Spray Painting in Winter

[Horrorshow]

Good day 

Another question, what do you fellow Northeners do in winter time for spray paint? I’m in a basement apartment so there is no chance of a portable booth.

[StevenGuthmiller]

Do you know anybody who has a little bit of heated space that you could borrow occasionally?

Someone with an unfinished basement, or a mechanic’s or auto body shop, or the like, that would let you use it for a few minutes after hours once in a while?

Otherwise, you might be stuck.

 

 

Steve

[Bills72sj]

Years ago, I would drive 45 minutes to work and paint in our unoccupied work shop because it was big and heated.

[Rick L]

How about using water soluble paint with an airbrush? A good filter should catch any minimal overspray the airbrush emits. Bathroom vented? If so you could set up your portable on top of the sink or vanity and shoot in the closed room while also running the bathroom fan. Kind of a pain in the A.. every time you want to paint but desperate men will go through desperate measures.

[cobraman]

Years ago when I lived in Chicago. I painted in my laundry room. I had some old covers that I put over the machines and turned the fan on . Not ideal but worked ok.

[Anglia105E]

This was something that has been on my mind recently, and I was thinking now that the outside temperature has dropped below 13°C the spray painting will have to stop for the Winter . . . Currently it is around 8°C outside, and obviously it will drop to below 0°C at some stage.  As Rick suggested, maybe we have to use paints with airbrush that don't emit fumes.

I have to open my Velux roof window in the loft workshop when spraying paint, but it will be way too cold for opening windows !

David

[Dragonhawk1066]

I used to just paint and clear a bunch of bodies around September and October to get me through the winter months. I mostly use water-based paints through my airbrush now, so I can paint year round. I have one of those small portable booths in my spare bedroom and just crack the window for the vent tube whenever I paint. It gets a little chilly, like maybe down to 60 degrees if I paint a lot, especially if it's windy, but it's certainly doable for an hour or two.

[ZTony8]

I paint in my basement until it gets too cold to stand being down there ( I live alone so I can stink the place up). Yes, it's heated but it still gets too cool to get good paint jobs done.

[showrods]

On 11/25/2022 at 2:01 PM, ZTony8 said:

I paint in my basement until it gets too cold to stand being down there ( I live alone so I can stink the place up). Yes, it's heated but it still gets too cool to get good paint jobs done.

Be extremely careful painting in a basement.  It's not just the stink but also the vapours from spray cans, lacquers, enamel paints etc whose fumes can cause fire/explosion if they come in contact with open flames such as those found in gas furnaces, gas hot water tanks, gas fireplaces etc etc

Those flame symbols are on the labels of Tamiya paints (cans and bottles) for very good reasons.

Edited February 28, 2023 by showrods

[StevenGuthmiller]

2 hours ago, showrods said:

Be extremely careful painting in a basement.  It's not just the stink but also the vapours from spray cans, lacquers, enamel paints etc whose fumes can cause fire/explosion if they come in contact with open flames such as those found in gas furnaces, gas hot water tanks, gas fireplaces etc etc

Those flame symbols are on the labels of Tamiya paints (cans and bottles) for very good reasons.

I've heard people make this argument in the past, but all that I can say is that I've been spraying lacquers and enamels in various basements for decades, and I've never experienced any problems.

As a matter of fact, at one point in my modeling career, while I lived in a small duplex, I remember spraying paint on newspapers on the floor of a small furnace room, not much larger that a walk in closet, which contained a natural gas furnace and water heater.

While I wouldn't recommend that today, I think you would have to be pumping a LOT of paint fumes and paint dust into a basement before you would experience any explosions.

As it is right now, my shop room is adjacent to my utility room, with them sharing an opening under the stairs.

I've been spraying paint in there, year round, for about 6 years now.

 

My recommendation would be to vent it out if you can, spray a little and let things settle down for some time before the next session, and leave the room as soon as possible after each session.

Sometimes you just have to work with what you have.

 

 

 

 

 

Steve

[Ace-Garageguy]

I don't have much build time these days, but when I do, I work on fiddly things that don't need to be painted immediately. Plenty of that, as I obsessively modify just about everything.

I save up a bunch of stuff to shoot outdoors on the odd days it gets over 60F...and I've actually made significant progress on a couple of builds doing just that over the last two months.

[Bugatti Fan]

Err on the side of caution when spraying.

Even small amounts of vaporized solvents can be extremely dangerous when exposed to any form of naked flame, electric fire bar, oil fired heater, burning cigarette etc.

Even other things can be explosive in the air. Watch the Equaliser 2 with Denzel Washington what he does with a bag of flour fanned into the air to blow a baddie away.

My safe form of heating in my workshop is an electric oil filled radiator.

 

[charlie8575]

The booth vented through a window is probably the absolute best option for convenience. Or, as also stated, see if you can borrow a space somewhere. I generally spray on my sun porch when it's sunny and it's a bit warmer in the sun porch, so it does help. I then bring everything in immediately, and once it hardens a little, into the dehydrator it goes as soon as I can handle it (usually about an hour or so).

If that really can't be done, run an extension cord out to your parking lot through a window. Set up a table, an electric buffet burner, and a pot with lukewarm water in it. Bring the water up to a somewhat higher-than-usual-that-would-be-recommended temperature, and put the can in there for a few minutes until it's very warm, but still easy to handle, from top to bottom. Turn off the burner, spray your paint as quickly as possible in a cardboard box, and then bring everything back in quickly so the paint dries correctly.

Charlie Larkin

[Pierre Rivard]

Or....brush painting acrylics maybe? No more seasonal or set up headaches...

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

3 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Or....brush painting acrylics maybe? No more seasonal or set up headaches...

You present convincing evidence that brush painting bodies is a viable option, but I think I'll sty with my stinky old spray jobs.

The thought of brush painting bodies makes me shudder when I recall the awful messes I made when I was a kid, and then how dramatically my results improved immediately upon switching to AMT, Pactra, and Testors rattlecans.

[Lunajammer]

Re: the op's question, these are places I've used in the past...

1. Asked a year round R/C dirt track to let me spray. Being hobbyists, they had no problem.

2. Use the shop/garage at work.

3. If moderate winter temps and calm winds and depending on the part being sprayed, step outside to spray and go back in.

4. Apt. bathroom with fan on and lots of newspapers (not recommended).

[dragstk]

Barbadoes Rex recently did a video with a spray booth that uses a water fall to help vent fumes. That part doesnt apply here, but what he was venting into does. The exhaust of the spray booth was covered in some charcoal filter material and tightly inserted into the lid of a 5 gallon pail. And he had water in the bottom of the bucket.

What I am talking about is about 6 mins in. I have never tried this, maybe it might work for you?

[ctruss53]

When I was building in a basement, I homebuilt a spray booth and I ran the exhaust over to the same place my drier vented outside. Then when I needed to use the booth, I disconnected the drier, connected the spray booth, and vented out into the back yard.

Now I have a heated garage, so I go out there and spray. But the smells still get into the house, so I installed a grow room fan in the garage door. it sucks out all the fumes and blows them into the driveway.

[rattle can man]

I'm just finishing spraying several kits to see me through the next year. I do my spaying outdoors and away from windows, and of course wear a mask. It's too cold to paint in the winter and too hot in the summer. When it's 90 plus paint goes on with quite a bit of orange peel if you are not careful. And of course don't forget the humidity causing the paint to blush.

[bobss396]

I paint outside all year. I step out onto the deck, spray and run back inside. 

As of late, Duplicolor paints blush no matter what I do. Outside, Tamiya, the old Black Gold line and the Mopar touch up cans are very drama free.

In a pinch in really snotty weather. I place a cardboard box (with the front and top sides cut out) on an old snack tray in the finished part of the basement. 

[Deathgoblin]

5 hours ago, bobss396 said:

I paint outside all year. I step out onto the deck, spray and run back inside. 

As of late, Duplicolor paints blush no matter what I do. Outside, Tamiya, the old Black Gold line and the Mopar touch up cans are very drama free.

In a pinch in really snotty weather. I place a cardboard box (with the front and top sides cut out) on an old snack tray in the finished part of the basement. 

This is similar to what I do.  I step out the doorway and spray, then back inside to thaw. 

[bobss396]

8 hours ago, Deathgoblin said:

This is similar to what I do.  I step out the doorway and spray, then back inside to thaw. 

I had bought out a lot of Duplicolor paints at a parts store that had changed hands at 99¢ per can. This was close to 20 years ago and I'm still using them. This formula was very forgiving, not like their current crop of blushing paints.

I did a green 1940 Ford in November, I was working out of my finished basement then. It was COLD out... I'd go out into the stairwell, paint and go back inside, put the body right into the dehydrator.

[Mothersworry]

If yer a DIY type you could build a pretty nifty paint booth that does not require outside venting. In Scale Auto Enthusiast magazine, issue number 135, January 2001 on page 22, Pat Coverts Tips & Tech column detailed building a self contained paint booth.

The fish tank type filtering system is pretty clever

Fer what it's worth... 

Administrator....I don't know about copy right laws but I don't think posting the article here is a violation of some law, if I'm mistaken please delete.

[bobss396]

I used to have a screened porch off my kitchen that was 10' x 16'. It was old and drafty to say the least. This was around 2004 and I was doing a Craftsman truck and I planned on painting it with Tamiya metallic blue.

As luck would have it, it was about 30 and snowing. Also snowing a little inside the porch, but I went for it. Lighting was poor, I had more light coming from the kitchen window than the porch light. I did the 1st coat, it was acceptable. Gave it 45 minutes in the dehydrator and went out for the 2nd coat, which I somehow managed to la down successfully.