Powder coating oven

[suicideking]

There is a question in the frame building thread about DIY ovens. I cant post there so Ill put the pics up here. The oven is large enough to hang a 58 frame top to bottom OK. Ive done ATV wheels, Knife handles, and car parts. The hinge was almost as expensive as the rest of the build Chris King.




The whole photo set hosted HERE

[deepsix]

Dude!! That's freaking clever! I love the CK headset application.

Coat any parts in it yet? Lets see some results.

[Kevin Maxwell Ostrom]

That is a very nice home brew oven. I have been keeping an eye out for an oven to pull apart for my own powdercoating operation. I cannot wait to see the results from your oven.

KMO

[bellman]

Hey, Awsome first post!

Couple of questions, Did you insulate the entire box? and if you did, what did you do with the wiring on the backside?
also, is one element sufficient and how long does it take to heat up?
thanks for posting that up.

jake

[suicideking]

I bought a dozen or so R150 oven insulation kits from a surplus site online (a real find) for the insulation and yes every panel including the door is insulated. The wires run outside the insulation no problem. As you can see from the pictures i utilzed both the broiling element and the regular heating element from the donor oven. i use both to bring the oven up to temp (400+). That only takes about 8 minutes. Then the regular element can keep the temp steady. I used hot-rod header wrap to make a weatherstrip at the door and a fireplace window for the front. Keeping the heat in is the key here.
I have been creating a catalog of what temperature each material is when the powder "goes glass" or changes from matte to shiny on each thickness of materials using an infared wireless thermometer. This is the important part with powder coating once it goes glass you start your timer. If it stays in too long and the material gets brittle, too short and it will be pliable. The thing i am most proud of is the Arduino hack i put into the controls. I used digital controls so i could easily access the signals to the timer and heating programs. I wired in a Harbor Freight infared thermometer to poll the material temperature every 30 seconds, when it sees the temperature set as a goal (from the catalog) it starts a 20 minute countdown on the oven timer. Sounds simple but has taken alot of the guess work out of my timing and i dont have to stare at the thing like im at a laundromat. Some pieces take two heat cycles so it doesnt shut off the oven but certainly could. Ill post up some pics of finshed pieces.

[Dave Anderson]

Wow...nice job!

[edelbikes]

Thanks for posting this !
When you need two heat cycles, don't you loose too much heat with the large door ? I was thinking of a similar shape, but with a small lateral door.