[Patience]

I am not building a huge oven like you all are. I am only using a single 2400w element in a well insulated 2x4x4 foot upright stainless box with a 4 wire plug. Since I only require max of 300*F I think I'm ok with only 1 element.

My questions,

Does the element portion behind the mounting bracket (i.e. the 2 inches from the terminal to the bracket) get just as hot as the rest of the element? I've seen different designs which guys poke that portion through the oven so the terminals are outside the insulation, and others use high temp wiring and keep the entire element in the oven shell. For those pokers, how much space between the exposed element and the insulation do you allow?

I will be using PID/SSR to control 1 leg of the 220V, do you fuse that leg between the SSR and the element, or the SSR and the incoming hot. Do you really need a fuse with 220v element? I will be using a 20amp breaker and the PID and convection fan will be fused seperatly.

When you guys talk about contactors, is this specifically when more than one element will be used? I just planned on using a PID/SSR to control a single element.

Thanks in advance!