Powder coat oven

[tstuart34]

Unfy

Have you ever ran across this page before? I know its 220V but I thought you might enjoy looking it over.

http://www.powdercoatoven.4t.com/construction%20page.html

My dad and I are playing around with Cerakoting and we were kicking around the idea of making a modified version of this. Maybe two burners instead of four. But that just depends on what type of interest that we can get out of it....

[unfy]

Unfy

Have you ever ran across this page before? I know its 220V but I thought you might enjoy looking it over.

http://www.powdercoatoven.4t.com/construction%20page.html

My dad and I are playing around with Cerakoting and we were kicking around the idea of making a modified version of this. Maybe two burners instead of four. But that just depends on what type of interest that we can get out of it....

Indeed I have.  It, along with a few others, is what made me think that the build is indeed possible on a smaller scale.

I won't have a PID for temperature control... but... I don't think it'll matter too much.


What I currently have:

* A 240v dryer, side load.
* A 5th burner / electric hot plate / 120v
* A single 5-batt thing of mineral wool

I'll be gutting the dryer and looking into using it as the outside shell of the oven.

I'm assuming I'll be leaving the door as is, possibly removing / replacing the seal and latching mechanism.

I have no idea if i can get the insulation separated in half so that it's half as thick but cover twice as much area.... that'd be awesome.

I'll be finding out if the 5th burner is enough to get the cavity of the 'oven' up to 410F or so.

The inside surface of the oven is up in the air at the moment.  Using an off the shelf metal rack, as well as putting hooks hanging down from the top... seems like it'd cover all of the bases for things I might want.  I'm really thinking that chicken wire and metal screen would be a fine internal wall surface.


Due to move caused by burglary, etc, projects are a bit on hold at the moment though .

[MHicks]

I made an oven out of an old four drawer metal filing cabinet.

I removed the drawers and the cross pieces that attached between the slides but left the slides attached to the sides.  Stripped down the drawers so there is just a frame which I can put hardware cloth on for smaller items to rest on.

I put a piece of sheet metal on the bottom to enclose it.  For the insulating factor I just built a box out of plywood that is 2" larger on all sides than the cabinet.  The gap between the filing cabinet and the outer shell was filled with fiberglass insulation.

Since I removed the drawers I had to fabricate a door which was made to match the dimensions of the outer shell, 2" thick with insulation and a sheet metal interior.  There is a furnace gasket between the door and the cabinet face to help retain heat.

For the heating elements I have a stove element and an element from a bread machine my son busted.

I used an oven thermometer to test the heat output.  I unplugged the oven when it hit 500 degrees.  I did add a PID to it to regulate the temperature.

It works pretty good and I think is a pretty good size for anything I will put in it.  The interior is about 60"hx24"dx15"w.

[unfy]

I made an oven out of an old four drawer metal filing cabinet

I've got two of those i was going to throw away with the move.  Hmmm.  Will ponder.

As far as wood / fiberglass: hmm toooo

Lots to ponder.

[MHicks]

unfy,

It was the least expensive way I could make one at home that I think I won't need to rework later on. 

I don't remember the exact temp rating of the fiberglass insulation but it was well over the 500 degree mark.  I knew of an oven made just with 2x8 material.  The wood held up to 400-450 before showing signs of high heat.  Even then it wasn't enough to set it on fire.  Possibly the lack of oxygen on the interior for combustion...

[unfy]

unfy,

It was the least expensive way I could make one at home that I think I won't need to rework later on. 

I don't remember the exact temp rating of the fiberglass insulation but it was well over the 500 degree mark.  I knew of an oven made just with 2x8 material.  The wood held up to 400-450 before showing signs of high heat.  Even then it wasn't enough to set it on fire.  Possibly the lack of oxygen on the interior for combustion...

Quite possibly also being made out of real wood instead of OSB (glue) etc.

Fiberglass seems to allegedly hit closer to 700F before it has issues.  This seems to run afoul of other things that I've seen claiming lower temps.  Hmmm.

Given that I'm gonna tear apart the dryer anyway, I still plan on using it as a shell for the powder coat oven.  It's bigger than what I was wanting for an oven, but if it works - then it works as proof of concept as well as possibly coating larger items.

Still not a huge fan of wood... despite some other numbers I've found being interesting:

http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/fuels-ignition-temperatures-d_171.html

I'd be weary of the ignition temperatures of the plastics and stuff - just cause it don't ignite don't mean it won't melt etc