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Hints and Tips.

SIMPLE SPRAY BOOTH. Hi Guys, My simple spray booth is just a cardboard box with a transferable filter unit. The filter unit is made using a small fan,scrap Balsa wood, a bit of plastic mesh and a couple of layers of toilet tissue. Made a small box section from the Balsa wood and attached it to the fan. Fitted a piece of plastic mesh then two layers of toilet tissue then the final piece of plastic mesh. Fitted a flange to the Balsa box section. Cut a hole in the back of the cardboard box so that the fan unit fitted snugly in. Slid in my ,connected power and Bingo, works perfectly. When the cardboard box gets old and tatty just replace it with another cardboard box. Cut out a hole for the filter unit and that is all you have to do. If the filter gets clogged then replace it with a couple more pieces of toilet tissue. Looking on eBay something similar will cost you £68.00. Martin555.

5 years ago by Martin555

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Hints and Tips.

"Sometimes I’ll have small parts that need to be painted, and my lack of patience makes want to paint the thing in one shot. If it’s a part where the bottom is glued down and won’t be seen, I’ll tack glue a scrap piece of balsa stick to the bottom, " I use double sided tape and an off cut of 2x1 for such parts. Usually a whole row of 'em. Otherwise not worth firing up the airbrush😉 Sits stable on the spray booth and can be easily set aside for drying. Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

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Basingstoke Model Boat Club

" ... a really long test tank ,model Suez canal" ... with a at each end! 😉 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

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Paint prep

It’s time to start looking at some paint preparation as this is something that can be done alongside some of the remaining jobs. I have spent hours glassing the hull and deck and the cabin roofs and then finishing to a standard for the first coats of primer, this was achieved by progressing through various grades of wet and dry from 400 to 800. This gives a good adhesion surface for the first primer coat. As I have said in previous posts I made as many parts detachable as was practical, so on the forward cabin roof (which is in itself detachable) all parts are removed leaving a relatively flat surface to prepare, the underside was masked and then put in the queue for painting. Mid cabin and rear cabin roofs - again all parts were removed and placed in the queue/, Spraying is a hazardous process whatever type of paint you use, so it’s essential that some sort of extraction is used and an appropriate face mask ( I use a P100 rated mask because it gives the highest level of protection in the widest variety of situations and will filter out 100% of both oil-based and non-oil-based particles.). This can also be used for most of my wood working activities, however; if this isn’t an option for you then I suggest you spray outdoors. My spray booth is made from an old cooker hood mounted in my workshop with a table below. On this I used plain sheets of hardboard which I made temporary fixings to hold a box together. The extraction element was a piece of old clothes dryer flexible 4” pipe which when I’m spraying hangs out of the window. Back to spraying, I use a compressor and small spray gun for this size of work so I purchased a litre of grey primer and 5 litres of thinners. I am no professional sprayer but have sprayed a number of cars in the past and I have learnt that once again ”Less is more” so a number of light coats is better than one thick coat that runs, meaning lots of sanding and a repeat performance of painting. First three coats of grey primer applied and I’m pleased with how it’s going. I took the opportunity to spray some of the other parts that were finished while the gun was full of primer. Spraying is one of those jobs which is over before it’s begun yet the preparation seems to take weeks but it always pays off in the end. Next will be a top coat of Appliance White.

5 years ago by mturpin013