What should I use to heat

[soonerlightning]

I have a 5'x5'x5' oven that I built and have been trying to figure out what I want to use to heat it. It has a 3" frame that will house the insulation the interior walls are a 18 guage steel. I have been trying to figure out what to use to heat this monster. I tried using standard heating elements from a kitchen oven (4 to be exact) it only managed to pull the oven up to 140*. However this is with no insulation. I plan to use foil backed insulation and then wire the elements in. Any suggestions would be great.

[edwardpic]

We have a 4X4X6 oven and we use (6) 1500W elements rated at 240 volt, we do have 3 phase though. Ours gets up to 500 degree no problem.
Try McMaster-Carr try Style B heat strips-120 or 240 volt-1500W elements part# 3576k19

Ed

[soonerlightning]

Thanks for the help. I have found all sorts of new ways to heat now.

[gourdhedd]

Sooner:
Are you sure that you had those original oven elements wired up right? Sounds like maybe you had them wired in series rather than parallel, and they are not producing enough heat.

[mikekozura]

Hey Gary your my hero man I got all my ideas from your web site. I got the contactor from famous, I tracked down 2" Owens Corning 703 local here in Pittsburgh. It started out I was going to build the same one. Then I found the cabinet. Thus the Binford 5000 was born LOL. Thanks later

Sorry sooner this had nothing to do with your post. Gary's site helped me.

[soonerlightning]

So I need to wire the elements in a parallel rather than a series? I did have them in a series and didnt think about it droping the power that way. Thanks for the input.

:edit: I went back and looked at my pics of the oven and noticed that the elements were infact wired in a parallel to begin with. So evedently its just the lack of insulation..

[gourdhedd]

Thanks for the kind words, Mike. Glad I could help.

Sooner: That idea about series wiring was a shot in the dark. Good luck.

[planebuilder]

Finally, I found some people sharing ideas for ovens!! Thought this idea might help someone. I have built a few ovens over the past 20 years for molding plexiglass. The requirements are almost identical to those for powder, and I now use my plexi oven also for curing powder!
The best system ( I have a few in the scrap pile), is built with metal 2x4's from home depot and standard pink fiberglas insulation. It is about 6' x 6' x 4' high. The most critical problem I found is interior air/heat circulation. The cure, no pun intended, is big volume so the air has room to move, and a powerful fan. The system that worked best is this... I got an electric forced air home furnace from the scrap yard, and disected it, installed the heating element set and the squirrel cage fan inside the oven. I made an extended shaft for the fan so the motor stayed outside the oven heat area. Lots of heat, 10 min. to get to 400*F, and even temp throughout. I built an angle iron frame around and over the oven with a cable, pulley, and counterweight system so that the oven box raises 4' up off its floor to open. That way I can preheat, shut the power off, raise the box without loosing all the heat since the hot air raises with it, load the parts and lower the box, then turn the power on for the cure cycle.
You still have to be CAREFUL, getting hit in the face with a blast of 400* is very dangerous.
Another idea... I saw some talk about how to bend sheet metal for panels if you don't have a break. I did experiments years ago for my customers to solve this delema and came up with a solution that works well. Get a length of 2" angle iron a little longer than the longest bend you need. Lay it on the floor with the corner pointing up, like an upside down "V". Lay the sheet metal over the angle and line up the bend line with the angle ridge. Hit progressively along the line with a rubber hammer. Clamp the ends or have friends stand on them to stop them from moving when hammering. You will be surprised how close you can get to 90* and you can finish the bend by hand once the crease is there.
I now am going to build a 8'x 8' x 24' gas oven, anyone out there with ideas?
I have a machinery shipping container I will insulate for the box. I have found lots of info on building gas burners on the metal casting and blacksmith forums, not rocket science and controls can be found. My uneducated opinion is that a gas flame behind a metal panel shouldn't be more dangerous than a red hot element. Don't think an electric element is without risc if not used with care, I have seen fuel vapor egnited by a 12" long piece of red hot steel, Keep powder dust out of your oven!
Sorry for rambeling!!

[dbug10]

I think im going to use spent nuclear rods for heating my oven they cant be anymore dangerous that the other options LOL

[datadawg]

PlaneBuilder, do you have pictures of your current oven? I am curious about using the forced hot air. I know someone who owns a HVAC company and might be able to get a furance for free. I am going to start building my oven next weekend and want to comfirm what i am doing for heat. It is going to 6' x 6' x 10'.
Thanks.