Greetings Gents.

Just an update, the powder coating oven works!

here's some pictures of the oven:
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/..._Coat/Oven.htm

In true RCM fashion, I started with what was free / handy, and worked
up from there. The interior walls of the oven are fabricated from
scrap heavy duty galvanized roofing panels (free from a welding
friend, left over from one of his projects.

After many sleepless nights on how to turn these corrugated panels
into a box, I finally stumbled onto the idea of wrapping the edges
with 1 5/8" galvanized channel from Home Despot (normally used for
metal stud framing work).

Once the panels were edged, I pop riveted them into the ~3'x3'x6' tall
rectangular box, and added some angle iron hinges and feet. Now the
problem was how to insulate the dang thing.

I searched for some of the rigid fiberglass duct board, but promptly
turned that idea down as "Holy Mother Of Pearl!" is that stuff
expensive ($45 a 4x10 sheet, the best price I could find locally, and
it was only 3/4" thick, couldn't find any 2" stuff locally)

After much head scratching, I picked up some cheap R14 wall
insulation, peeled off the paper liner, tacked it to the chamber walls
with spray contact cement (Not much contact cement, just enough to
temporarily hold the stuff in place).

Once the insulation was in place, I wrapped the whole stinking thing
with Al roofing flashing held in place with Al duct tape (the most
expensive part of the whole project). At 400F internal temperature,
the outside skin is just above room temp

Three salvaged oven heating elements provide 6KW of heat, resulting in
a 20 min run at full power to get up to working temp (400f), then the
elements run at about a 40% duty cycle to keep the oven at temp.

Here's some pictures of the first test samples I coated:
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/...at/Results.htm

The 'Peace Sign" is coated in Candy translucent purple, but the camera
flash makes it look blue.

One pole is coated in "Black Chrome" (which is way cool!)

The second pole has a base coat of black chrome followed by a second
coat of candy purple (which turned out WAY FREAKING COOL!)

Considering I had no clue, I'm pretty impressed with the results! I'm
using a horrible freight powder coat gun, and powders from he

http://www.columbiacoatings.com/ (no affiliation, other than a happy
customer)

So tonight, I lift my cup to Gary Brady and all you fine folks here on
RCM for the excellent advice and inspirations!


Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction, Testing, and Coating site)

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge

Pretty cool, James!
When I get my new shop set up, I think I'll give powder coating a try. Has
anyone here built an oven out of an old upright food freezer, and if so, how
did it perform? We have an old refrigerator converted into an oven at work
that we use to keep magnorite powder dry. It seems to make a pretty good
bake-out oven. The door gasket may have been changed out to a more suitable
heat resistant material. I'll check it out to see.

RJ

"James Lerch" wrote in message
...
Greetings Gents.

Just an update, the powder coating oven works!

here's some pictures of the oven:
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/..._Coat/Oven.htm

In true RCM fashion, I started with what was free / handy, and worked
up from there. The interior walls of the oven are fabricated from
scrap heavy duty galvanized roofing panels (free from a welding
friend, left over from one of his projects.

After many sleepless nights on how to turn these corrugated panels
into a box, I finally stumbled onto the idea of wrapping the edges
with 1 5/8" galvanized channel from Home Despot (normally used for
metal stud framing work).

Once the panels were edged, I pop riveted them into the ~3'x3'x6' tall
rectangular box, and added some angle iron hinges and feet. Now the
problem was how to insulate the dang thing.

I searched for some of the rigid fiberglass duct board, but promptly
turned that idea down as "Holy Mother Of Pearl!" is that stuff
expensive ($45 a 4x10 sheet, the best price I could find locally, and
it was only 3/4" thick, couldn't find any 2" stuff locally)

After much head scratching, I picked up some cheap R14 wall
insulation, peeled off the paper liner, tacked it to the chamber walls
with spray contact cement (Not much contact cement, just enough to
temporarily hold the stuff in place).

Once the insulation was in place, I wrapped the whole stinking thing
with Al roofing flashing held in place with Al duct tape (the most
expensive part of the whole project). At 400F internal temperature,
the outside skin is just above room temp

Three salvaged oven heating elements provide 6KW of heat, resulting in
a 20 min run at full power to get up to working temp (400f), then the
elements run at about a 40% duty cycle to keep the oven at temp.

Here's some pictures of the first test samples I coated:
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/...at/Results.htm

The 'Peace Sign" is coated in Candy translucent purple, but the camera
flash makes it look blue.

One pole is coated in "Black Chrome" (which is way cool!)

The second pole has a base coat of black chrome followed by a second
coat of candy purple (which turned out WAY FREAKING COOL!)

Considering I had no clue, I'm pretty impressed with the results! I'm
using a horrible freight powder coat gun, and powders from he

http://www.columbiacoatings.com/ (no affiliation, other than a happy
customer)

So tonight, I lift my cup to Gary Brady and all you fine folks here on
RCM for the excellent advice and inspirations!


Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction, Testing, and
Coating site)

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge

James Lerch wrote:
Greetings Gents.

Just an update, the powder coating oven works!

here's some pictures of the oven:
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/..._Coat/Oven.htm

Beautiful photos James!

Ya had to go and do it. Ya had to show me yet another thing that I
could do myself [one of my favorite quotes is "Why should I pay someone
$40 an hour to screw up what I can screw up myself for free?!!"]

So I'm already looking at Columbia Coatings and they're not terribly
far from me. Hmmm... maybe I could run down there and see what
they've got surplus... grin

Thanks! -- terry

Well done! I have been reading about this process from time to time and
wondering how difficult it would be to build my own oven. I wonder how
large an oven could be built as I was thinking of doing a tubular steel
fuselage. The length is 16' x 5' tail height and 30" width. I was thinking
of a one-off box with reflective material inside. 400 degrees is below the
combustion temp of wood and with reflective material inside. Maybe a small
fan for circulation of air along the lines of a convection oven. Thanks for
getting me thinking about this again.

"James Lerch" wrote in message
...
Greetings Gents.

Just an update, the powder coating oven works!

here's some pictures of the oven:
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/..._Coat/Oven.htm

In true RCM fashion, I started with what was free / handy, and worked
up from there. The interior walls of the oven are fabricated from
scrap heavy duty galvanized roofing panels (free from a welding
friend, left over from one of his projects.

After many sleepless nights on how to turn these corrugated panels
into a box, I finally stumbled onto the idea of wrapping the edges
with 1 5/8" galvanized channel from Home Despot (normally used for
metal stud framing work).

Once the panels were edged, I pop riveted them into the ~3'x3'x6' tall
rectangular box, and added some angle iron hinges and feet. Now the
problem was how to insulate the dang thing.

I searched for some of the rigid fiberglass duct board, but promptly
turned that idea down as "Holy Mother Of Pearl!" is that stuff
expensive ($45 a 4x10 sheet, the best price I could find locally, and
it was only 3/4" thick, couldn't find any 2" stuff locally)

After much head scratching, I picked up some cheap R14 wall
insulation, peeled off the paper liner, tacked it to the chamber walls
with spray contact cement (Not much contact cement, just enough to
temporarily hold the stuff in place).

Once the insulation was in place, I wrapped the whole stinking thing
with Al roofing flashing held in place with Al duct tape (the most
expensive part of the whole project). At 400F internal temperature,
the outside skin is just above room temp

Three salvaged oven heating elements provide 6KW of heat, resulting in
a 20 min run at full power to get up to working temp (400f), then the
elements run at about a 40% duty cycle to keep the oven at temp.

Here's some pictures of the first test samples I coated:
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/...at/Results.htm

Hi James,
I love your paint job, its a pity about the welding.
Regards. Rotty

Ebby wrote:

Well done! I have been reading about this process from time to time and
wondering how difficult it would be to build my own oven. I wonder how
large an oven could be built as I was thinking of doing a tubular steel
fuselage. The length is 16' x 5' tail height and 30" width. I was thinking
of a one-off box with reflective material inside. 400 degrees is below the
combustion temp of wood and with reflective material inside. Maybe a small
fan for circulation of air along the lines of a convection oven. Thanks for
getting me thinking about this again.



Sounds like a linear oven - continuous moving 'work' ramp up hot ramp down...

Wonder how long one has to have the 400 degrees for a good flow - ??

Martin

--
Martin Eastburn, Barbara Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 07:49:48 -0500, "Backlash"
wrote:

Pretty cool, James!
When I get my new shop set up, I think I'll give powder coating a try. Has
anyone here built an oven out of an old upright food freezer, and if so, how
did it perform?

I looked into that approach, but was concerened about the styrofoam
insulation used on the internal walls..

Anyone know at what tempature styrofoam turns into 'mush, smoke,
flames'?


Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction, Testing, and Coating site)

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 13:38:38 GMT, "Ebby"
wrote:

Well done! I have been reading about this process from time to time and
wondering how difficult it would be to build my own oven. I wonder how
large an oven could be built as I was thinking of doing a tubular steel
fuselage. The length is 16' x 5' tail height and 30" width. I was thinking
of a one-off box with reflective material inside.

Well, I read of one company that was / is converting old cargo
containers into powder coat ovens... No idea how much power it would
take to properly heat the thing in a reasonable amount of time, but...



400 degrees is below the
combustion temp of wood and with reflective material inside. Maybe a small
fan for circulation of air along the lines of a convection oven. Thanks for
getting me thinking about this again.

Carefull, once you have a powder coating oven, EVERYTHING looks like a
potential powder coat project

(for instance, as I spoke with my wife "Honey, these door knobs are
looking a little ugly, you want them chromed, gold, metal flaked, or
some other color






Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction, Testing, and Coating site)

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge

On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 21:02:57 -0000, "Rotty"
wrote:


Hi James,
I love your paint job, its a pity about the welding.
Regards. Rotty

I knew someone would mention my ugle Al welds While they aint
pretty, they sure seem strong ( The 'peace sign' supported by the
corners will support my weight!)

I've recently switch from 3/32 filler rod, to 1/16 filler rod, and
seem to be able to get a little nicer looking beads, but heck I'm just
happy I can make two pieces of Al into one!




Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction, Testing, and Coating site)

Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance.
Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent.
Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb.
Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts.
Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.
Calvin Coolidge

James Lerch wrote:
On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 13:38:38 GMT, "Ebby"
wrote:


Well done! I have been reading about this process from time to time and
wondering how difficult it would be to build my own oven. I wonder how
large an oven could be built as I was thinking of doing a tubular steel
fuselage. The length is 16' x 5' tail height and 30" width. I was thinking
of a one-off box with reflective material inside.


Well, I read of one company that was / is converting old cargo
containers into powder coat ovens... No idea how much power it would
take to properly heat the thing in a reasonable amount of time, but...




400 degrees is below the
combustion temp of wood and with reflective material inside. Maybe a small
fan for circulation of air along the lines of a convection oven. Thanks for
getting me thinking about this again.


Carefull, once you have a powder coating oven, EVERYTHING looks like a
potential powder coat project

(for instance, as I spoke with my wife "Honey, these door knobs are
looking a little ugly, you want them chromed, gold, metal flaked, or
some other color

Take Care,
James Lerch
http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm (My telescope construction, Testing, and Coating site)

Cargo Container - now power coat car and truck fenders and hoods or the whole car!
Martin

--
Martin Eastburn, Barbara Eastburn
@ home at Lion's Lair with our computer
NRA LOH, NRA Life
NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Hi;
I have been interested in powdercoating,but the oven was always a
problem.Thanks for sharing your oven design.I have been googling
powdercoat ovens and here is a link to another homemade oven.
http://www.powdercoatoven.4t.com/
I realize that you already have a oven,but there are many
lurkers(myself included) that are looking for as many ideas as
possible.
Bead_runner