Caswell Inc. Metal Finishing Forums

Need some info on building an oven.

slammedxonair — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:01:24 GMT

Hello everybody, I just reveived my PC startup equipment and I am interested in building an oven and adding powder coating to my business. I have been reading around on a bunch of forums trying to gather as much info as I can. I send Teds Fab an email on Tuesday and I was just wondering about how long it takes to receive a reply back? But I will post some of my questions here to see If anybody here can help me out.

I have been looking at Teds control boxes listed on ebay as well as some of the other parts he uses on his ovens listed on his web site. Here are a couple questions I have if anybody can help out.

Are the 4, 3200 watt heaters the largest you can run with the 2, 40 amp magnetic contact relays, or would I be able to run 4, 3800 watt heaters on those relays? I plan to start out with powder coating but would like to add ceramics also a little while down the road, I like to plan ahead. I was thinking about possibly building a 4x4x6 oven (maybe 3x4x6) and adding in a insulated shelf maybe 2' from the top of the unit when doing ceramics. I have thrown some other numbers around as well in the calculators online to try and figure this out.

Would it be possible to have 2 heater switches on the control box? 1 switch for the 2 main heaters for powder coating and 1 switch for the 2 secondary heaters for when I start doing ceramics? Or could all 4 just always run, cooler when powder coating and then they would crank up the heat with ceramics?

Would it also be possible to run the 3 elements on 1 power switch and then 1 extra element on a second switch or would that require a different magnetic contact relay other than what Teds boxes normally use? This is not a big deal 2 and 2 would probably work fine rather than 3 and 1.

I would like to keep the amps under 40-50 max when powder coating but when doing ceramics it could go over that (I will probably add the 2 extra heat elements later on for ceramics but want to have the controls there ready to go.)

I know I will also want to add a light inside and possibly a fan that Ted sells if it can withstand the ceramic temps. Does having a fan circulating the air effect the finish of the powder coating at all such as creating runs or anything like that?

Does Teds control box come with the connectors to connect the elements to high temp wire?

Thanks for any help.

Bead blasting for prep

shitthatkilledelvis — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:00:15 GMT

Hi everyone,

I am about to embark on an experiment with Oxalic Acid hard ano. My concern if that Oxalic Acid from what I have researched produces a smoother, less textured finish, than sulfuric acid. Would beat blasting be an acceptable pre-treatment due to the matte, more tactile finish I require.

thanks,

Show aluminum polish

rerod — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 01:37:20 GMT

I have a motorcycle which almost every aluminum part has been sanded and then polished to a mirror finish. Whats the best method to maintain a mirror finish?

Wenol? Mothers?

Thanks..

What is with 6asf

newanodize — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 16:18:44 GMT

Why is everybody attached to 6asf?

I can understand if you are trying to anodize WITHOUT a chiller so you don't see your tank temperature increase. BUT some of you guys with chillers still stand by 6asf?

What is the attachment?

Fitting

Magnum164 — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 15:45:09 GMT

I have a Redline gun I bought a few months back and now I am ready to start PC's some parts. I realized the fittings state a 1/8-28NPT fitting is required. I didn't think NPT was 28TPI. Anyone know where I can get this fitting online from? Nobody local has anything close. Only comments I have found is that the 1/8-28 may actually be British type threads?

First time using a "candy" color, advice needed.

Jthomas7 — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 04:17:48 GMT

I've posted in the past that I restore vintage Honda minibikes. I've done several Candy emerald green CT70's in the past and spend a ton of money having them painted. My ovens plenty big enough to powder coat one of these frames so I figure why not, lets give it a shot.

This is the color I'm going for.

Caswell's psycho lime looks close but I know it's probably applied over polished aluminum in this pic.

Any advice on how I should prepare my steel frame for powder? what base coat?

new anod line setup

timhays — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 01:17:37 GMT

to whom it may concern,i am interested in setting up a new anodizing line.
my tank size will be 55 gallon for all solutions.

i will be using ti racks.

my parts have the following surface area 86 sq inches....93 sq inches....182 sq inches

the largest power supply i have found that will run on single phase is 150 amps 20volts lambda unit.

how many parts will i be able to run in a batch with this unit and at what time?

also is it possible to hardcoat type 111 the 182 sq inch parts and how many per batch with this unit?

thank in advance for your reply.

First PC project

c2rower — Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:21:27 GMT

In November of 2008 I bought a 20 qt Hobart mixer for my wife’s Birthday for $1100 on CL. They go for $1200 to $1800 on Ebay depending on condition. It was built in 1969 and weighs 200 lbs. I brought it home and marveled at it and thought it would be neat to do a restoration with a PC finish. It’s built like an old Fod 8N tractor. So before she even used it I completely tore it down to bare castings. I went on CL and bought a 2 stage compressor and convection oven, then got a sandblast cabinet, IR temp sensor and the Caswell import gun.
Here is what it looked like when I brought it home:

And it sat that way till about a month ago. She went on strike and said she was not going to bake any bread till I put the damn thing back together. So I had to get my butt in gear. A lot of lurking on this forum gave me the confidence to get started.

The castings were very heavy; and I was very intimidated at this for a first project. Prepping the castings took a lot of work (stripping, filling and smoothing). That old cast iron is HARD. The convection oven helped heat things up more uniformly and the temp sensor was indespensible.

I replaced all the bearings and seals in the 3 speed transmission. I’d be embarrassed to say how many hours I have in the whole project.

Stainless

steveleb — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 15:51:27 GMT

I am kind of new to the world of polishing. I just polished a hub cap made of stainless. First I used black on a sissal wheel after I used white on a regular wheel now I have very fine scratches almost polished out. What would be the next step to get a finely polished peice? I am not looking for shear perfection.

Anodize vs. Powder Coat

cpowellpumphrey — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 01:35:24 GMT

My wife is making wind chimes. She wants me to anodize and dye aluminum tubes so they will be colored. I am thinking that perhaps powder coating would be a better deal since there are more colors available, or so it seems. To cut to the chase here are my questions.
1. Which method is better for outdoor aluminum coating? I want the process to be free from sun fading.
2. Powder Coating seems to have a wider color availability. Do you agree?
3. The start up costs seem to be about the same or am I mistaken? Power supply vs compressor; guns and stuff vs tanks, tubes, buckets and tubs.
4. I have seen Powder Coated wind chimes but they are always in flat black. Any particular reason that you're aware of?
5. The learning curve seems to be about the same. Meaning that they both will take about the same amount of time to learn to do right. Do you agree?
6. Does powder coating change the tone of aluminum tubing? From what I have seen it doesn't seem to. I know anodizing does not change the tone which is the important thing. The flat black chimes I have seen sound like just fine.

Any help you experienced guys could provide would be much appreciated.

Newbie - Power supply good enough?

cpowellpumphrey — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 19:14:57 GMT

Okay, I have a line on this power supply but before I buy I want to make sure it's good enough. It is a used power supply though. I will be dying parts that equal 469 sq.in. sometimes a little more but sometimes less. I understand that you can go smaller without problems but can't always go bigger. I think this will handle everything I will want to do since it seems the capacity is large enough. Here are the specs, tell me what you think please. I'm looking at this as a retirement job and want to get on with it but do it right.

Two level of control for both current and voltage outputs: coarse and fine for ease of use

Outputs: 0-30 V and 0-30 A

Input voltage: 110V/60Hz

Line regulation: CV <= 0.02% + 3 mV, CC <= 0.5% + 3 mA

Load Regulation: CV <= 0.02% + 10mV, CC <= 0.5% + 10 mA

Ripple noise: CV <= 10 mV RMS, CC <= 10 mA RMS

Protection: constant current and short-circuit protection

LED reading accuracy: +/-1% for voltage and +/-2% for current

Environment: 0-40C, relative humidity < 90%

Size: 12" x 10" x 6"

Weight: 12 lbs

Picking out the correct PID.

rtcc — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:41:04 GMT

Hi everyone, I am making plans to build my first PCing oven and I am trying to pick out the appropriate PID. I am going to be using 2 1500 watt elements with SSRs. When I am shopping around there seems to be so many options for them. What options do I have to have for an oven? I'm still working out the details but I am going to wire for 220V in the garage. They range in pricing from 20 bucks to 200. I guess I am just looking for the bare minimum that I need. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks
Terry

Picking out the correct PID.

rtcc — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:35:12 GMT

PID Went Out, replaced with back up, now contactors not cycling. Need help

wmff82 — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 23:54:55 GMT

Had a oven full of suspension parts, and noticed the PID from (Ted's) was flashing a err/alarm across the display, and noticed the temp had fallen to around 300. Long story short, I replaced the the PID with a back up auberins pid 2362 I purchased, for this very reason.

The back up is a little different, but we got it wired in and all was good...
EXCEPT the contactors will not cycle... I hear them come on when I flip the heater switch on, but again, they wont cycle and it has be frustrated.. Have a ton of stuff to get done.

The control box I have is Ted's. Everything is exactly as sent to me, except for the new PID..
Where is a good place to look first to trouble shoot?

I noticed Teds PID came ready to go. Simply flip on the power, wait until the out light comes on, then flip the heater switch on...
Shouldnt this PID be the same.. I see the out light come on, and it flashes, but the temperature keeps on going.

I did ohm out the contactors and all is good there as well.
Thanks for any help!

lots of amps

pyroracing85 — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 12:18:59 GMT

So who here with the larger tanks put 30 amps or so to their parts?

I just started ramping up production and I have a full rack of parts. From top to bottom I get color differences.

I have an idea on what it could be due to. That idea is because I have so many amps my solution isn't being mixed quick enough.

Has anybody else came across this problem?