Air Brush Spray Paint Booths - Part 2

I always enjoy going to see Thayne.  We had lunch together and toured his layout.  He's made a lot of progress!  I'm going over there with the photo lights and will take some pictures soon.

Thayne has an incredible spray booth that he built himself.  Here are the photos:

The room was a bit dark and I didn't have my heavy duty lights with me, but I think you will get the idea.  Here is the booth.  It is stand alone and made of expensive wood.  There is a large lazy susan in the pit (designed to contain a spill) and plenty of light furnished by a fixture resting on plexiglass.    The photo doesn't do it justice as the craftsmanship is superb.

I didn't measure it but the booth is more than two feet wide.  Thayne has his brushes mounted on the top left, as well as his pressure control and trap system.

The sides are plywood and you can see the thick plexiglass on the top.

Here is the right side with the brushes and controls.  Thayne's shop is so nice it makes you want to sit down and build models.

Here is the trap and Schrader valve combo that controls the air pressure and moisture.  The two air brushes are very clean and quite secure in their mounts.   A clean painting area is critical to good model work.  I had the chance to see Thayne's latest model and the paint finish was immaculate!

There is a handy drawer down below where he keeps his paints.  This is one nice system!

It is a beautiful unit.  I'd like to have one of these myself.

The filter is easy to remove, and the exhaust fan is mounted behind it.  This is an A/C brushless squirrel cage bathroom fan with a pretty high CFM rating.  Its the biggest bathroom fan that he could find.  The fan is vented through piping out the window.

Here is a close up of the fan system.  The fan cost about $100 per Thayne, but a good one is well worth it.

Now, I'm not saying you need to build a spray booth this fancy, but the cost of this unit is far less than a Micro Mark Spray Booth below at $445.00!!!  It just takes a little more work.  One thing I've noticed on this unit is that the light window is acrylic.  Paint will adhere permanently to this, so you'd need to replace it with glass.  Acrylic will melt under certain incandescent lights as well.

Got ideas and tips on air brush booths?  Post them below!