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ideas for a ventilation fan?

Dne'

Dne'

Well-Known Member
HI, I'm getting ready to start priming part(fenders, valances, etc), just wondering if any of you have an idea, or have a ventilation fan capable of removing, sucking out fumes, paint fumes, and to create a draft for comfort as well. I'd like to mount it in the wall, something with self opening/closing shutters. About the only place I could mount one would be above my tool box. Idon't want it to be really loud or high pitched, more like an attic fan I'd think. So, what do you think?
dne'
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By chance, did you look on the outside of that wall? Clear? Also, whatever fumes and dust exit the area will be on what ever is close by. Also, where can it blow to once out of the fan? Wiring issues are to be considered too. What about roof mounted?

Check some warehouse and businesses that use them I have found that so many times the fan looks good until you get it in place. I prefer to see them in someones place first.

You might want a wet filter on an inlet/outlet for air too.
 
Hey Pete! this is the outside of my garage. I suppose roof mounted would be Ok too. I do have some paint filters(from a paint booth) that I placed in front of the drawing side of my large shop fan(didn't help a whole lot). Anyway, just opening up this thread to see what others may have installed.
dne'
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Looks good outside. No close neighbors? If so, the fan may bring questions. I have used a shop fan in the past. We had a 2 car garage and purchased the counter balanced vent system. The fan was on wheels. A box was built to roll the fan into when needed. That allowed us to use the fan for venting or direct cooling. Also, look around at some old warehouses for the vent system.
 
Actually, a large shop fan would probably be more practical vs. making a large hole in our garage. Just dreaming I guess! ok, I'm going to look again a large shop fans. What do you mean by Counter balanced vent system?

"AzPete" said:
Looks good outside. No close neighbors? If so, the fan may bring questions. I have used a shop fan in the past. We had a 2 car garage and purchased the counter balanced vent system. The fan was on wheels. A box was built to roll the fan into when needed. That allowed us to use the fan for venting or direct cooling. Also, look around at some old warehouses for the vent system.
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Something like this. Balanced so when the vent is not in use, it automatically closes.
flappygrilla.jpg
 
I've always used a box fan under the garage door and blocked off the rest of the open area.
 
I just remembered that a friend of mine, when painting, used a swamp cooler and mounted the fan so it would blow out thru the wet pads. Stopped the air born particles and was quiet with no odd look from the outside.
 
in my "small parts" paintroom, i built a 20"x20" plywood box deep enough for an attic fan to fit into. added some flashing to the edges so a filter will slide in & mounted it on the wall with a louvered vent panel on the outside. the fan has a rheostat added into the wiring so i can adjust the speed to suit. i also made a fresh air intake panel that is the length of my overhead garage door with filter panels in it. just lower the overhead door down & with the filters, you will get plenty of clean intake air without creating a vacuum in the shop that will draw all the dust out of the corners of the shop into your paint.
 
"silverblueBP" said:
I've always used a box fan under the garage door and blocked off the rest of the open area.
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I used box fans as well when I painted my car but instead of pulling air, I pushed it to pressurized the booth I built and let it out through the bottom of my third stall garage door. I built a duct out of lumber and heavy poly sheeting that drew the air through the top portion of my inner garage/house door. That way I had much better control of fumes, spray and any dust that might find its way into the booth. I used a pre-filter (a very fine silk like fabric) before the fans and furnace filters after at the air entrance to the booth. I also ran a series of filters in the exhaust exit tunnel to the outside to collect paint and fumes.

Worked very well. One thing to remember when using a fan like a box fan to pull the air is that you are moving highly combustible vapor across an open electric motor. I too have done it this way many times without incident but there is a very real opportunity for things to go BOOM.
 
Now that's ingenuity :10! so instead of vacuuming the fumes/gas out, the fans force air into the work area, pressuring and IT finds the path of least resistance out the door! Least likely to blow up~myself this way! I'm getting my other larger fan from our lakehome tomorrow, so I'll have two larger fans~ I'm going to play with your idea! It'll be next week before I can begin~ but I'll keep this thread informed! Thank you!
dne'

"Horseplay" said:
I used box fans as well when I painted my car but instead of pulling air, I pushed it to pressurized the booth I built and let it out through the bottom of my third stall garage door. I built a duct out of lumber and heavy poly sheeting that drew the air through the top portion of my inner garage/house door. That way I had much better control of fumes, spray and any dust that might find its way into the booth. I used a pre-filter (a very fine silk like fabric) before the fans and furnace filters after at the air entrance to the booth. I also ran a series of filters in the exhaust exit tunnel to the outside to collect paint and fumes.

Worked very well. One thing to remember when using a fan like a box fan to pull the air is that you are moving highly combustible vapor across an open electric motor. I too have done it this way many times without incident but there is a very real opportunity for things to go BOOM.
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You have to experiment with the volume of air necessary to give enough pressure to "stabilize" the room and not create any "breeze" effect. You don't want to be spraying in the wind. When working correctly you don't feel any breeze. You also need a very clean environment. This method will find all the dust and dirt laying around. I ran my set-up for a full day to make sure anything trapped inside during construction found its way out before I brought parts in to started to paint.

You can see in my pictures how the poly walls bellowed out slightly. I ended up running 4 20" box fans at their lowest speed to serve my needs. More volume at lower speed (force) is best. Another added benefit of having a poly walled booth is that the pressure forces the airborne over-spray out against the wall where is is held statically against the plastic. I would lightly mist the walls with water and everything would run to the ground where I would sweep it out. I would run the fans in the booth at higher speeds to dry everything out between spraying.
 
I went through the Grainger catalog and bought everything I needed. My only regret is that I did not put a bigger in-flow vent in as I can't run the fan at full power because it can't pull enough air.

I put a thermostat on mine so that it kicks on automatically when the garage gets too warm. I should have also put a bypass switch on it.

Here are a few pictures.




 
HI~ thanks for posting the photos~! I don't know why I keep envisioning a larger fan, like 36". Is the fan you installed capable of clearing out the room of fumes/paint aftermist fairly well? You really did a great job! Why would the inlets be too small?

I think if I could do it, without permission from Gary(hubby), I would have put a large fan in the wall, one that turns a lower RPM, but moves a lot of air. But alas, have to look down the road in case we ever sell our home~ the buyer may not like what I'd have in mind!
So, I have now, two large shop fans(26") that I think I'll put beneath the garage doors, then make a framework of some kind, then I guess filters along the opening of the garage door(another framework). IT'll be a few weeks, tied up with 2 college girls moving into different aparments!

"Mach1ne" said:
I went through the Grainger catalog and bought everything I needed. My only regret is that I did not put a bigger in-flow vent in as I can't run the fan at full power because it can't pull enough air.

I put a thermostat on mine so that it kicks on automatically when the garage gets too warm. I should have also put a bypass switch on it.
Click to expand...
 
The inlet vent I put in is not big enough to handle the amount of air the fan pushes out when I have the garage doors down.

Even running at half speed it will pull the door to the house shut since it is looking for more air to pull.

It does really well pushing out fumes and heat. I don't paint in the garage so I can't comment on that.

I was going to go one more size up on the fan but I also was worrying about resale. A bigger fan means a bigger inlet vent (if you are going to have the doors down.)

I picked the fan and vent that would that fit between two studs (16" on center) since it was the easy way to go.

You can always go the portable fan route and move up from there.
 
Thanks, I appreciate the info and advice! I'll post photos in a few weeks of what I have planned.
 
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