Introduction: Building a Cabinet for Airbrush
- 1 night cabinet (bought secondhand for 5euro) would be interesting if you find one with a wooden board at the bottom front. (like in the picture)
- 2 pc fans (secondhand) - best is 120mm. The bigger, the more airflow.
- 1 old powersupply for pc.
- some self adhesive led (touch)lights on battery (you can buy 3 for 5 euro on ebay)
- extractor hood filter
Tools:
- wire stripper
- screwdrivers
- drilling machine
- saw
- connector strips
- glue
- screws
- scissors or knife
- vacuum cleaner :)
Step 1: Building a Cabinet for Airbrush
How to:
1/ get rid off all the doors or drawers of the stand
2/ put your stand upside down. This creates the space you need for your powersupply. This is also why it's interesting to have a stand with a wooden board at the bottom (as shown in the picture).
3/ place your powersupply near the back of the top (formerly known as bottom). Mount it.
4/ turn the back to you and in the middle of the back plate you draw two circles. If you have 80mm diametere fans, you draw a circle of 80mm, aka 8cm. Better is to have 120mm and draw circles with diameter 120. Cut the holes.
5/ now place the fans on the outside on top of the holes. Make sure the direction of the fans is OK, you want to get thepaint/ fumes sucked out, not blown in your face. If you're not sure about the direction and you want to glue them (I recommend screwing them to the plate) just wait for a moment.
If you want to screw them to the plate it doesn't matter for the moment. Just mark the place where the mountingholes are, drill the four holes for each fan and mount them. 50% it's the right direction and you can change it later.
Step 2: Building a Cabinet for Airbrush
6/ now about powering the fans. This is a little bit more difficult then previous steps because you can't swith on the powersupply. Normally it will only run if you press the start button of your pc. But it's not build in a pc, so you have to do some mods to the supply first. Here's a link to an instructable I followed: https://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Hack-a-computer-atx-power-supply/step2/Getting-the-PSU-to-work/
Short version (but read the long version first please, and be sure you know what you are doing): you connect the green wire with the black one. I did this with a strip terminal. (disclaimer: this worked for my powersupply. It's not a guarantee it will work for yours. So be carefull: you're working with high voltages.)
As you can see on the picture, I had only one connection and I needed two, so I stripped the wires and connected the wires by use of a strip terminal.
Switch on the powersupply and check the direction of the fans, if you didn't know for sure. Mount them in the correct direction (air should go out of the cabinet). You should feel a breeze at the outside.
Just check with a zippo or matchstick in the cabinet. If the flame is going to the back it's ok.
Step 3: Building a Cabinet for Airbrush
7/ On the inside of your cabinet, clean the top and back with cleaning agents for dishes (eg dreft: it degreases. Also very good for cleaning windows. No need to buy special products). Make sure there's no dust, neither grease. Install the ledlights.
8/ Now on the inside of the cabinet place velcro around your fans. Make sure there are no gaps between the pieces. Cut your filter to the right side and put it on the velcro. No gaps allowed.
9/ As a test you can put a burning candle/matchstick in the cabinet, put on your fans and blow out the candle/ matchstick. Smoke should get sucked out at the backside.
Don't do as I did and be sure to keep the flame away from your filter.
That's it. You have your cheap, ecofriendly airbrush cabinet.