Home › Forums › The Learning Center › Studio Tips and Framing › My studio venting set-up
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February 2, 2023 at 9:28 am #1500698
Hey all,
I paint with oil paint generally, and while I enjoy the smell of oil paint, it’s nice to be able to walk into a studio which doesn’t smell like anything. I am also extremely cheap! So I wanted a solution for the fewest possible dollars which would still vent all of the odorless mineral spirits (Gamsol, terpenoid, and the like) as quietly as possible. Since I paint in the basement, I don’t have to worry about how it looks or how I leave it since it is behind a door in an unfinished portion.
So here is the set up… it’s all a bit redneck, but so am I!
I had done a TON of research on how much Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM) of air the fan would need to exhaust to make it safe to be in the 12×12 studio without worrying about the fumes.
I purchased this (which I got for an extremely good deal at the time) floor fan and attached a furnace air duct. The duct was a bit too big, and while I could fix it, I just closed the opening up with some Gorilla tape. I attached it to some expanding dryer venting. I didn’t want the cold air drafting into the studio so I purchased a dryer vent and screwed it to a piece of plywood which I had lying about and just caulked it into place. The window dryer vent has a draft blocker built in which rotates automatically to an open position as soon as the air flow begins.
I purchased a bit of flat venting and rolled it up and attached it to the outside and placed a rodent screen over the outside to prevent critters from investigating my art work.
So… I could make this a lot nicer looking, but I when I am painting, I am not focused on the room, just on the paintings I am making. If I am remembering correctly, the fan was about $30 the through the window fitting was $15, the expanding dryer vent was $10 – $15, the furnace air vent I had from my air blower for my blacksmith forge so I repurposed it for this use. My son and I both paint in this studio, and so it is double the painting odors. Even my wife cannot smell the studio and she’s got a better sense of smell than I do.
This is a cheap and nearly silent venting system and works really, really, really well. I know if I used a smooth inner diameter tubing it would have better performance, but it doesn’t appear to matter in this space. I can have open paint, turpentine, varnish, and I cannot smell it, nor can anyone else in the house. I also mull (grind) my paints in this room to make sure any airborne particulates are evacuated from the house.
I had looked at a lot of other options, but this one worked the best for the lowest possible money for the space I was in. Anyway, this is my cheap studio air handling set up, it works for me.
Mark
Painting was easy until I learned how.
February 15, 2023 at 1:05 pm #1502375Nice set-up. Good to know the fan is quiet – I might do the same sometime. I use OMS – odorless mineral spirits, so the smell is not a concern. But since it’s odorless you tend to forget that it’s still toxic. I use a box-type window fan that blows the area into an adjoining storage area – less than ideal but……..
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