From the workbench of the esteemed Horati0nosebl0wer

Looking over filters for the spray booth after some time doing airbrush work and caking the most recent one with overspray I got to thinking about how well it actually works. Thankfully I have been able to pick the brain of an associate at work who does HVAC work and learned about filtration more so than just looking at the Internet.

I picked up a 3M 1200 filter (rated at MERV 11) that measured 16″ x 25″ x 1″ cheap from a local box store and took a pair of metal shears I’ve kept for larger sheets of brass to cut the interior wire mesh. This is a significant upgrade from the refill filters (rated about MERV 5) that you see advertised for use with the spray booth on sites like Amazon or specific hobby sites. I’ve used the cardboard sections at either end to retain the support integrity but I was left with the interior that lacked it. I turned to my 5 minute epoxy and some balsa strip I generally use for base building and light terrain pieces to create supports.

Generally I’d say that might be overkill but if you do work indoors and might not be able to vent out its a help to air quality. I don’t know how much the draw of the fan will be affected but I’ll see soon enough. I might invest in building a spray booth using a fan motor with squirrel cage and plywood. Seeing the upgrade from my plastic portable unit, like many other people have, it would be easier than shelling out the $330 (approx) for a Benchvent BV300S-D.