Two layer gate sign with photos of my oven build

[gblaylo]

Made this for a driveway gate. Should show up really well mounted to the wood covered gate.

[plasmanewbie]

Nice! The white on black contrast really makes this sign. Looks awesome!

[adbuch]

Very nicely done! What kind of power coating oven is that you have there? I would be interested to see some photos of your oven as well as your blast cabinet. I am trying to decide whether I should buy a turn-key oven or build my own.
Thanks,
David

[gblaylo]

Very nicely done! What kind of power coating oven is that you have there? I would be interested to see some photos of your oven as well as your blast cabinet. I am trying to decide whether I should buy a turn-key oven or build my own.
Thanks,
David

Oven is home built, 4' X 4' X 8'. All metal stud construction with regular pink fiberglass insulation with the backing removed. Galvanized sheet metal and five oven elements. I may still have some construction photos if you would like to see them. I think the blast cabinet is a Skat Blast will have to look. I brought it used.

[adbuch]

Very nicely done! What kind of power coating oven is that you have there? I would be interested to see some photos of your oven as well as your blast cabinet. I am trying to decide whether I should buy a turn-key oven or build my own.
Thanks,
David

Oven is home built, 4' X 4' X 8'. All metal stud construction with regular pink fiberglass insulation with the backing removed. Galvanized sheet metal and five oven elements. I may still have some construction photos if you would like to see them. I think the blast cabinet is a Skat Blast will have to look. I brought it used.

Yes - I would love to see your construction photos and also photos of your finished oven.
Thanks,
David

[gblaylo]

Very nicely done! What kind of power coating oven is that you have there? I would be interested to see some photos of your oven as well as your blast cabinet. I am trying to decide whether I should buy a turn-key oven or build my own.
Thanks,
David

Oven is home built, 4' X 4' X 8'. All metal stud construction with regular pink fiberglass insulation with the backing removed. Galvanized sheet metal and five oven elements. I may still have some construction photos if you would like to see them. I think the blast cabinet is a Skat Blast will have to look. I brought it used.

Yes - I would love to see your construction photos and also photos of your finished oven.
Thanks,
David

I found some photos of the oven build.

[gblaylo]

[weldguy]

Amazing oven build! Absolutely fantastic and I appreciate all the pics, that's awesome.

[acourtjester]

Great looking oven, attention to detail shows that thing will last. Watch out the wife will be putting pot pies in there for the church fair

[adbuch]

Nice job! Thanks for posting the pictures. A few questions.
Does the fan only circulate air at the top, or is do you have ducting inside not visible in your photos?
What are the inside dimensions, what size are the elements, and are they staged?
What kind of controller did you use?
I am wanting to build an oven very similar in size to yours and am just trying to get some ideas.
Thanks,
David

[gblaylo]

Nice job! Thanks for posting the pictures. A few questions.
Does the fan only circulate air at the top, or is do you have ducting inside not visible in your photos?
What are the inside dimensions, what size are the elements, and are they staged?
What kind of controller did you use?
I am wanting to build an oven very similar in size to yours and am just trying to get some id
Thanks,
David

The fan is a high temperature fan which I believe came from Grainger. It is ducted through the wall pulling the heat from the top and blowing back out the bottom above the floor. It has very little force which doesn't disturb the parts or powder. Outside walls are four foot by eight foot and the the studs are probably three and one half inches thick so I am losing about six inches of space inside. Not sure what size elements I used, picked them up at an appliance store. There is a total of five, three on the bottom (one on each side and one on the back wall) and two on the top (one on each side wall). I can turn the bottom elements off or the top elements off separately with the two bottom switches on the control panel. My thinking was to someday make a removable false floor in the middle and only heat half of the oven for small parts. I have the thermocouple mounted above center height for this purpose. The controller PID and timer I got off of Amazon. I don't remember the brand but it is what most people use. I dont have the timer connected to the PID controller to shut it off because I usually do multiple cooks and don't want the oven shutting off. I used mechanical contact relays because it seemed that a lot of people were having issues with the electronic ones. If you build one be sure to get a good wire crimper. I believe this is where you see a lot of peoples problems with burnt wires and connections. Any loose connection drawing high amps will build up a lot of heat. I heat my oven to 475 degrees when I first fire it up. When it reaches that temperature I will open the door and roll my rack in, close the door then lower the temperature setting to the powder manufacturer's recommendation which is usually around 375 - 400 degrees. The reason for setting the temperature high to begin with is because I will loose 80 to 100 degrees opening the door, but recovery time is very quick. I set my timer to the recommended cook time and when the powder coted piece is at temperature I start the timer to count down and an alarm and lamp will go off at the end of the count down.

[adbuch]

Thank you very much for that information. You have given me some great ideas of how to proceed with my build.
David

[Joe Jones]

THAT is a well built oven! I am going to attempt to come close to that with my first oven build, shortly. You have raised the bar, for sure!

Joe

[Joe Jones]

. Outside walls are four foot by eight foot and the the studs are probably three and one half inches thick so I am losing about six inches of space inside.

Question: When we build these things, do we shoot for the 4x4 INTERIOR dimensions, or are those the EXTERIOR dimensions? I had planned for a 4x4x6 '3" interior with 6" walls, so the exterior would be a 25 sq.ft. footprint on the floor.

I sure hope my oven comes out looking at least HALF as good as this one.

Joe

[adbuch]

"Outside walls are four foot by eight foot and the the studs are probably three and one half inches thick so I am losing about six inches of space inside."

[adbuch]

My thinking was to someday make a removable false floor in the middle and only heat half of the oven for small parts.

That is a great idea about having a removable partition to create a smaller oven size when you don't need the entire volume. I will look at incorporating something similar with my build. I am thinking about framing my oven from square tubing instead of the sheet metal studs. I would probably use something like 3/4" x 16ga. square tubing and fabricate the walls to be around 4" thick. I might also incorporate some 1/2" square tubing. I am more comfortable doing a welded structure than the rivet approach, mainly because it makes it much easier for me to do modifications as I go.
David

[Joe Jones]

The fan is a high temperature fan which I believe came from Grainger. It is ducted through the wall pulling the heat from the top and blowing back out the bottom above the floor.

Do you have a diverter in the ducts, to contain the heat to your future virtual half-oven setup?

It has very little force which doesn't disturb the parts or powder. Outside walls are four foot by eight foot and the the studs are probably three and one half inches thick so I am losing about six inches of space inside. Not sure what size elements I used, picked them up at an appliance store. There is a total of five, three on the bottom (one on each side and one on the back wall) and two on the top (one on each side wall). I can turn the bottom elements off or the top elements off separately with the two bottom switches on the control panel.

My thinking was to someday make a removable false floor in the middle and only heat half of the oven for small parts. I have the thermocouple mounted above center height for this purpose.

Back in the dream stage, I imagined a long shipping container with a movable interior wall that would give me several different sizes of ovens. The wall would move fore and aft, and additional burners would be used as needed. However, the $&%^* limitations of electric burners put the kibosh on that idea for now anyway. Where did I put that Mr. REACTOR appliance?!?

The controller PID and timer I got off of Amazon. I don't remember the brand but it is what most people use. I dont have the timer connected to the PID controller to shut it off because I usually do multiple cooks and don't want the oven shutting off.

You might consider installing a "Dead Man's Switch" which is a master timer that will eventually and automatically shut off the oven if it is not reset on a regular basis, like every 30 minutes or ???

I used mechanical contact relays because it seemed that a lot of people were having issues with the electronic ones. If you build one be sure to get a good wire crimper. I believe this is where you see a lot of peoples problems with burnt wires and connections. Any loose connection drawing high amps will build up a lot of heat.

Good advice. Can you point me to a suitable relay that can handle the amperage?

I heat my oven to 475 degrees when I first fire it up. When it reaches that temperature I will open the door and roll my rack in, close the door then lower the temperature setting to the powder manufacturer's recommendation which is usually around 375 - 400 degrees. The reason for setting the temperature high to begin with is because I will loose 80 to 100 degrees opening the door, but recovery time is very quick. I set my timer to the recommended cook time and when the powder coted piece is at temperature I start the timer to count down and an alarm and lamp will go off at the end of the count down.

My grandfather was a photographer. He used the old format cameras where you would slide a negative plate through a slot to load the film. So my question is, couldn't we build the oven and a preheating "holding booth" that are connected and separated by an insulated sliding divider wall? Then the oven could reach temperature, you pull the hot divider wall (with linear actuators, of course ) and use another actuator or a chain or ??? to smoothly glide the contained cart into the oven chamber, then returning the sliding divider wall to close off the holding compartment from the oven volume. The holding chamber could be pre-heated at a lower temperature to begin the process of heating the metal at least to below the point where it would become an issue. It would also reduce the heat loss of opening the oven. This should reduce the total time, right?

In fact, a THREE chamber oven would be great! Load new items into the preheated holding chamber #1, then roll them into the oven for cooking, and batch #2 is rolled into the preheat chamber. Batch #1 cooks while #2 waits and warms up ... then #1 is rolled out the other side into a a completion stage preheated chamber where they could be removed after cooling down to the internal temperature of that chamber. Batch #2 is simultaneously rolled into the oven, Batch #3 is rolled into the preheat chamber. The oven loses almost no heat.

Rinse and repeat... As long as you're going to spend the money to heat up the oven, isn't this better? You get EVERYTHING cooked at the same time.

What's that? Too McGyver for you?

Joe


.

[djreiswig]

Install a chain conveyor and you can run things through continuously. Then if you install a tunnel washer you can run parts even faster.
How much powder coating do you plan on doing? Are you going to contract outside work?

[Joe Jones]

Install a chain conveyor and you can run things through continuously. Then if you install a tunnel washer you can run parts even faster.
How much powder coating do you plan on doing? Are you going to contract outside work?

Probably not. However, the local welding shop did tell me that if I build it, he will keep me busy.

I am one of those, "Build it ONCE!" kind of guys. If I need to plane a popsicle stick, I buy a planer. Then I have it, the next time I need it.

It is like King Stahlman, the famous Bail Bondman in Southern California .... "It is better to know me and not need me, than to need me and not know me!"

I did buy a RANGER parts washer. It is another machine that taunts me ... patiently waiting ... three years now, to be hooked up and used for the first time. Leaning against it is my Trace Logic 44"x60" digitizer pad ... still in the box.

Joe


.

[adbuch]

Install a chain conveyor and you can run things through continuously. Then if you install a tunnel washer you can run parts even faster.
How much powder coating do you plan on doing? Are you going to contract outside work?

My local powder coat shop tells me that they do have a batch/conveyor setup, but that don't use it much due to the non-uniformity of cure temperature as the parts go thru the oven.
David

https://www.google.com/maps/uv?pb=!1s0x ... ip6BAgiEAM