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STRATTON AND GILLETTE Project 3: My Ultimate Paint Booth

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Posted by Doughless on Friday, February 18, 2022 3:22 PM

Very nice Kevin.  Yes, projects that work well are satisfying.  Wish they all could be.

- Douglas

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Friday, February 18, 2022 3:13 PM

Kevin

Living the dream.

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, February 3, 2021 10:05 PM

Kevin

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Posted by gmpullman on Sunday, December 13, 2020 2:51 PM

SeeYou190
That is so true... Non-model-railroaders love model railroads. Each and every one of them. Visitors have always been very interested in my trains. Also very respectful and complimentary.

Twice now I've had former railroaders stumble upon my layout during service calls.

Recently a telephone tech was tracing some wiring and I took him into the basement layout area. After a little conversation he mentioned that he once worked for Norfolk Southern for a few years. 

Another time I had an electrician here doing some repair work and he spotted a signal bridge on the layout and said, "Hey, a General Railway model G signal head!" Here he was a former NYC signal maintainer and I fired-up the layout and gave him a demonstration, including seeing the signals operate.

One of the jobs I did at GE was to maintain the exhaust fans and hoods. We had some huge ones and there was some pretty nasty stuff coming out of some of them, Hydrogen Sulfide, Tungsten hexafluoride, some had radioactive dusts in them, mostly Thorium.

Some days you really had to be on your toes if you had a job on the roof. Just because the poisonous gas was vented outside didn't mean it had dissipated. Sometimes the gas was heavier than the air and would collect in a confined area or even be drawn back into the building.

Cheers, Ed

Fun stuff!   Regards, Ed

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Posted by Track fiddler on Sunday, December 13, 2020 12:27 PM

LaughLaughLaughLaughLaugh

Funny stuff!  Don't lean up against the door jam with your fingers in there either.

There's was quite a while back in Minnesota when the government started mandating such strict energy codes for the way the houses were built.  It was done to conserve on natural gas because of the Sub-Zero weather up here.

They changed that because buildings that were built like that started having mold problems from positive and negative pressure and moisture being forced into the walls.  I have gone into houses like that when you open the front door and one of the interior doors slam. 

Since then they found out what the Canadians have known and been doing for years.  A simple solution to adjust positive and negative air pressure in a building to prevent mold problems.  Installing a 6 inch flexible breather hose coming into the utility room into a bucket so air can go out when there's positive pressure and air can come in when there's negative pressure.

Problem solved!

 

 

TF

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Posted by Track fiddler on Sunday, December 13, 2020 12:22 PM

Please Delete

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Sunday, December 13, 2020 11:35 AM

Kevin

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Posted by Track fiddler on Sunday, December 13, 2020 11:21 AM

SeeYou190

 

The contractors and workmen that have been here at my house have all been amazed by it.

 

The new paint booth should not require a respirator. It is vented to the outside about 25 feet from the air inlet to the garage. The capture area of the paint booth is large, and the CFM flow rate of the blower should exchange the atmosphere in the garage every 5 minutes.

 

I bet those contractors were Amazed by it as I have been.

 

I have seen the size of that blower motor you posted on your thread here and understand the CFM capabilities of it. 

Exchanging the air in your garage every five minutes, I would have to believe you don't need any kind of respirator protection on your face whatsoever.  

In fact I think you could open up a small bakery and pass all the Cities make-up air Codes with that spray booth of yoursStick out tongueLaughWink

 

I bet you're not smelling anything when you have that exhaust fan on.

 

 

TF

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Sunday, December 13, 2020 11:12 AM

Kevin

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Posted by richhotrain on Sunday, December 13, 2020 11:11 AM

York1
 
richhotrain
Sad to say, I have never even experimented with weathering. 

Me, either.  Although I've scratchbuilt quite a few buildings, I have not weathered any of them. 

I really don't have a reason -- I think it might be that I put time and effort into building and painting them that I don't want to ruin them with a bad weathering job. 

I am about to express that concern on Kevin's other thread. Not so much fear of failure, but fear of ruining an expensive structure that took a lot of time and effort to build.

Rich

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Posted by richhotrain on Sunday, December 13, 2020 11:09 AM

SeeYou190

The contractors and workmen that have been here at my house have all been amazed by it.

Isn't that the truth?  When I first built a layout in the basement, I thought, what are contractors and workman think. Not to worry. Each and every one has been fascinated.

Rich

 

Alton Junction

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Posted by York1 on Sunday, December 13, 2020 10:28 AM

richhotrain
Sad to say, I have never even experimented with weathering.

Me, either.  Although I've scratchbuilt quite a few buildings, I have not weathered any of them. 

I really don't have a reason -- I think it might be that I put time and effort into building and painting them that I don't want to ruin them with a bad weathering job.

I will need to practice and have a try at it sometime.

 

York1 John       

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Sunday, December 13, 2020 9:32 AM

Kevin

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Posted by richhotrain on Sunday, December 13, 2020 8:41 AM

Weathering!

That brings up another topic that makes me cringe. 

Sad to say, I have never even experimented with weathering. Truth be told, I didn't even paint structures when I started out. Nothing like styrene plastic colored white, orange, and green right out of the box. Dead  Later on, I either painted those assembled structures or, in a few cases, simply tossed them in the garbage.

So, now, all of my structures are painted, but none are weathered. They just look NEW, which was never my objective.

For that reason, I often think about airbrushing these structures to weather them. Is it too late once the windows are in place?

Rich

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Sunday, December 13, 2020 8:34 AM

richhotrain

Thanks for that info, Sheldon.

When I started out in January, 2004, I knew a little about airbrushes but had never used one. My LHS guys told me that starting out, just you bottled paint and hand brushes. So, I started out that way and never looked back. I only paint structures, not locos or rolling stock. Yeah, I know, I am a Neantherthal.

Somewhere along the way, I wound up with can of Badger Propel Compressed Air. I have never used it. Is it simply a "portable" compressor? At one time, I recall that I had an airbrush, but if I did, I can no longer find it.

So, a good quality face mask is sufficient to avoid inhaling fumes?

Rich

 

With good spray booth, I would say yes, others may disagree.

As you know, I do paint lots of rolling stock, so does Kevin. 

But airbrushing is much more than that. It is weathering, even if it is only very light, very subtle weathering. In fact that is one of the great uses for an airbrush, weathering so subtle it makes the models look better without the weathering really being noticable.

Even on structures it hides less detail than rattle cans. Model paints have finer pigments, because you are painting a model....

I cringe every time I hear someone talk about painting rolling stock with rattle cans from the hardware store..... Structures, ok.

It opens up a whole new aspect of model building, even if you are not painting and decaling a whole fleet like Kevin and I.

Sheldon

    

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Posted by richhotrain on Sunday, December 13, 2020 8:22 AM

Thanks for that info, Sheldon.

When I started out in January, 2004, I knew a little about airbrushes but had never used one. My LHS guys told me that starting out, just you bottled paint and hand brushes. So, I started out that way and never looked back. I only paint structures, not locos or rolling stock. Yeah, I know, I am a Neantherthal.

Somewhere along the way, I wound up with can of Badger Propel Compressed Air. I have never used it. Is it simply a "portable" compressor? At one time, I recall that I had an airbrush, but if I did, I can no longer find it.

So, a good quality face mask is sufficient to avoid inhaling fumes?

Rich

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Posted by ATLANTIC CENTRAL on Sunday, December 13, 2020 7:22 AM

richhotrain

Kevin, this thread is over one year old and, for no good reason, I have never clicked on it until now. I wound up reading each and every post.

Fantastic!

What a work of art! Or, maybe I should say, what a work of engineering.

I have never even tried airbrushing once. I do all my painting with brushes and rattle cans. I do have one question for you. What sort of protection do you wear when airbrushing to avoid inhaling the fumes?

Rich

 

I clearly can't speak for Kevin, but I have been using an air brush since age 14 (1971), and have used a home made spray booth vented to the outdoors (not as nice as Kevin's) for the last 30 years.

I only use solvent based paints (Floquil back in the day, Scalecoat for the last 25-30 years), and the most I have ever done is wore a simple N95 dust mask.

The whole point of the booth is to draw the fumes away and provide a good well lit dust controlled area to work in.

Air brushing is no more dangerous than a rattle can, probably much safer.

I can't imagine building models without an airbrush, or three......

Sheldon

    

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Posted by richhotrain on Sunday, December 13, 2020 5:52 AM

Kevin, this thread is over one year old and, for no good reason, I have never clicked on it until now. I wound up reading each and every post.

Fantastic!

What a work of art! Or, maybe I should say, what a work of engineering.

I have never even tried airbrushing once. I do all my painting with brushes and rattle cans. I do have one question for you. What sort of protection do you wear when airbrushing to avoid inhaling the fumes?

Rich

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, December 10, 2020 9:10 AM

Kevin

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Thursday, December 10, 2020 8:09 AM

Kevin

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Posted by ekervina on Thursday, December 10, 2020 5:46 AM

There is a LOT of information in this thread, and I am very aware that I should be getting ready for work instead of reading forums, so I am kind of speeding through things. So if I missed it, it is completely my fault, but I didn't see any comment on how much noise the blower puts out. I took a quick look at the Daytona data sheet and didn't spot anything either, but again, I might have just overlooked it.

So... How loud is that blower? My build room is inside the house, and I have a very understanding and supportive wife, but I still try to keep things somewhat quiet. And it is definately approaching time to replace my diy bathroom exhaust fan booth.

-Eric

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Posted by Southgate 2 on Thursday, December 10, 2020 1:26 AM

Ya know, any shop or garage with an air compressor ought to have one of those. Great idea!  And the booth looks like it's proving it's worth too. Dan

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Wednesday, December 9, 2020 3:11 PM

Kevin

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Tuesday, July 28, 2020 10:39 AM

Kevin

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Posted by hon30critter on Monday, July 27, 2020 9:54 PM

SeeYou190
Now at the end of a painting session I simply reach up to that 1/4 turn air valve and pop it open. This blows down the compressed air system and purges all of the collected moisture from the compressed air tank.

That's neat Kevin!

I don't mind blowing the condensate onto my garage floor. It improves the appearance!Smile, Wink & GrinLaughLaugh

Dave

I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, July 27, 2020 3:16 PM

Kevin

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Monday, June 15, 2020 9:25 AM

Kevin

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Posted by FlyingScotaman on Sunday, June 14, 2020 1:12 PM

WOW! You put more effort into that than some folk do for a whole layout.

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Posted by SeeYou190 on Sunday, June 14, 2020 11:19 AM

Kevin

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