NFOA MEMBERS FORUM
Ammunition & Hand Loading => Cartridge and Shotshell reloading => Topic started by: unfy on March 29, 2013, 11:47:52 PM
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.... to avoid detracting from the ammunition speak in the other thread...
So. Toaster Oven is tiny. Gets 50-100 bullets at a time for the really small thing I've got.
Obviously, we want to do more at once! ... and .... being able to just powder coat other large objects as well would be handy.
110v, something we can put on wheels is in order. Buying one, stupid expensive.
I want something that's backyard friendly. Hobby grade stuff, not professional. Let the pros have their neat toys, I want something *I* can use!
http://www.profabnet.net/showthread.php?40-110v-powder-coat-oven (http://www.profabnet.net/showthread.php?40-110v-powder-coat-oven)
110v powder coat oven
A FYI for everyone, I got so sick of using an toaster oven because of being limited to items of being 12"X13" only So I built my own, it cost me just under a hundred bucks.
My materials were 1 1/2 sheets of 20G sheet($41.36) Brinkman 1500W smoker element off eBay for 20 bucks. One package of24"x48"x 4" rock wool insulation caught on sale for 30 bucks, and got the light switch and socket, door seals,terminal block, and temp controls out of a junk ovens(free) used a digital thermometer to check the setting to be sure, Oven get to 457 degrees in about 45 minute, which I figure is not bad since it is almost 3 cubic feet inside My oven inside is 19"wide 19" deep and 39" tall , outside is 24"x28"48"
There are pics, but ya gotta register for their forum and all that. meh... not in the mood and I imagine it's not necessary.
So.... we've got some sheet metal, rock wool insulation, light switch, socket, terminal block ... all easy enough from hardware store.
Brinkman 1500W smoker element
... hmmmmm ...
temp controls out of a junk ovens
... hmmmm ....
Okay. So we need a heating element and temperature control stuff that is preferably set and forget (auto). I don't have any complaints with manually turning an element on / off by hand to regulate temperature, but something that's automated just seems safer (less accident prone). "Off an old junk oven" doesn't really seem to be something that "anyone can do"...
Thoughts on a 1-1.5kw heating element ?
Thoughts on temperature controls ?
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Looks like a box with maybe one or two cheapy hot plates might work.... and a $5 dial oven thermometer to monitor stuff heh.
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Did some pricing.
Rock / Mineral wool insulation. Good to 2000F, 4x24x48 'sheets', covers 40 sqft (5 sheets?) - $45.
Outdoors steel / sheet metal siding that's ^---^--^--^ ridged shaped or whatever.... 96" x 38" 29ga 19.50
A 24x24x36 4 pack of duct work sheet metal $56.
Still drywall studs or tracks range from 1 5/8" to 3 5/8" and cost from $3-$6 each.
24x48 26ga sheet metal in welding area: $26
Angle iron / things / etc range from $6 to $25.
A single burner 1000w 110v '5th burner' is $15 (menards).
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Seeing as how coming up with a decent price on metal is difficult... at least in the cheap bastard that I am ... gonna toy with the thought of a wood and other materials build.
ODF panels or anything else based on glue is off limits - they can ignite at 400F.
Gonna try out a cheap 1x4's in the toaster oven to see what it does at 400-450F. If it fails, it'll be on trying some birch wood or birch plywood to see what it does. Not too keen on the plywood as it has glue in it.
We use Foamular insulation sheets here at work for prototyping design builds and stuff... I've got a small square of it I'll throw into the oven as well (both directly on a pan and also lifted off of the pan for a bit. Foamular is cheap.
Gypsum, Cement, and several other non-wood boards don't burn, so they have possibilities as an internal liner as well. And they're cheap.
White styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) has a melting point of 450F or so.... so it's on the off limits side of things. Kinda sad - it's cheap heh.
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I've priced this out again, and I hit $110 or so before getting into electronics and still missing a thing or two. (exterior of 24x24x36).
If ya build it to say 36x36x48, you get 3 times the internal volume - but only add another 20-30% to the costs (not including electronics).
I am so not happy about the cost of this. There's gotta be a way to bring it down substantially while remaining rebuildable-by-others.
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Not sure what I am missing here, but why not just use your average $50 used electric oven from Craigslist?
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Not sure what I am missing here, but why not just use your average $50 used electric oven from Craigslist?
I was thinking the same thing.... are most ovens 110v or 220v? I know they have a larger amp plug on them.. i can see if you want a larger oven building your own.
Unfy
Do you think by going larger you will need to add a slower to keep your heat equalized through the chamber?
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OR, you could even got for "FREE" on Craig's List.....
stove (Yutan/ West Omaha)
Free stove to use or for scrap. Oven and two of the burners work fine, but the two large burners do not. It is a General Electric, white and black, electric stove that is about 5 years old. It needs a good cleaning, but it's free. 402-625-2659.
212 rose ave (google map) (yahoo map)
• Location: Yutan/ West Omaha
•do NOT contact me with unsolicited services or offers
post id: 4261948712
posted: 4 days ago
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Most ovens are 220v.
I've seen some 110v stores. The price to oven size ratio was horrible though.
Need to cook some pink stuff to see how it handles
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Most ovens are 220v.
Ok that makes more since...
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Grabbed some mineral wool from Menards - $20 for 15"x47"x3.5"x5. Also picked up one of their fifth burner / stand alone electric hot plate thing. It looks to be all metal which is interesting.
Been thinking about a shell and haven't really come up with much.
Metal siding at $15 for 8 feet by 30 some inches aint too bad. Sadly, it aint a flat sheet.
I imagine an old washer or dryer would be an acceptable shell. Of course, this doesn't address the inside walls.
Of course, being what it is - Take an kind of outside shell (washing machine or the metal siding) ... and for an inside shell - just use chicken wire and perhaps metal window screen. It's not like the inside wall has to be astounding - all it's doing is holding back the insulation.
Hmmmm. Seems like a cheap possibility. Although I need to finalize my dimensions again.
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You might try to locate an oven from an RV.
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An RV oven aint a bad idea.
There's a junk yard kinda near me I'll have to pay it a visit eventually.
Went to a thrift store today to just take a stab at finding some pewter, think I found some. Will find out more later (this doesn't react to a magnet at least). Also grabbed another toaster oven to either play with or to use as is or to destroy heh.
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How hot do you need this oven to get? 250*? 400*? 600*?
How many cubic foot capacity are you looking for?
I have an idea bouncing around in my head... :laugh:
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How hot do you need this oven to get? 250*? 400*? 600*?
How many cubic foot capacity are you looking for?
I have an idea bouncing around in my head... :laugh:
How hot ? 400f.
Size ? It's a matter of being able to relatively easily move it around (on wheels or not). But big enough to be 'useful'. My current plan was something like 30x24x30. I can go bigger or smaller or whatever, it all depends on cost of shell or inner walls etc.
Inner walls - i like the chicken wire & metal window screen idea.
I'll be chopping up the $5 toaster oven i picked up today. It'll become parts for aluminum melting stuff. It has some high temp hook up wire in it, and the elements .... well... I dunno if I'll try to make something or not.
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Craig's list has a clothes dryer in millard for $30.
Take the motor and heating element out of it --
The motor, if it's 110, i'd like to use to spin a drum of some kind (either the dryer drum or a 5g bucket or something).
The heating element assuming it's electric ? melting metal possibly.
The metal shell ? powder coat oven ?
I don't have a 2 wheeler / hand truck / dolly. Sooooo can't exactly go fetch it at the moment :(. Might borrow one from work.
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That dryer will be 240v.
I was thinking of an electric smoker, the "mini-fridge" sized ones like a Masterbuilt(I have one, but you ain't getting it... ;))
Something like this, but I don't think it could handle 400* F and seems like it would be too small.
(http://www.yesyoucangrill.com/img/masterbuilt%20smoker.jpg)
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Mini fridges aint bad. Ties in to the RV ovens, too.
As far as the smoker - wood can ignite around 400F IIRC so it's unlikely to hit that. I think ? Hmmm.
As far as dryer motor - I've heard that the motors can be 110 - that generally everything is 110 except when temp is set to 'high' and that the elements then get fed 220.
Listening to state of the union. Ugh :(
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I'll be picking up the dryer tomorrow.
Sincerely hoping it'll turn out to be a decent shell for the PC oven. And hoping the drum motor is 110v for other things (a ball mill / rock polisher like thing is the target).
I'll have to eyeball the internals of the dryer concerning 110 vs 220 stuff (assuming it's electric). If it's true that it only hits the elements with 110 on 'low' cooling - I wonder how hot it gets without the fan going (ie: PC heating element ?). Whatever. Figure it out all over the weekend - or at least start to. Got that other project (http://nebraskafirearms.org/forum/index.php/topic,11068.0.html) going on too.
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Have dryer. It's in good shape, almost hate to destroy it. It is indeed electric. Hopefully tonight or tomorrow I'll start taking it apart. In the mean time - there is nomming to be done and firebrick to be grooved for aluminum melting furnace.
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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 (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....
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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 (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 :(.
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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.
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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 :D
Lots to ponder.
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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...
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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 (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 :D