Fired up the oven today

[purplepickup]

I painted and cured my flowmasters today to see how the oven I made worked.  It was easy to set up and seemed to work real good.  Nothing caught fire, there wasn't any moisture and it pegged the temp gauge that only goes to 400 degrees.  The temp was real easy to adjust.  I baked them for 1/2 hr at 250 then 1/2 hr at 400 and 1/2hr at max.   The VHT paint on them seems cured real good.  I wiped some lacquer thinner on one and it didn't affect the paint at all.  I'm going to look at a small powder coating outfit now.



Painted before curing



Temp gauge


Done

[Fat Cat]

Now all you need to do is provide us with some details about the entire process and we could add it to the Tech section.  

[58 Yeoman]

Yeah...but can you cook brats in there?

[phat46]

Looks good, are you going to eliminate the saw horses and mount the oven permanetly to the grill, or does the grill still have to pull double duty?

[Bob K]

What are the inside dimensions of that oven George???  I'm thinking of building a similar setup to use with my powdercoating.

B B

[purplepickup]

Now all you need to do is provide us with some details about the entire process and we could add it to the Tech section.  

I don't think it would make a very useful tech article.  Maybe if it was made out of stuff that anyone could get, like a 275gal fuel oil tank and a used nuclear reactor, but this is just some junk I had laying around.  Besides most people would either live with rusty mufflers or buy new ones.  

Bob, this particular cabinet is 36"w x 24"d x 24"h. But from what I read about curing powder coating, it isn't advisable to use open flame in the oven.  I'll have to read more about it, but if I was to use it for that I might have to put electric heating elements under it, insulate it and weld some legs on.  I see a bunch of different types of electric heating elements pretty cheap on ebay.  I'll have to see if it's worth it.  In the mean time it's still just a piece of junk taking up space.

One benefit of doing all this is that I finally cleaned my gas grill and today I'm going to have a big steak.

[Crosley.In.AZ]

I don't think it would make a very useful tech article.  Maybe if it was made out of stuff that anyone could get, like a 275gal fuel oil tank and a used nuclear reactor, but this is just some junk I had laying around.  Besides most people would either live with rusty mufflers or buy new ones.  

========== George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, that is what we rodder / automotive type people do best.  make use of the junk, er.... old stuff laying around.

[Fat Cat]

I don't think it would make a very useful tech article.  Maybe if it was made out of stuff that anyone could get, like a 275gal fuel oil tank and a used nuclear reactor, but this is just some junk I had laying around.  Besides most people would either live with rusty mufflers or buy new ones.  

========== George, George, George, George, George, George, George, George, that is what we rodder / automotive type people do best.  make use of the junk, er.... old stuff laying around.

yea what he said. I mean look at the parts used to make the e-wheel in the tech section. Most of us have a bunch of misc junk laying around that could be used for stuff like this.

[purplepickup]

Well, it's still in the prototype stage.  I'll put it in front of my ponderin' chair and see if I can refine it a little.  For now it has grown wheels and is spending a tour of duty as a rolling bench.

[SKR8PN]

George,I have a couple of questions about your grill setup.......In the first couple of pictures,it appears the cabinet is a couple of inches above the grill cooking surface,with a bit of an air gap all around,between the oven and the grill. Any special reason for the air gap?Do you think it had any effect on how quickly it warmed up? Did the grills you have in the oven leave any marks, where they were in contact with the mufflers? And lastly,if you decide to try some powder coating,are you going to try to hang the parts in the oven,or still leave them lay on the shelves??

[purplepickup]

George,I have a couple of questions about your grill setup.......In the first couple of pictures,it appears the cabinet is a couple of inches above the grill cooking surface,with a bit of an air gap all around,between the oven and the grill. Any special reason for the air gap?Do you think it had any effect on how quickly it warmed up?

That gap in the front and sides is because the grill is higher in the back where the hinges are.  The cabinet has a 2" skirt around the bottom so almost all the heat was still directed up into the cabinet.  When I first turned it on I had it on high and I could watch the temp gauge move up pretty fast.  It was up to 350 in about 3 minutes.  To maintain 250 deg I had the controls turned almost to the minimum, 400 deg was about in the middle and when I turned the controls to full on it pegged the gauge.  I put a piece of 6" fiberglass insulation on the top to help keep the heat in and I blocked the breeze with a tarp thrown over the chain link fence.

Did the grills you have in the oven leave any marks, where they were in contact with the mufflers?

That paint is pretty fragile until it's cured.  The grates didn't leave marks but the hex sheetmetal screws I used to attach the grates did.  I resprayed those spots then very gently set the mufflers on the pieces of angle I put in to hold them above the grates.  If I grind the heads down on the screws I think it will be ok.

And lastly,if you decide to try some powder coating,are you going to try to hang the parts in the oven,or still leave them lay on the shelves??

If I use it for powder coated parts I'm going to put some hooks in and hang the parts.  Since the powder melts to form the finish I'm sure the grates would leave marks.  The shelf just pops out so I'd have more room to hang stuff.  

I read on a site that when their powder melts, the gasses formed can burn.   They suggested using either electric heating elements or a heat exchanger for gas.  I don't know if that is true with all types of powder.