New oven build, on the cheap

[motoman3b]

Hey everybody been reading these forums for a couple weeks and this is my 1st post, There is a ton of great info here and thought I'd share my build with everybody as well.

My main reason for getting into to powdercoating was to coat stuff for my quads and other toys as I race motocross and the stock paint just doesnt hold up well. After already doing the dirt work of sandblasting and people wanting 200+ dollars to coat my frame I figured for what it was worth I'd just build an oven myself. So far I estimate this oven to cost me <$500 which if I do a few side jobs should pay for itself in no time.

The sheet metal I found at a local scrap yard that sells good used stuff they get in, this stuff was basically brand new looking 20 ga galvanized sheet 53"x67" so I based most the panels that size to reduce cutting of the sheet, even though I have a plasma cutter, just wanted to build this with little effort needed. 12 sheets costed me about 90 bucks

The studs actually costed more at about 102

Elements I bought off ebay 4 3400 watt ones for around 88 shipped
PID was 55
contactor 28
rockwool insulation - free, by just peer chance I was looking on craigslist and found a guy tearing some out of a commercial building for free, took it all filled my truck 8ft truck bed to the top of the cab!
Still have to buy wiring and terminal blocks, stuff like that

I plan to build the bottom piece of the oven out of some aluminum square stock I have around from old semi load locks

Elements I thought of mounting vertically in floor so I could easily keep on the wiring to the base section and not have to use high temp wire.

Window was out of a toaster oven so I can open it to take part temps

Pics coming

[motoman3b]

Here are some pictures of my progress one thing I did find easy after you make one panel square is that its alot faster and easier to just leave it flat and clamp your cut pieces to it and use it as template for other panels the same size.



rockwool insulation.. I think I'll have enough

[motoman3b]

door frame with window

[leimdog]

Okay, I'm jealous. Yeah, you got an awesome deal on the steel and scored on the rockwool!! Nice finds!

Locating cheap source of steel has been difficult for me. And all the scrap places are closed on weekends. I'll have to scour Craigslist more.

[motoman3b]

Okay, I'm jealous. Yeah, you got an awesome deal on the steel and scored on the rockwool!! Nice finds!

Locating cheap source of steel has been difficult for me. And all the scrap places are closed on weekends. I'll have to scour Craigslist more.

Yeah the scrap yard I got the sheet from is only open monday through thursday but I get out of work early enough to make it out there. Not sure if you live near any big citys but my university has a surplus store that sells alot of nice steel file cabinets, bookshelfs, and double door cabinets. Was close to just using one of those but none were quite the size I wanted so there's another place to look.

The scrap yard did have a nice commercial fridge double door all S.S. but that was already sold I guess, that would of been real easy to convert

[jeflab]

Hey, if you get a chance can you take a closer picture of how you used to toaster oven door. It looks like mine and i'm thinking about using it too. Thanks.

[motoman3b]

well here it is all done... have had it finished for about a month now just about ready to coat my frame and a arms.... have done a few small wrenches and things like that to test it out. Powder coating is fast most small parts are great but doing a whole frame that was a pain to get all of the paint off especially when mine was the real close to bare metal color (silver 450r frame) plus I was inside of an ice shanty to contain the sand during blasting... not too much fun. But the oven works great gets up to 400 degrees in about 15 minutes

[motoman3b]

one thing i would advise is not getting the flame buster high temp caulk at menards the stuff drys cracks and falls apart... really crappy for flexing walls in the oven. ended up scraping most of it off and putting some silicone based stuff in there

[mikechase]

Thanks for the warning on the flame buster high temp caulk at Menards. I was going to use it this week. What exactly would you recommend?

Thanks

Mike
Khemm Powder Coating

[motoman3b]

I guess if I could have found it I would use the high heat RTV type stuff but I just used some type of 100% silicone caulk made for stuff like aluminum drip edge... something about it stuck to metal better then the other caulks. Havent fired it up since then but if its pure silicone it should withstand the temps in the oven.