The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Paint and Body Shop Painting in the Garage

I would like to primer paint my sandblasted metal in my garage. Since it is below 70 now, I need advice on heaters that will work in the presence of paint fumes. I know that I will need good ventilation as well and am looking for any advice on how to outfit my shop for this purpose. Thanks!

anything flamable... LOL (not!)

actually I'd be curious to see how dangerous it is to have a diesel fuel force air space heater... that would be a good ticket if it was OK to use

If I was doing it, I would warm the truck and garage as best as I could. Get everything ready,shut off heat source, start venting and paint. No open flames at all, none, zero ......
The diesel heater may blow fuel mist or soot on the surface, you have enough trouble keeping the area clean with out adding more.
Talk to you paint supplier, maybe they have cold weather reducers and addatives.

yea well where I'm at venting wouldn't be an option, or the paint would never dry unless I waited for another time of the year.

I was at a guy's shop a few years ago. He did body work for a living. I don't remember the details, but he had an old swimming pool heater outside, heated water and had a squirrel cage blower. Bunches of heat.

even heated floors would be a great option... by house is heated with hot water & a boiler, and the shop is a about 20 feet away. maybe I should consider putting in baseboard heaters, and running an insulated line underground to it with antifreeze in the lines!

I live in Conn. and have had the same problem with cold temps. As suggested earlier, turn the heat on (kerosene room heaters work well) and let the entire shop/parts warm up real good. Then paint away. I usually do not vent because it's only letting cold air in and stirs up dust. I also spend extra time installing plastic over ceiling and all the walls. I then spray down the floor with water and continue to tack rag the parts until everything settles (usually a good day or two). It works great for me and the results have always been great. Good luck.

my second month as a firefighter we had a run on a garage explosion---a guy was doing the same thing. he lived, for awhile. any professional shop has a heat source separate from the paint booth. folks think no pilot light, no open flames--o.k.--now, no motors either--unless they are explosion proof (arcs from the brushes to the armature)--nothing with theromstat (arcs from points). i'm thinking maybe baseboard heat WITHOUT a theromstat--something that you can turn on with a switch, and leave on--maybe like an auxillary heat system. re-think the ventilation--too little concentration of vapors--o.k.---too much--o.k.---in between--BLAMMO---to the moon alice! maybe the guys can come up with something better, but i go for safe--all those years on the big red truck made me paranoid i guess. look forward to your next post---safe and sound.

good stuff! would definately love have some more suggestions on this. one thing I am interested is why a thermostat would be bad???

Usually in a termostat there is a little bulb filled with mercury or some other temperature sensitive stuff, when the set point is reached, the thing closes or opens a circuit and makes an arc. just like a motor, or the flipping of a switch

Rob

Hi,
I'm in ABQ too! I've done loads of painting in my garage. Stuff that has come out better then most pro jobs I see... Anyway, I usually wait for a decently warm day, and when I go to paint shop I tell them I'm painting in a place with little heat. They can give you reducers with different characteristics to help you out. I've painted in the winter with no heat, and no ill effects, so I'd say just get the garage as clean as possible, have an air inlet with a fan and a filter (also available at the paint shop, in various sizes). Then an outlet with a fan I usually just open the garage a bit and turn on the fan pointing out. Put a filter here if you don't want to [censored] off the neighbors too bad. Lots of plastic on the ceiling/walls/anywhere you wont' be painting. Now just paint away. When it is all said and done, you can use some heat lamps to help it dry if you want.
good luck, If you want to get together, just let me know, I'd be glad to help out.
-alfie

Y'all

The mercury bulb in a thermostat wouldn't be a problem as they are sealed unit, you need to wory about the relays the thermostat controls. I was thinking about using a forced air furnace outside spray area that draws 100% outside air through filter and discharges into paint room. I could use central air to lower humidity in summer also.
NOT ALL THERMOSTATS HAVE MERCURY BULB AND OPEN CONTACT TYPE WILL CREAT SPARK!

Your air compressor needs to be outside, too.

Single phase motors on compressors are also a good source of spark. They have a primary starting winding that is controlled with a centrifugal switch that lets off a pretty significant arc once the motor reaches about half speed.

Safest motors are 3-phase, no brushes, no contacts (except the motor starters). We just finished up a painting robot for Boeing, man what a huge expense for explosion proof everything! Each E-Stop button and housing was a grand

Positive ventilation is also best as far as keeping the dust down and the dirt and crap out. Pull through a filter and pressurize the painting area and if you do have an exhaust fan, make sure the fan feeding the area is running slightly more air than the fan taking the air away.

I've never done garage painting with a regular spray gun because of the overspray, but have been thinking about painting in my garage with a HVLP gun. Anyone done this? Is the overspray (paint on walls, ceiling, etc.) mitigated enough to help?

I usually paint outside on a good morning, but want to do some this winter here in Florida with temps all they way down to the 50s

Banjo

DON'T DO THIS AT HOME! My father did autobody work for a living in our wooden, uninsulated garage in New England. I made a wood burning stove for him out of an old 50 gallon drum lined with firebrick. He painted through many winters with never a problem - he even used the stove to keep the paint warm. It's a miracle that he never blew up. Since I moved in I insulated the garage heavily and use an old electric house furnace to heat. I plan to warm it up good then turn off heat while painting. I really want to thank Fred T for the compressor hint. I hadn't thought about that and would have left it inside.

Y'all be safe, ya hear?