How many amps?

[TreyY]

So my plans to build a oven are going to depend on how many amps I will be needing. I want to make it 2'wx3'h and between 4'-6' long. If I do go 6' long then from what I have read I will need 4 elements and is that going to be 1500W or 3000W elements? What I am shooting for is 30amps or lower so any ideas would be great. I have been looking at McMaster-Carr, powdercoat.4t.com, and this forum. It is basically just the wiring and electrical that I need help with. Thanks for any comments/ideas and I look forard to being part of this great forum.

[mikekozura]

Originally Posted by TreyY

So my plans to build a oven are going to depend on how many amps I will be needing. I want to make it 2'wx3'h and between 4'-6' long. If I do go 6' long then from what I have read I will need 4 elements and is that going to be 1500W or 3000W elements? What I am shooting for is 30amps or lower so any ideas would be great. I have been looking at McMaster-Carr, powdercoat.4t.com, and this forum. It is basically just the wiring and electrical that I need help with. Thanks for any comments/ideas and I look forard to being part of this great forum.

Dude if it was'nt for this forum I'd be screwed. The only dumb question is the one you don't ask. I have a oven 2x3x6 with 4 1500 watt elements 6000w @ 220v = 27.28 amps. If you need any wiring help E-mail me your phone number and I'm sure I can help you as long as it's single phase. Or just post on here or just e-mail your questions.

[KZjim]

I have been talking with my local rep from Tempco about new elements and a new 'stat for my oven, he has been very helpful, you might want to give your local rep a call..

[TreyY]

sweet thanks for the support. And Mike you can be sure that I will be asking some questions. And I am pretty sure that it is going to be single phase and Im thinking of building it the same way as you Mike, except mine would lay on the ground and be 6' long instead of high. So are the 4 1500W elements enough to heat that up? Also how thick are your walls. Is 1inch thick insulation enough are is it better to go with 2inch thick?

[mikekozura]

Originally Posted by TreyY

sweet thanks for the support. And Mike you can be sure that I will be asking some questions. And I am pretty sure that it is going to be single phase and Im thinking of building it the same way as you Mike, except mine would lay on the ground and be 6' long instead of high. So are the 4 1500W elements enough to heat that up? Also how thick are your walls. Is 1inch thick insulation enough are is it better to go with 2inch thick?

Four 1500w elements will be fine. I would go with no less then 2" of insulation. That ridge Owens Corning #703 I used was nice it stands up by it self and you can cut it with a hand saw. It was a little hard to find here in Pittsburgh, PA (home of the Steelers). I found a commercial supply place that sold c.o.d to the public.
http://www.hamiltongv.com/

I can't seem to get the powder coat oven site to come up.
http://www.powdercoatoven.4t.com
Whats up Gary where's the site... Hope it's not gone forever....

Also this is a good thread to read over
Wiring Oven

[TreyY]

Okay so I am going to start ordering all the stuff I am going to need to make my oven. Here are some questions for my man mike:
1. For the thermostat, does it have a wire that goes into the oven to read the temperature and then that will tell the contactor to turn on or off?
2. On the Powdercoat.4t site Gary has his wired to where the elements plug into the outside of the electrical box. Did he just do this to make it so that his oven was collapsible? If so I could just wire the elements straight to the side of the contactor?
3. I don't really understand what the Nuetral wire is for, any explaination would be helpful.
4. And I understand even less the bus bar. is it just a piece to split the power up from the wires? And is it insulated from the box (it looks like the screws make contach with the sheet metal)

[TreyY]

Almost forgot, Thanks for the help Mike. If I run into any problems while building it I will definitly contact you eithier through E-mail or this site. And I was looking at what I am going to use as a thermostat and the one used here http://web.archive.org/web/200502062...s.com/id44.htm cost a lot. Do you have any other suggestions or is that how much they run? I am looking around for one but I am insure of what to look for.

[mikekozura]

1. Yes the thermostat has a what I guess would be called a thermocouple that you run into the oven. What you should do is find a old house oven even if you have to pay for it you get your thermostat and two elements. (I used two old ovens)

2. Yes Gary made that oven so he could take it apart. Yes you wire them straight to the contactor. If you use 1500w elements you can run two wires to each element for a total of 8 wires and there's room on the load side of the contactor for all those wires if you do that you only need #12awg 1500 watts divided by 220v = 6.82amps. 12awg is good for 20amps.

3. OK you have to have a neutral or return as its called to ground the oven and complete your control circuit.

4. The bus bar is just a place to make easy connections yes all three are separated and they do not touch the oven except from the neutral in the middle with a ground strap I got all that from one of the old ovens. Dude you have to get at least one old oven to take apart its like Monster Garage.

5. I checked on new thermostats they were about 60 to 100 bucks. Get at least one used oven boy do's it help.

Will get it buddy, if talking like this dos'nt work you can e-mail your phone number I have that Vonage internet phone I can call anywhere in the US, Canada, Puerto Rico For $24.99 a mouth it's pretty cool no taxes until the goverment gets a hold of them. If you don't have the basic idea of electric thats what will have to do. I've done it before I know I can get you going.

Where ya from ??

[TreyY]

Thanks a lot Mike. I will just post my Cell number here, Not to worried about people calling me, (909) 210-4713. I live in So. California, about 50 miles to the east of L.A. I will work on getting the old oven for the thermostat and some other misc. parts, but as for the elements im gonna just buy new (advice from gary to make mounting them easyist and to make sure they are 1500W). So far It has been difficult trying to find some 1500W elements for 220V. If it is for say a 240V then can i still use them or does it have to be exact? The closest that I can get is this one http://www.emeraldelectronic.com/sto...ID/46/file.htm which is 2400/1800W and 240/208V does that mean that I can use 220V and it would give me around 2000W or what. This is the biggest problem I am having right now. I am going to look around a lot more and try some calls to some aplliance repair shops to see if they might have some. But if all I want to run is 4 1500W making less that 30amps then should i just run 3 1950W elements but they are 240V here they are http://www.emeraldelectronic.com/sto...ID/46/file.htm . Could I use those on a 220V or not? Thanks for the help again, idealy i would want to use the 4 1500W but i can't seem to find them and I am just limited by the amperage.

[jrow]

Trey,

Just some thoughts! If you have an appliance repair store near you they would have new heating elements and possibly old ovens. I have a real good hardware store near me that caries oven elements also.

Hope this helps.

John