Mr dry booth, is it worth the money?

[Fooesboy]

Hi All,

With winter just around the corner I'm looking into ways of speeding up the drying time of my paint and like the look of the Mr Dry Booth from HLJ. http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZGT04

The price difference between this and a food dehydrator is about $100 if I remember correctly although finding one here in Switzerland could be a little challenging.

I would like to here form people who are using the different options and hear the pros and cons.

Chris

[ZoomZoomMX-5]

Dry Booth
pros: Nice design, shape accepts models and parts easily
cons: Expensive, one hour timer

Dehydrator
pros: Lower cost, no timer allows it to run continuously
cons: Must make spacers or cut trays to fit model parts, must check temperature, sometimes clumsy design

I own a simple fanless/motorless dehydrator and it runs 24-7. I use it to warm paint cans, bodies, dry primer, putty, paint. I cut several trays to make them into spacers to fit bodies or parts mounted for painting. While the Gunze product looks very nice, the price is steep and the timer that limits use to one hour intervals would drive me With a dehydrator I set it, and forget it. The Gunze unit would force me to continuously check on it. No thanks

You could make a simple drying booth in a large box and a small incandescent lamp for a pittance.

[Al Terego]

Originally Posted by Fooesboy

Hi All,

With winter just around the corner I'm looking into ways of speeding up the drying time of my paint and like the look of the Mr Dry Booth from HLJ. http://www.hlj.com/product/GNZGT04

The price difference between this and a food dehydrator is about $100 if I remember correctly although finding one here in Switzerland could be a little challenging.

I would like to here form people who are using the different options and hear the pros and cons.

Chris

I live in Canada and find that drying time is much faster in the winter. I just put everything in the furnace(when it does get cold enough to run) room where because of low humidity and the heat generated, it acts very much like a giant food dehydrator. Give it some thought before you commit $$$ to something you may not need.

[TireGaint]

Originally Posted by Al Terego

I live in Canada and find that drying time is much faster in the winter. I just put everything in the furnace(when it does get cold enough to run) room where because of low humidity and the heat generated, it acts very much like a giant food dehydrator. Give it some thought before you commit $$$ to something you may not need.

Hey fellow Canadian, I am in Tor. How do u spray the paint on your models in the winter temperature? Thanks.

[Al Terego]

Originally Posted by TireGaint

Hey fellow Canadian, I am in Tor. How do u spray the paint on your models in the winter temperature? Thanks.

Hi,

I live in Toronto too, Scarborough actually. I spray indoors in a homemade spray booth but the paints fumes can be quite overwhelming still.

[TireGaint]

Originally Posted by Al Terego

Hi,

I live in Toronto too, Scarborough actually. I spray indoors in a homemade spray booth but the paints fumes can be quite overwhelming still.

Hey buddy, I am in Markham. My family will kill me as they all wear gas mask, if i am spraying in indoor.haaa

[Inquisitor]

One thing people don't notice is that most of the threads asking about the Mr. Drybooth or alternatives besides a dehydrator are started by people living outside the USA. We can't drive to the local Wal-Mart and find one right away for a few bucks. I live south of the border, it should be easy to find one, I thought. But alas, it's impossible to find one at Wal-Mart, appliance stores or even local auction sites.

The dehydrators I've seen on ebay are from USA sellers and 99% of them won't ship overseas, but you could talk to a seller and convince him to.

That's why a lot of ppl ask about the Mr. Drybooth, because HLJ can ship it to any country. Although adding up the shipping you'd en up paying close to $200 USD.

The cheapest alternative is for you to make one out of wood or cardboard and using a 40 or 60W bulb. With a 40W bulb my homemade drybooth can rise the temp up to 32°C/90°F

[Al Terego]

Originally Posted by Inquisitor

One thing people don't notice is that most of the threads asking about the Mr. Drybooth or alternatives besides a dehydrator are started by people living outside the USA. We can't drive to the local Wal-Mart and find one right away for a few bucks. I live south of the border, it should be easy to find one, I thought. But alas, it's impossible to find one at Wal-Mart, appliance stores or even local auction sites.

The dehydrators I've seen on ebay are from USA sellers and 99% of them won't ship overseas, but you could talk to a seller and convince him to.

Yeah, they are hard to find up here in Hockeyland. The last time I saw one in Wal-Mart, it was a flat and round design like a mini pizza oven-not very practical for modelers. Other than that I haven't looked too hard for them so maybe there might be a market here at AF to export them to non-US citizens .

[nakadds]

You can buy a dehydrator from www.ronco.com for US$39.95. Haven't tried it out and not sure if they ship to Canada.

[oregon3]

At the risk of asking a dumb question ... how do you get your body off of the paint stand and into the dehydrator without screwing up the paint job? Also, I spray my small parts on the end of food skewers. How do I get those into the food dehydrator? Thanks!

[cyberkid]

www.amazon.com is another alterative for dehydrators. Just check the item that you are buying to make sure that they can ship it to where-ever you are.

[scaleracecars]

This is one of the few cases where you can really make your own and have a better dry booth.
I had a sheet metal shop make a solid box 18" deep 30" wide and 36" tall for me and then cut the front out. In the bottom I have a 50 watt cabinet heater and a metal heat radiator shield made fromthe material removed for the door. This covers the heating element and the electrical connections. I used a electronic heat control which allows me to set the temperature at whatever I need for the job. You can see the temperature probe hanging down from the top of the cabinet. I have two holes in the bottom sides which allow fresh air into the cabinet and a hole in the top for the warm air and solvents to escape. Over this hole is a charcoal filter which removes the solvent odors as the warm air rises. I just set the temperature and walk away. In ten minutes or less the booth is up to temperature and will stay within two degrees of the set temerature for as long as I leave it plugged in. The booth is big enough to allow 1/10 scale bodies to be placed inside with their painting stands still attached. When painting small parts I like to attach them to empty bottles so I place a few cardboard pieces on the shelf for the bottles to sit on. It is a very simple item and much more usefull than any commercially produced item including the Mr dry Booth. For what it is worth you can also see mine is wall mounted with screws through the back into the wall studs which save a lot of desktop space.

I seem to recall I did have around $150.00 in the booth which was mostly in the electronic controls. The heating element was inexpensive as was the cabinet.
David
http://www.hobbyexport.com