building a oven question

[Jay87T]

Guys Im building a oven using one IR propane header element its about 8 inches round I will have a fan for ventilation in this oven my question is, do you think it would get up to 400 degrees? the oven will also be insulated.
and also my oven will have a inner and outer casing, can I use duct sheet
metal for the inside blader? or will this sheet metal be to thin?

[bzer1]

Jay,

A couple of questions:
1. How big is your oven going to be?
2. how often do you plan on using it?
3. How will you be insulating it?

Correct me if I'm wrong but, I believe IR heats objects not air directly. I doubt you will see 400f temps inside your oven, unless you leave a part in there for an extended period of time. It seems to me that a gas IR heater closed in an oven would be a bad choice. The reason I say that is...if you have odly shaped parts you will run into problems getting your powder to cure in the corners. Another consideration is... How will you turn the part during the curing process to keep it flowing out and curing somewhat evenly? I personally like gas IR heaters for curing, but wouldn't recommend putting it in a box. Besides...How will you feed the propane to the heater? That would take some potentially hazardous plumbing, because you might need to have the ability to relocate the lamp inside the oven to enable larger pieces. I'd say for a more permanent setup...I might be tempted to use several(3 or 4) electric IR lamps in a sheet metal box configuration. If you stagger them properly in a horseshoe shape you will probably get pretty good coverage. It's an expensive solution, but it has alot of potential. Just my humble opinion. Good luck with it

[Jay87T]

Trouble with the Electric setup is I dont want to run 220 volts into the garage. I know I probly can but Im only renting my house and dont want to be modifing it. I would like to make a setup with propane somehow, How about a BBQ burnner on the bottom of this oven I want to build then perhaps a grill with some ceramic bricks over the burner then a grill for the nice parts? I only want a oven about 3x3x3 nothing to big just big enough for perhaps valve covers or a plenum. as for feeding the burner I would just use BBQ rubber hoses for from the tank to the burner with a regulator.

[bzer1]

As long as the hoses are isolated from direct contact with the heater it should be ok. I would be inclined to put the hoses in a seperate enclosure or bolt the element head directly to the wall and only run the hose through enough to hook it to the head.