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Let's try economy powder coating at home
ChadTower:
Nice work on the initial test piece! Looks way better than I thought it would out of that little oven with the element so closeby. :cheers:
I'm concerned about that huge toaster setup. Not so much about the heat but about the current. There are about a million places where that housing could be shorted and you're only going to find out when you wake up looking at the ceiling. We're not talking electronics DC here. That's straight up high current AC.
Consider using a real oven here or at least moving those guts into some intact housing that isn't hacked up on every surface. A file cabinet comes to mind.
griffindodd:
Aye Chad you are totally right, this thing really is a safety nightmare, although I did make sure that all wires and terminals were shielded with high temp cord and clear of any sharp edges. All I really want to see here is if I can get a space this large to hold temp with just the 1500w element, if I can successfully cook a few larger pieces like my bezel/glass rail then we've achieved the goal and proven that a standard toaster oven has enough power to powder coat moderate sized pieces at home.
The filing cabinet is absolutely a great candidate for this kind of thing, but to be honest, as long as I can cook my coin doors and lockdown rails for the Paperboy cab I'll be happy to trash this health hazard and wait for my real oven to be built. For teh cost of just getting the powder coating done at a shop, I bought a gun and learned enough to be dangerous while being able to point at my cab and say to my friends 'Oh yeah, yeah so I did all my own powder coating...what? yeah I do that stuff...yeah I do all my own stunts' :lol
ChadTower:
Good. :)
I still say propane is the better way to go in the long run. With the right valve setup you can get temps just as stable as with electric without the risk of electrocution. I can dial my propane meat smoker in within ten degrees anywhere from 125 to 400. The only reason 400 is the upper limit is because I don't think my cabinet would stand up to more than that for extended heating times (plus who would want MEAT done that high).
griffindodd:
--- Quote from: ChadTower on March 04, 2013, 11:48:38 am ---
Good. :)
I still say propane is the better way to go in the long run. With the right valve setup you can get temps just as stable as with electric without the risk of electrocution. I can dial my propane meat smoker in within ten degrees anywhere from 125 to 400. The only reason 400 is the upper limit is because I don't think my cabinet would stand up to more than that for extended heating times (plus who would want MEAT done that high).
--- End quote ---
Yeah I've been looking at the propane and it sure looks to be the right approach for a larger oven. I still haven't heard from my buddy since I gave him those plans, so it's up in the air as to whether he can get it banged out for free by the fabrication shop, fingers crossed. But, if he does pull it off then I'm thinking of using a Mr. Heater 35,000 BTU constant electric ignition with a heat control/valve unit.
How do you control the temp on your smoker?
ChadTower:
Most propane cookers will come with a grill type valve that will get you around 30 degrees of accuracy if you have a thermometer in the cabinet. The limitation is that it won't give you all that much of a temp range. They're designed to give you the fairly narrow range of temps at which you would cook on a grill. You need more range than that for powdercoating. I also need more control than that for my smoker because dehydrating can go as low as 125. The lowest my smoker could keep stable was 175.
What I did was replace the hose/regulator assembly with with one that has an inline needle valve after the regulator.
This gives me the ability to keep the OEM burner fully open and control the propane far more finely. The PSI on the regulator is your choice. I think I put 12psi in mine and the needle valve allows me to open that puppy WAY up if I want. The control on the needle valve is the key. It really lets you fine tune the flame down to within about 10 degrees. I like to use a remote meat thermometer inside the cabinet to get good accurate readings. Once you dial that sucker in to the temp you want, leave it running about 10 mins to make sure it's stable, and it will only change if the environment does (rain, major wind, etc).
Here are a couple of pics I took when I was modding my smoker.
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