oven question

[Fudd]

How much wattage of heater elements are you using for a given size oven? Say a watts/cubic ft. I am looking to build a 3' square by 7' tall oven and use standard oven elements. Also I would like to install 2 lights. Any recommendations on the lights? I would also like to hear about how people have installed fans for circulation.

Maybe non-stick should create a site to post oven plans and construction details. It looks like this a popular subject.

Thanks,

Scott

[non-stick]

I gotta be honest with ya... I seel industrial ovens, not build them per-se. I see this as a classic "Dale" kinda post truth be known. How they should be used I'm good on, but I have no problem in yielding the floor where others are better at it. Sorry guys.... It's one of the many things I don't know about. Anybody else have any insight here? I'd be glad for the assist..... Russ

[Fireblade]

Well just for ideas to give you elements can be either the household oven type, or industrial elements. Do a quick search on McMaster Carr or Grainger and you will see a few elements available. Each has different wattages they give off in heat, take different voltages, ie 120 or 240, and different thicknesses, which I am not real sure what that does. Maybe thicker they are the higher wattage they can offer, I forget right now. They run at a varied price, household elements, I think run about $40 bucks a piece and may put out about 2000 watts. Now picture this, say a 7' x 4' x 4' oven needs 16,000 watts to heat up and maintain 400 degrees at decent speed of temp rise. You would need 8 household elements to get the 16,000 watts, ie $320 bucks, plus temp controls and etc... The industrial elements would would cost less to do the same, but still need controllers, temp probe, etc... Building these is not a quick job, they take time and thought to construct correctly, so make sure you know what you are doing, or you will waste alot of money and have a pile of junk. I do not have pics of any of my fan setups, and to be quite honest, I still experiment and change the setup from time to time. My digi camera is broken and I need to buy another one, but I have other things I want more than that right now, so I am cringing and trying to forget about it.

[DALE]

Okay where to start? Let's start with the lights, oven are readily available from hardware stores and they are easy to work with. I placed a pocket in the oven wall and placed these in the pocket with glass covering them. They are 110V and you can run them off of one side ofe the oven 220V so they require no strange wiring. My oven has a chamber built under the floor approx. 4 inches deep to house the fan motors available from grainger. Fans are 8" aluminum from NU-VU part number 50-0152 and they are $13.95 each. Fans can be purchased at 1-906-863-4401, they are bread proofer fans. Just be sure to get long shaft and 600 or less RPM motors that are open housing. The motors are below the floor where they receive very little heat. As for elements go for about 2000 watts each and start with four once the metal is all brought up to temp it should recover heat loss well. Be sure to have a min. of 2 inches of insulation but I recommend at least 4 inches. When you install elements leave room to add more if needed. If you wire them in paralell you can easily add more at any time. Hope this helps

[non-stick]

they shoot! they scooooooooore. I knoew you guys would have something fantastic to add to this. See that? VERY knowledgeable people here and I love every post ya'll make. Thanx,guys.