strainer I bought at the Contanier Store that luckily fits perfectly into my little 1.5" funnel.
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The badger 150 is simple and rugged. It should be OK. I used one for years before I replaced it with a Paasche model "H".
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-Kevin
Living the dream.
Hi Peter and thanx for the reply.
HO-Velo I'd say the respirator filter cartridges are good if you're not detecting any paint smell while airbrushing.
Yeah, I was hoping for confirmation on that. That stuff smells so bad without the respirator, I thought I was safe if there was no hint of stink with the respirator on.
HO-Velo I've had good luck straining paint thru cut up pieces of nylon stockings or panty hose stretched over the paint cup or jar. The mesh size is adjustable depending on how much the nylon is stetched and a rubber band or O-ring keeps the piece attached to the mouth of the cup or jar.
I've had good luck straining paint thru cut up pieces of nylon stockings or panty hose stretched over the paint cup or jar. The mesh size is adjustable depending on how much the nylon is stetched and a rubber band or O-ring keeps the piece attached to the mouth of the cup or jar.
I actually had a piece of wifey's old panty hose that I tried to use. Maybe there are various types, but these were so dense (fine mesh) that they worked better as a cup than as a strainer. I'm pretty sure I have used old nylons back in the 80's for straining though.
HO-Velo This method of paint filtering can be dangerous if a wife happens to see those cut up pieces of her nylons.
This method of paint filtering can be dangerous if a wife happens to see those cut up pieces of her nylons.
Funny story about that. My wife retired a couple years ago, and swore off wearing panty hose at that time. Sooo... She had a new pair still in the package, and offered them up for the greater good!
SeeYou190 I use a tea strainer I bought at the Contanier Store that luckily fits perfectly into my little 1.5" funnel.
Please forgive my ignorance Kevin, what is a Contanier Store? Maybe a chain of stores that are regional? Or can you buy COFC containers there? ;-)
SeeYou190 The badger 150 is simple and rugged. It should be OK.
The badger 150 is simple and rugged. It should be OK.
Yeah, I remember it as being easy to use, easy to clean and produced acceptable (considering my skills) results. I remember buying a smaller needle and head for it, and painted over 20 locos and 150 freight cars in the couple years I waws active. I look forward to getting back into it, albeit with less smelly paints than Floquil. Not sure what to do with all this Scalecoat paint I have though...
I made my own paint filters out of the brass screen from a mid '70s Chevy transmission filter. If you have any buddies who are into cars they might have one lying around. I used a spare piece of Atlas rail to make the funnel rim and the handle and then I soldered the screen on to the frame. Works good!
I also salvaged some slightly coarser screen from a coffee machine re-usable filter which would work good as well.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
MikeyChris1) How long do the charcoal filters in the respirator live? Do they have a shelf life? This particular respirator was made by American Optical in the mid-1980's, the filter carts are rated for particle & vapors of the kind lacquers and enamels and their thinners produce, and while I was using the respirator it seems to filter out all the nasty smelling stuff (xylene, toulene, lacquer thinner, alcohol, you name it), so I assumed the filters are working. Is that a valid assupmption (no smell, no fumes in lungs)?
Your observation about the filter canisters being okay if you can't smell the vapours is correct, I use an industrial type respirator and the filters come in sealed plastic sacks, and even ones years old are like new, and will last a long time in service. (In an industrial environment, filter life was often measured in hours.)
MikeyChrisThe exhaust fan is mounted in the bottom of the unit, and it exhausts out a vent to the rear. There are three filters between the work surface (bottom) of the work area and the fan. When I tested the thing it seemed to me the fan didn't do too well pulling air through all those filters (a top "throw away" paper filter and a two stage filament filter below that). Has anyone used one of these guys for serious painting? Does it exhaust most of the fumes out of a room? I will be shooting in a room that is about 13' x 18', and the booth exhaust will be a very short lengthof 4" dryer duct to a window mounted vent.
I've never seen the logic for bottom-mounted exhaust, unless it's to sell more filters.
When airbrushing is underway, overspray tends to drop, and a few layers of old newspaper will pretty-well take care of it. The lighter stuff, mostly the solvent vapours, is easily taken away by a top-mounted fan and exhaust, and it also picks up the lighter small particles of paint.Eventually, the latter will clog up the filter, which will then need to be changed.My homemade spray booth uses a top exhaust, with the fan, a small one in the metal plenum shown below, and it worked fairly well when in the basement shop as seen below. The run to the outdoors was about 6'.I later moved the booth to a small purpose-built room in my detached (by about 100') garage. The performance of the fan there increased greatly, due to a number of factors.The house, new at the time, was rather air-tight unless a window was open - not very practical in the winter, and even in the summer, there were no windows close to the original paint room. So while the fan was quite capable of moving a good amount of air, it had no source of replacement air.In the garage, I included an air intake (closeable, to keep out insects and anything larger that might try to chew its way in (the garage, formerly a house, is over 125 years old and not easily closed to such intruders). The fan, from an air hockey game, has been in this service for over 35 years. The duct for the vent is now all-metal but still about 6' long.I use one half of a standard 10"x20" fibreglass furnace filter in a simple holder in the top of the spray booth. It does eventually get fairly well-clogged with paint residue, but it takes only a few seconds to replace it with a fresh one. The fan blades and interior of the plenum have some minor paint build-up, but it's relatively nothing given the time it's been in service. That time include several years of commercial painting for a local hobbyshop.The new paint room is small: a little under 4' wide and less than 8' long, but since that's all it's used for, quite adequate. The fan doesn't have a listed rating, but I'd guess that the room air is more-or-less completely change every couple of minutes. In the spring and fall, the heat of the running compressor (a rotary-type, it uses no storage tank, so runs continuously) will keep the room comfortable, but in winter, I also run a portable electric heater.
I've seen bottom-vented booths touted as eliminating the problem of dried paint particles settling onto the just-painted models, but in my experience, that "problem" doesn't exist. The paint simply settles on the newspaper. As for straining paint, I don't. If it's not easily made suitable for airbrushing, I simply dump it together with other colours suffering the same problem, and use it for brush-painting the back faces and axles of rolling stock, picking out the lumps as I work. I still have some useable Floquil in the square bottles, and quite a bit of Accupaint and Pollyscale. As a bottle gets down to the point where there's not enough left for anything useful, it's combined with other dregs of the same type and then thinned heavily (90%) and used as weathering colours.
Wayne
Hi Dave,
Thanx for the ideas. I had eyeballed our K-Cup reuseable filter myownself. It does look like a natural. You use of the tranny filter is pretty ingenious. Model railroaders are an innovative lot. Mike
hon30critter I made my own paint filters out of the brass screen from a mid '70s Chevy transmission filter. I also salvaged some slightly coarser screen from a coffee machine re-usable filter which would work good as well.
I made my own paint filters out of the brass screen from a mid '70s Chevy transmission filter.
MikeyChrisPlease forgive my ignorance Kevin, what is a Contanier Store? Maybe a chain of stores that are regional? Or can you buy COFC containers there? ;-)
COFC Containers might be one of the few containers they do not sell there.
This is my "local" store. It is in Orlando about three hours away. I do not know how many locations they have, but this one is close to my daughter's house, so I go there pretty often.
Yes, they sell containers. Every type of container you can imagine from zip-lock baggies to trash cans to small tool boxes. Who knew this could be a success?
Just for the fun of it, I checked it out. We do have one in WI. in a very popular shopping mall in the Milwaukee area, Mayfair Mall.
Mike.
My You Tube
Hi Kevin,
Thanx for the info:
SeeYou190 This is my "local" store. It is in Orlando about three hours away.
This is my "local" store. It is in Orlando about three hours away.
Ah... I lived in Tampa for many years, twice actually. Back in the good ol' days of Chester Holley and the Happy Hobo. My folks (& all us family) moved there in 1959, and I eturned foor a few years (MacDill AFB). I did the Hobby Shops in Orlando too - That Colonial Photo, Stew Marshall's (now deceased) place and a couple others. They had some good shops there.
SeeYou190 Yes, they sell containers. Every type of container you can imagine from zip-lock baggies to trash cans to small tool boxes. Who knew this could be a success?
Actually, I have purchased many differnet kinds of containers from various sizes of "zip lock" bags (mainly for sorting/storing hardware & train parts) to boxes to store trains in. I'll have to check them out if they have an online presence.
Keep it between the rails!