powdercoating oven

[dawarriorman]

Well, I've been gonna powdercoat my frame a swingarm for a while now, but the closest shops to do it are an hour away, and charge around $200 bucks. The more I've looked into it, for a few hundred more, I can buy a cheap gun, and build an oven, and do it myself. And so once I got the gears turning in my head, Im pretty well set on it. Just wondering, If I was going to be doing other things in the future, like bike frames, how big you think I should build the oven? I was thinking 6'x4'x5' (WxDxH) would be big enough.

[racer]

id say big enough to roll in a frame for a harley or somethin dont wann be rollin out badass jobs, and have to skip one.

[Gargamel]

That sounds big enough to put a lot of different frames in. I helped a friend build one a while back, so if you need any ideas on construction I'll tell you how we built his. It was super simple and only cost about $250 to build and was about the same size.

 

:beer:

[csrmel]

ive heard of people using kitchen ovens. perhaps you could find a large used oven from a bakery.

[dawarriorman]

That sounds big enough to put a lot of different frames in. I helped a friend build one a while back, so if you need any ideas on construction I'll tell you how we built his. It was super simple and only cost about $250 to build and was about the same size.

 

:beer:

Ok good then, I was thinking it would be plenty big. And I would like to know what you did for the temperature controls.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Kiln-Temperature-Contr...1QQcmdZViewItem

Thats the kit thats been recommended to me, but I wouldn't mind seeing other ideas.

[Gargamel]

that controler looks cool.

 

we went the cheap route:

 

Got 4 electric ovens from the dump (you get weird looks when you go in with empty truck and come out with stuff :biggrin: ) here they have a section ppl drop off appliences only.

 

then stripped out the oven heat element and the controls from the ovens

 

put two sets in the bottom and two sets in the top, cover with sheet metal (so there is no direct heat to damage PC). Then use the controls out of the ovens, spliced a bottom set together with a top set (2 controls used). We used two of the oven controls so that they would be independant to keep a better temp control. This way if one is off +/_ some degrees it would have a redundent control for half the heaters.

 

for the oven construction:

got sheet metal bent like a "C" and slid high temp foam installation from lowes in it. Riveted all together, high temp silicone for exhaust all seals.

 

and made a track system so that powder could be shot on a trolly then just rolled in the oven

 

There is a website that we got the idea from that showed good pics, and we just changed it as to meet his needs. I'll see if I can find that site again, it was a great help.

 

:beer:

[Gargamel]

here are some pics of one

 

http://lerch.no-ip.com/atm/Projects/Powder_Coat/Oven.htm

 

the site it came from ^^^

 

http://www.diybanter.com/archive/index.php/t-83256.html

 

^^ has the detail build of the oven

 

 

 

Here is the site we used to build my friends. It works awsome!! To bad he moved with it so I can't use it anymore :sad:

 

http://www.powdercoatoven.4t.com/Index.html

 

 

The best tips I can give would be to shoot the powder outside (unless you make a both too) as it gets real messy. We even made the oven with wheels so it could be pushed outside to use.

 

The powder is flamible and can explode in an oven of this size if the air has a lot of powder floating in it. Just use lots of ventilation and you'll be fine.

 

hope this helps

:beer:

[Animalman294]

That sounds pretty easy, but man I would have to be doing a lot of powder coating to justify that............

[chase@miamiatv.com]

if im not mistaken that page said 3000w x 4 ....?!, you will have to install a dedicated breaker Or else you will be trippin .

 

12kw is alota damn power

 

ps. if you get started in this and need a customer , let me know i got a project frame im workin on .......

[dawarriorman]

Id planned on gutting some ovens at first, cuz I figured buying new stuff would be expensive, but it isn't too bad. Plus Id be pissed if my newly salvaged elements die within a week (had to be at the dump for some reason right?). And as far as shooting, I'll just hang plastic from the ceiling and do it indoors. To easy to mess stuff up outside with wind and pollen and so on. Wheels aren't a bad I idea either, I'd just planned on putting it next to the garage door.

 

Yeah, 12kw is a little much, 7 kw should be enough. And running a new breaker is no problem (out in the shop, and it has its own service seperate from the house).

 

I'll definately let you know when Im done, although it will probably be a month or 2, hopefully not much more.

 

Already figured out the color for my frame too, silver vein base coat with a pearl candy blue topcoat. :biggrin:

Edited July 18, 2006 by dawarriorman

[brock_fuzzy_69]

http://powdercoatoven.4t.com/Index.html3

 

sorry if this is a double post

[dawarriorman]

http://powdercoatoven.4t.com/Index.html3

 

sorry if this is a double post

No problems. Id found that one first, good info.

 

http://www.f-5performance.com/powderoven.htm

 

Thats another one I found, goes into more detail about some stuff. Caswellplating.com has some pretty good forums too. I've found enough stuff that I know what to do, and the result will just depend on what supplies I can get locally.