Winters Coming, Cold Weather is Here, Hibernation Imminent

I’ll be checking in with blog soon.  It’s almost winter so I need to finish up my ah, spring project so that I can hide in the basement and distract myself with model building for the winter.

I’ve actually already completed the booth and have it setup but I haven’t finalized the installation so there is still a few more posts on this epic journey to spare myself from asphyxiation.

Noxious Cloud! RUN!

For ‘Priming the Firebird’ I slapped together some cardboard boxes to make a small ‘booth’ without the ventilation.  For those of you shaking their heads at the lack of ventilation, yes you should be shaking your head.  I’d shake my head too but I’m already dizzy enough from this little experiment.

The single most important thing I learned from ‘Priming the Firebird’ is that I’m going to need to ventilate my workspace.  The three seconds I used Duplicolor resulted in a cloud, yes really a cloud, of noxious gas.  The cloud dissipated relatively quickly but the vapours didn’t.  I had to open the windows in the basement and some on the main floor to air the house out.

This is a serious issue.   I’m going to have to look into creating some kind spray booth or alter my bench to include an exhaust fan.

A quick search of FichtenFoo.com (excellent site by the way) resulted in a nice write up about his spray booth.  http://fichtenfoo.net/blog/building-my-spraybooth/

He’s just using some cheapo bathroom exhaust fans and running it out of what looks like standard 2″ PVC similar to what you might have on your furnace for intake and exhaust already.

My bench is in the furnace room so I can just run the pipe out in the same general area as the ones for the furnace.  I won’t have any real problems getting the pipe out as I can run the pipe of the top plate, between the joists, and out the plywood to the outside.  Looks like he needed to drill his foundation!  Don’t think I’d want to do that.

I’m going to think about the rest of the modifications.  I’m not too sure I want bathroom fans.  Setting aside the look, they take up a lot of space.  Also, the fact that he has two fans doesn’t bode well for this solution.  I’m guessing that one fan doesn’t have enough CFM to vent the gases from only the top.  Could be that the CFM isn’t high enough for a wide open booth though.  Maybe focusing the draw closer and in a more enclosed space would make the fan more efficient.  Like I said I’m going to have to puzzle this out.

On a side note I think my noxious cloud is called ‘overspray’, judging by his comments on installing the second fan.

Looks like I’m going to making a trip to Home Depot.  It’s going to be fun explaining what I’m trying to do..

Not Exactly What I Was Hoping For

I watched the Airbrushing Tutorial at FichtenFoo.   It’s too basic in technique to be truly useful but the information about thinners, ratios, etc might be useful.

Here’s a summary with pictures.  All photo’s were from FitchenFoo.com Airbrush Tutorial (http://www.fichtenfoo.com/images/tips/airbrushtutorial.html):

-Tamiya paint thinned with 91% Isopropyl Alcohol mixed to a ration of about 3 parts paint to 2 parts thinner (iso. alco.)

- Before masking let previous coat dry for 24 hours.  After painting let sit for an hour or so and remove masking tape.

- Use 40% 409 and 60% water til clear, then 91% alcohol till clear, use water until clear to clean airbrush.

Useful information on the ratios.  However in Canada I’ve only ever seen 70% isopropyl alcohol.   I’ve noticed this a few times in other documentation with regard chemicals.  There seems to be significant differences between the USA and Canada with respect to levels of concentration and availability of different product.  I thought it was odd that I couldn’t find denatured alcohol.  When I asked for it I got some strange looks.  It might not be sold in Canada in retail stores.

Also, I’m going to have to find out what ’409′ is.   I’m beginning to wish I had some friends at a chemical factory…