Freezer Conversion

[rumlesj1]

i have a top load freezer that the wife picked up for me at an auction for $2 she thought that i could use it for an oven.

it is about 8 feet long 4 feet deep and 3 feet wide (roughly)

what process should i look at to convert this into an oven? or should i just throw it out? will a top load even work?

this is my first post and i know very little about powder coating, so please help, thanks

John.

[c-k-racing]

it will work if you lay it on its side. remove all the plastic parts, rubber seals and so forth. I just started on a fridge conversion tonight myself. I've got it down to the factory insulation that i'll also be removing. I'll be replacing it with some mineral wool insulation.

hope that help.
Chris

[rumlesj1]

so it will work then. i guess laying it on its side would work. then i would put the elements on the side of the freezer (which then would be the bottom)
and build a stand for it.

cool that helps some.

one more question. the insulation that is inside the freezer gets striped out and then replaced with this mineral wool stuff. so i dont need to build a frame inside the freezer then right?

i just want to get everything in order before i get started on this thing.

[holeshot87]

you can sit it upright also. it would be easier to load.

[JTW37]

I was going to lay mine down and my son talked me out of it. Man am I glad I listened to him. (that's different). Anyway, I built mine from scratch, so I had the choice to do what ever. But, your choice and some have gone that way and haven't heard of them changing it. Which is better? Standing IMO.
My 2 cents.

[rumlesj1]

so which way is better? is thier any benifits from on the side VS. standing up or vice versa?

also how many elements should i have in this thing? would 3 do it or should i have 6? i want to build this thing right the first time.

[c-k-racing]

you will need to frame the inside as well. Kind of like a insulation sandwish. this link will help you out on the amount of elements you will need. BTU Calculator provided by the heater shop .com you will need to know the insided deminsions of what the oven will be in order to use the link. I used average insulation when i done mine. Don't do like i done and say you just want the oven to heat up to 400* and be done with it. You'll need to subtract the room temp. from the hightest temp. you want to reach. and put that into the Fahrenheit temperature increase spot.

I'm running 3 3100 watt elements in mine, or should i say i will be running them anyway.

Hope that helps
ps i don't know what to tell you about the vertcial or horizontal. I'm building mine verticial

Chris

[rumlesj1]

do you have any pics of what the inside frame should look like? and also does the oven have to be inside a building or can it be in a work shop that wont be heated?

thanks for the link to the BTU calculator.

[c-k-racing]

no prob on the link, glad i could help. My oven will be in a unheated building. Only thing i see that a heated building will help is to get the oven up to temp faster. No, sorry i don't have any pics. I'll try to take some thursday. That will be the next day i get to work on the oven.


Chris

[FigureLLC]

a couple things off the top of my head:

1) we built an oven out of a big file cabinet. we used the file cabinet as the inside wall of the oven and built the frame using 2x4 metal studs around it, so as to not eat up any precious oven space.

2) being in an unheated shop doesn't matter... just change the temp rise in the BTU calculater accordingly. (e.g. 400-32 vs. 400-72). the BTU calculator is a good tool, but next oven i build i'll probably double what it tells me i need.

someone correct me if i'm wrong, but the worst that could happen is the elements would be off for longer (e.g. 50% duty cycle to maintain temp @ 1000W vs. 25% duty cycle @2000W). it should still take roughly the same amount of energy to maintain the oven at 400deg, it's just a matter of speed, right?

3) yeah, i'd stand it up. i like standing while i work better than crouching, and the foot print is much smaller.