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Let's try economy powder coating at home
TopJimmyCooks:
for any kind of results you have to be able to keep it reasonably clean in the oven - air blowing around in half a steel drum will blow dust onto your PC and mess it up.
griffindodd:
Ok after reviewing some of the info provided here, I'm going to change the approach a bit...
$10 from CL, picking this up tonight on the way home 27"x18"x14"
- Strip out the drawer fronts, see if I can use the rollers/slides to create a frame I can pull in and out for easy loading. Insulate the insides of the cabinet and fashion an exterior skin from 10,000 used bottle tops and rock wool insulation.
- For the elements, steal old toaster oven from kitchen and rape it for all the parts, give wifey one of the new ones that is coming (she wanted a new one anyway so also score wifey points) and return the extra one to Amazon for refund.
- Fashion an insulated door from extruded frame and sheet metal, use glass from old toaster oven as window.
Le Chuck:
I used to make raku kilns using a metal trashcan, a ceramic wool blanket, and a propane blower. Cheap and you can fire them up to several hundred degrees quickly. You can also maintain a constant temp by throttling back the propane/blower speed plus the trash can has a nice interior volume for parts hanging and if you need to you can always double stack them. Just need another blanket.
Just another solution incase the electric elements don't work out.
Here's a pretty good Make on it: http://blog.makezine.com/2012/06/28/how-to-trashcan-raku-kiln/
I used to fire my glazes around 1100oC, only takes a few minutes. The advice in the comments to use square steel mesh rather than a trashcan is good advice but i never had an issue with fumes or anything from the galvanized can. YMMV.
RandyT:
Interesting stuff here. Let me echo the sentiment regarding taking care not to burn your house down, and add "don't electrocute yourself". I've seen a lot of amazing home-built projects for vacuum forming and the like, and this will likely have some similar requirements. If you want to actually build your own custom heating elements, a search for those projects will likely yield some valuable information regarding formulas for coil length, and sources of materials for heat management, etc. Also keep in mind that you'll need close to 400 degrees F, which may be hard to achieve in a large area without at least 220v driving the coil. This is why countertop ovens, running on standard 110v power, are never very large. You may be able to do it in a smaller area with direct radiant heaters, an appropriate distance from the part. The quality of the result is going to depend greatly on the uniformity and control of the heat.
I'm not sure if you have had any exposure to the powder coating process, but it's messy and the materials can be costly. The good part is that they can be re-used, if you can keep what doesn't hit the part clean, and fashion something to collect it. I also recommend good ventilation. The powder is fine and will go where you don't want it and as the process involves heat to melt the powder, there is going to be outgassing and possibly odors your family members may find objectionable.
Good luck, and it will be interesting to see what you come up with.
griffindodd:
Thanks for the input here guys, I'm going to need to do some good research on this subject as it's already getting complicated, but that's ok, the idea here is to document my travels and hopefully come up with an extremely economical solution others can benefit from too.
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