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DougC DougC is offline
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Default I need to heat a roller...?

For a project I am working on, I need to heat a roller.

The roller in question is a tube about eight feet long, horizontal,
about five inches in diameter and .049" thick aluminum wall. It turns on
a 3/4" axle and is supported on three spiders at the center and ends, so
that air can flow through.

The whole machine is always indoors, in ~70F room-temperature
conditions. For other reasons it can't be used in drastically colder
temperatures.

I need to be able to heat this whole thing to maybe 120F to 150F,
automatically. That is, I want to set a temperature and forget it. The
wattage I am guessing might take 1000 watts, and it must be electric
(dry) heat--propane will not help, as it gives off water vapor.

Are there any cheap UL-listed devices around built for doing this? I can
construct a "fan box" to use a separate fan to circulate the air if need
be. I really just need the heater circuit and elements... The fan motor
may not be able to withstand 150F so it will be separated from the
hot-air loop, but that's not a problem.

I know that there are industrial-devices known as 'drying-room heaters'
but they are way overbuilt and too expensive for my meager budget. There
must be something cheap and available that I can abuse reasonably-safely
to do this. I'd prefer lowering the operating temperature of a device
built for higher temps, than raising the temperature of something meant
for lower temps....

I have looked at a bunch of toaster-ovens and the lowest "warm" setting
for the food seems to usually start at 150F. I have a multimeter with
some thermal probes so I can test temps fairly decently and I know a bit
about electronics but don't know if there's any easy way to recalibrate
the heat to a lower temp.