Painting the Cub

[CaptPaulret]

I enjoy seeing the pictures of members cubs and their workshops. I have a question? How do you paint your cubs in the shop without getting everything else in the shop painted with overspray? My shop in Northern NY is 30' X 40', heated with a wood furnace, but also contains all my wood machine tools that I don't want painted. I have considered hanging plastic from ceiling to floor to make a spray both and maybe mounting a fan to blow across and out some type of filter to exhaust fumes outside. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thank you all for making this the best web site, the reason it's the best is due to each of the members, you are the greatest.

[Clem]

tarps

[Mike Duncan]

Paul, I use plastic that I have draped down from the ceiling like a window shade. What I did was to purchase 4-mil poly (I think I bought a roll that was 10' X 20') at my local home depot. But what I did to make them roll up/down like a window blind is as follows: I cut 1-1/4" PVC into 4 sections that met my needs for my paint room, which I then attached the 4-mil poly to using some duck tape. I then hung the PVC rods by putting end caps on both ends, and suspended them from the ceiling using some metal mounting strap material. One each end of the PVC caps, I inserted 1/4" eyebolts (used nuts & washers both inside/outside the PVC cap) which go into holes drilled into the strapping which hangs the roll about 3" down from the ceiling.

The reason for the EYE BOLTS you may ask, is for when I want to "ROLL" up my "WALLS". I chuck an open hook eye bolt into my cordless drill, run my drill at a slow speed and "ROLL" my walls back up to the ceiling.

I also have a cut-out in my door which I have a regular box fan mounted over that opening with a furnace filter mounted over the inlet side of the box fan to pull the fumes and over-spray.

[brian c]

OK, this is my first long post. I'm definitely not an expert, but I've got some opinions on painting.

I'm using a turbine powered hvlp gun. This may seem pricey initially (around $1000 for a complete system), but here's some food for thought: The turbine provides warm, dry air at high volume, low pressure (7-9 psi at the gun cap). No compressor involved. No trash, oil, or moisture. You wouldn't believe how much less overspray a good hvlp sytem causes. It's a little pricey, but will easily pay for itself in paint saved if you do much painting. (I'm also restoring an airplane, and though the cub is my first, this probably isn't the last tractor!). I still use some drop cloths, but before I used this system, the whole floor would've been covered in overspray. Now you hardly see any evidence of overspray at all.

A company called AXIS makes a unit called the Citation 4 HVLP that provides fresh breathing air to a mask and air to your paint gun. It's about $1000 for the whole shebang (turbine, hoses, mask, gun). But you'd never need another paint system. My thinking was this: If you're gonna use a hardner in your paint, you've gotta have a fresh air mask. Like I said, I'm painting an airplane, the cub, and probably some more tractors. I wanted to use good paint with hardner. A fresh air supply and mask is around $300 -500. A good paint gun is at least $100 (mine's $300). Add another $100 or so for decent filtering. And hopefully you've already got a decent compressor. Overall, the HVLP turbine system doesn't really cost that much more. I considered it an investment in my projects and my health. I forget the actual transfer efficiencies, but your standard old paint gun only puts something like 50-60 % of the paint on what you're painting. HVLP is up around 80 - 85%. Paint is expensive. This system really does pay for itself. So far using HVLP I've painted almost the whole tractor with 2 qts of red. 3 qts will finish it and the mower deck.

You can also get an hvlp gun that works off a compressor. I'm not impressed with the cheapy ones from harbor freight. I'm not so sure they're really hvlp. If you go this route, you really need a good water trap and filter. I prefer the turbine setup. No trash, light and portable, plugs right in to the wall, and doesn't spray that $$$ paint all over the place.

Probably more than you asked for, but those are my thoughts.

Brian C

[Don McCombs]

Brian,

Just make sure that the air intake for your turbine system isn't located so that it can pick up any of the isocyanate fumes that you are exhausting. Otherwise, your lungs are in that exhaust loop.

[gitractorman]

First of all, howdy Neighbor.

Also living in upstate, NY, I have a 30 x 30 garage attached to my house, which is my workshop/car garage/storage/paint shop. I found that overspray is pretty easy to manage by doing a couple of things.
1. use rolled polyethylene to cover any of your horizontal surfaces (floor, work bench, table saw, other tractors, etc.
2. use a box fan in a window or door to create an exhaust for the room.
3. open the garage door slightly to provide a source of makeup air, preferrably on the opposite side of the room from the exhaust fan. This will cause a sweep effect. If you do not provide a source of makeup air, the exhaust fan will starve and will not effectively remove the fumes from the room.
4. place the object to be painted near the middle of the room, away from things. Closer to the exhaust fan is better than being close to another wall or object that you do not want to paint.
5. let the paint fly.
Overspray typically only "sticks" to horizontal surfaces where gravity makes it fall. I have never had a problem with overspray sticking to walls, except where I was too close to the wall and actually hit it with the spray gun. I have also found that overspray that does get on things usually wipes off pretty easy with a rag and water or mild soap. At one point I needed to paint something and did not have enough plastic to cover my floor, and you could easily see the IH-white paint on my grey floor. A mop bucket full of hot water and a regular mop did the trick.

Also, a big concern is the temperature of the room. I actually painted some parts a few weeks back, when it was way too cold, but they turned out ok. I do not have heat in my garage, so when I was finished painting I turned on a small heater and placed it near the parts. I'm sure that the room never got above 45 degrees, but the parts turned out time. You just have to rememeber to let them dry for a really long time.

Best of luck

[Daniel H.]

I also have a cut-out in my door which I have a regular box fan mounted over that opening with a furnace filter mounted over the inlet side of the box fan to pull the fumes and over-spray.

2. use a box fan in a window or door to create an exhaust for the room.

Isn't there a danger of the fumes exploding as they pass through the box fan motor? I would think if a box fan is going to be used, it would be best to have it pull fresh air into the room, maybe through a wet towel or filter to keep dust down. Then have the pressure created in the space by the fan exhaust out an open window or door.

[EZ]

Capt,

I painted my whole Cub by hanging one continuos sheet of plastic from the ceiling of my shop with a staple gun. The "booth" was about 18' X 12'. I rigged up an industrial exhaust fan to my shop door which was the open end of the booth. At the opposite end of the booth I duct taped 2 large furnace filters to an opening I made in the plastic. The filters served 2 purposes: 1 the filters prevented the plastic booth from being sucked inward (much like a collapsing balloon) when the fan was forcing air out the door. 2. the filters provided clean air to enter the booth and out the door. This setup worked well for me. Also, I sprayed down the floor with water just before painting to keep the dust down.

Hope this helps.

[Patbretagne]

my reply to your question is I am afraid a bit like me, old fashioned!

PAINT BRUSH!

Pat

[dracer398]

Isn't there a danger of the fumes exploding as they pass through the box fan motor? I would think if a box fan is going to be used, it would be best to have it pull fresh air into the room, maybe through a wet towel or filter to keep dust down. Then have the pressure created in the space by the fan exhaust out an open window or door.

Daniel, With any luck their should be no sparking in the fan motor unless it has brushes. Most box fans have induction motors with no starting contact points inside. The only problem is the switch on the fan could spark causing an explosion.

Brian

[CaptPaulret]

Thanks guys for all your tips. I'll probably take all of them and come up with a solution for my shop. plus the excellant paint booth that Black Jeep recently posted. It's the sharing of ideas and tips from all the members that make this the best forum on the internet.