Removable Spray Booth for My Workshop

Since some time I wanted a place to play around with spray colors and varnishes. For small items I helped myself with cardboard boxes, but larger pieces so far were out of reach. So I set out to build myself something which was

• easy to build
• removeable
• cheap
• fit for purpose
• materials easily available

My DIY shop is an unheated room in the attic of my house, with plasterboard on wooden frame on the ceiling. So it seemed easy to fix something up there. A quick look around and it became clear what I would do ...

Material

• wooden strips 20 x 5 mm (or what is available - uncritical)
• wood glue
• adhesive tape 40mm (or broader)
• transparent plastic foil 2 x ### m
• drywall screws 4mm

• backsaw
• miter box (optional)
• cutter knife
• screwdriver

First I cut small lengths from my wood strips:

1. length = width
2. length = 2 x width
3. length = 3x width

Then I glued one piece of (1) onto each of (2) and (3)

Next I drilled holes 4mm into the center of each doubled piece and countersunk on the small surface for drywall screws.

Note that in the pic you see far too many clamps ... seems I was a bit over enthusiastic about my idea ... I ended up using 2 pieces of L = 3W and 7 pieces of L = 2W

The plastic foil comes in various lengths and a width of 2m from my local DIY market.

As I wanted a box of ca. 1.4 x 1.4 m, I cut the following lengths of foil:

1. left side ... 1.7 m
2. front side ... 1.4 m
3. right side ... 1.7 m

Then I cut wooden strips - same material as the clamps - in following lengths:

1. 1.4 m ... 3 pieces
2. 0.3 m ... 2 pieces

I placed the wooden strips at the edge of the foil, wrapped the foil around the strip 2 times to create a tunnel, and glued the tunnel across the full width using adhesive tape. The side walls contain strips 1.4 m plus 0.3 m.

Now all components were ready to be mounted.

I screwed

• 2 x 3-length clamps to hold the edges of the front wall plus 1 x 2-length clamp to hold its center
• 3x 2-length clamps to hold the left side wall.
• 3x 2-length clamps to hold the right side wall.

so that the small surfaces of the clamps touch the ceiling, creating a gap of 1 strip thickness.

Then I fed the stripped edges of the foils into the clamps.

Finally I added some rings into places of the ceiling where there is a wooden bar above the drywall, so I could attach the item to be sprayed by a length of wire.

After spraying I can easily pull out the walls, roll them up and stow them away until next use. The clamps and rings remain in the ceiling, they don't disturb.

Done!

• Building the booth close to a window where the sun shines in from midday till sunset wasn't the very best choice ... but I had almost no other choice ... so spraying only after sunset ;-)
  
• Later on I extended the foils to reach the floor
  
• I found it better to install the front wall before the side walls to create an inside overlap ... this seems to keep tighter when the whole foil starts to move as you move
  
• I closed the end of the tunnels holding the 0.3 m strips with some adhesive tape because the wood strips kept escaping their tunnels
  
• clamps should not be screwed very hard at first ... leave a little play and tighten the screws only once the walls are slid in.
  
• Currently the openings of the clamps look toward the inside ... I don't yet know if it's better this way or the other way round ... time will tell ... maybe it doesn't matter at all ;-)