Small oven for a big part, removable panel?
I been looking at powder coating the truck wheels before long, mostly just for practice. One thing I quickly noticed on 3/4-1ton trucks is that big fat center hub on the brake drum (where the bearings are) and the rear axle face (the axle removes with a few bolts and slides out, with wheel still on truck). You know the type.
Only the 4" face needs coated but the axle is maybe 3-4' long.
What I came up with since I don't have a 4' oven yet, just make a removable slide in panel for a small oven. By making 2 panel halfs that slide in place I could slide in the axle face, support the axle, slide in the panels, bake the axle face. The long section of the axle that is not coated anyway just sticks out the side or rear of the oven. Each half panel would have half a round hole of course that closes onto the axle shaft, maybe fill any gaps with a little loose fiberglass. Doing many axles would of course mean gaps at times since they are not all the same Dia.
I think my electric stove will bake the large brake drums fine, but of course not an axle.
If I do these parts for my truck I still have the small oven I made from a large microwave and ni-chrome wire. The back of the microwave is one steel panel so easy to cut out the back, place a slider for top and bottom, then make 2 panels to fit the sliders.
Other than the long not coated shaft, it's really just a 4" round part so most any small oven could be used.
Didn't know if anything like that idea was posted yet, and though might be usefull for others doing truck parts and similar.
Although some heat will be lost through the shaft of course baking the part in a small oven probably still uses less total power than using a 4'-5' oven.
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