Found out my shop's old paint booth filter lets through way more than I thought
Honestly I was reading through the tech sheet on our booth filters last month during a slow Tuesday and one number just stopped me cold. The filter we've been running for the past two years only catches about 92 percent of particles down to 5 microns, and anything smaller than that basically sails right through into the exhaust. That means every time I sprayed clearcoat, some of that mist was floating out into the shop air and settling on stuff I thought was sealed up. I pulled a white rag across the top of my tool cart the next morning before anyone started spraying and it came back with a gray film on it. Our booth is a crossdraft from 2009 and the filter rack was never updated when the shop changed paint brands. I called the supplier in Fort Worth and they said the newer pleated filters run about 140 bucks but catch down to 1 micron. If you haven't checked your filter rating lately, go look at the box or the spec sheet and tell me what yours says, I want to know if I'm the only one who missed this.