Well, unless Bio really wants it and can install electrical for the power outlet it needs, I don’t mind parting with it.
That said, I had to pay 200 dollars for it and would like to cover my losses at least.
I mentioned it in the Soap Making thread. Of course, I don’t need a full stove to do that; just a big burner would do. I need to be able to boil a few gallons of lye mix for four hours. The power requirements for the stove do seem to be a showstopper for now.
Just so there’s no potential confusion, Mr. Jeter stripped a different oven. Andrew’s oven came in later.
Dude get out of my head. I was eyeballing this cabinet a few days ago to make an oven out of.
I was planning on providing a PID Temperature Controller, thermocouples, relay and heating elements, so no need to rob parts from an oven.
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I think that this would be awesome. At my robotics competition last week we saw some bots with powder coated bodies and they looked awesome. I hope this happens.
Jast: Watch this thread for further developments. You might be able to help another day.
Jeremy: How big are your bumpers? This is a pretty big cabinet.
David Jeter: The build last year died because the metal for making the box was going to cost $500. Too bad the old oven got tossed. Batt insulation is much easier to work with than loose fill. We can skin the inside of the cabinet with aluminium foil or light sheet steel. I can do a quick disconnect for the exhaust, and we can wire it to plug into one of the kiln outlets, or even the car chargers. Parking space for something this useful should be available. We can work with whoever is in charge of the workshop to develop a location plan.
Publius: Yea, I noticed that it says Andrew Floyd on it. It sounds like it is not going to be available. We can get an oven from an appliance store (they scrap old ones that they pull out of homes), or go with Bryan’s idea of buying heating elements.
Russ: This box should be able to take a motorcycle frame. In fact, that is one use that I have for it. Come to the meeting Thursday, and help make it happen.
Andrew: I think the oven you have is going to be better used for cooking food. We can come up with heating elements from somewhere else.
Bryan; if you have controllers and heaters, bring them on Thursday and we can get started.
Josh: come help make it happen on Thursday!
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The bumpers will be close to 7 feet long.
w00t
PID, thermocouple and relay just arrived. I want to measure the cabinet before I order any heating elements to make sure they’ll fit properly.
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Terrific. Bring them tonight and we can work out the details. We might
need two elements to get the capacity to get to 400 degrees, or use 4"
insulation.
See you tonight.
One element could certainly hit 400f, it may just take a while.
I had planned on ordering a pair of oven elements just to speed up the preheat.
2" or 3" should be plenty of insulation as long as there is an air gap between the insulation and outside skin. We can discuss more tonight.
An update to anyone interested.
Chuck and I met at the space last night and tore down the existing cabinet and discussed our expectations.
We’re going to try and score appropriate heating elements, latches, insulation door gasket, and sheet metal.
The next thing we need to do is plug the holes in the door and back of the cabinet with some sheet metal, install the gasket and mount latches on the door and the body of the cabinet.
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An old clothes dryer that are always on the CL free list would have an appropriate timer, heating element, and wall plug…as well as some temperature safety cutouts…
I have a “dead” clothes dryer if you want it and that would work for this. The only thing wrong with it is the centrifugal safety switch that kept it rotating in the motor broke. The dryer runs and heats fine for instance if you’re willing to hold the start button down the entire time you want to dry your clothes. Replacing the motor seemed like a big PITA at the time.
Sorry I couldn’t make it out, was stuck at work until 8. How many watts does the element from the clothes dryer handle? Would it be easier/cheaper/more effective to scavenge elements out of a few electric ovens or even just buy replacement elements? It seems like they’d have to cost less than $20 each.
Have you priced electric stove heating elements lately? I think they were $35 for my stove.
That reminds me… I need a new stove.
Really made some progress last night! Bryan has a digital temperature controller, an RTD and a solid state relay that will do PWM. We recovered a control box from a scrapped machine here at the space that has relays and switches and pilot lights, into which we can install all the controls.
I am tracking down insulation and some sheet metal for the inside of the cabinet. We need a power cable to plug into an existing single-phase 208 volt outlet.
Saturday about noon we can cut sheet metal to close the un-needed openings in the cabinet. Workday again on Tuesday about 7PM. If we have insulation we can get started on that then.
Bryan might have a source for the heating element, and a door gasket, so wait to hear back on that for those items. If he can find some spring-loaded latches we can use two. If not, we can get them from Lowe’s. Right now we are not expecting to need any more scavenged hardware, but thank you all for the offers.
If anyone can come help with any of this, bring it on.
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What kind of parts would you process once this is complete? It’s too small for a car hood, for example. Would this have shelves in it?
Normally powder coating is reserved for “hard parts”; e.g. suspension arms, springs, road wheels, torsion bars, etc. Things that are usually subjected to harsh environments and/or which, by nature, flex. Powder coating is resilient both physically and chemically, and flexible more than other color coatings, making it ideal for anything which would normally see abrasive action (road debris under the car, for example) or which flexes (springs).
Having said, of COURSE you could powder coat the whole car, but usually cost and/or space is prohibitive. The most extravagant part, automotively speaking, which is “normally” powder coated, and then only when someone is spending a wad, is the frame. Ya gotta have a big oven and heavy duty rack for that…
Other uses might include parts for pinball machines, bicycle frames, guards or other parts of machines for just about anything…
You name it, if it’s metal and small enough to fit in your oven and can handle 400F (no mercury), you can powder coat it for a finish which is so durable, even sand blasting can be hard pressed to remove it.
and finally the shelf question…
I am no expert on powder coating ovens, but this would likely be set up with hanging rods, if anything, as the part has to be electrically charged while coating and curing; the gun charges the coating (+), the rack charges the part (-), and thus they remain until baking is finished.
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An oven this size would be ideal for coating an axle, and an axle is an ideal candidate for powder coating.
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With the racks set up properly, the cabinet looks big enough to do wheels. Probably couldn’t do a set of 22" or bigger but my 16"ers would probably fit.