Spraying lacquer in the winter?

[bossaholic]

For those of you who spray through the winter in the midwest, how do you heat your workspace without blowing up the place?

I want to finish my Springsteen clone, but it's too cold in the garage and I don't want to turn on the garage heater (gas).

[Buckocaster51]

Here's is sort of what I do.

Use heater before and after spraying, but not during.

Bring work piece in the house to warm up before spraying.

I put a bit of warmth into the media to be sprayed by putting the can, rattle can, glass jar, mixing cup, whatever, in room temperature (well, not room temperature at my place because my place never gets warm) water to heat up before I spray it.

Warm media tends to spray better and flow out more.

[bossaholic]

Thanks!

[Dr.Ow!]

As said above one key is to get the parts and the materials-even the gun- at room/spraying temp and keep them there. I live in snow country out here and have winter gas heat, which can actually introduce moisture into the shop. So what I like is running the heat to get the shop space saturated to temp, then shut all that off at the gas valve! (not just the switch- so there is no way it can somehow accidentally light up) Then I plug in a 48" 240v baseboard heater I have on a board and portable-dry safe heat-no exposed coil element. I put that on the floor near the spray area and let that become the heater to maintain temp-Laq does not like moist atmo much, so I prefer to watch that-on the rare laq work I do anymore. I use a hygrometer in my shop so I know where the atmo is at. Most instrument makers have it and a good addition to a woodshop. Another help is to cordone off a small space with plastic sheet to reduce the heat volume/cost for small jobs...2cts.

[Muddy T-Bone]

Originally Posted by Buckocaster51

Here's is sort of what I do.

I put a bit of warmth into the media to be sprayed by putting the can, rattle can, glass jar, mixing cup, whatever, in room temperature (well, not room temperature at my place because my place never gets warm) water to heat up before I spray it.

Warm media tends to spray better and flow out more.

Buck-o is right about the warm media. I place the cans or spray gun in hot water for a period of time to get the stuff warm before I spray.

[ruffone]

The funny thing bossaholic... Up until late 2007 I lived in Chicago, not too far from you in Fort Wayne, and I would turn one of my bathrooms into a spray booth. I would drape the 3 sides of the bathtub and use the shower curtain as the fourth side. I lightly wet the shower down and then turn on the bath fan and it worked great :-)

Don't laugh too hard :-) It turned out some great finishes on some of my guitars :-)