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Homemade Curing Oven Project

pochito413

pochito413

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so i have decided to try out refinishing my guns. going to use different methods. i have decided to build a curing oven as i would not do this in my kitchen oven lol. so today at work i was looking through the stuff we had laying around and was able to come with enough stuff to build the control box with a digital pid. hey free is always good. only thing i need to get are some heaters. 120v heaters. not sure what to get as i have not decided on how to build the actual "oven" frame or how big i will build it. well anyways, i used a partlow pid with a square d contacter. i added an inline fuse and also have two switches. on powers off the whole unit and the other just powers of the coil that turns the heaters on and off that way the pid still runs and displays temps. any ideas on what to use for the frame or what heaters to use will be appreciated. heres some pics of the box. more pics will come as the project moves foward. will be a very slow project as im using mainly items that i find laying around to put in as least amount of money into this as possible. thanks

box is dirty from being in the shop not used but not packed up. it will be cleaned lol
20150302_144928.jpg
20150302_144939.jpg
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ok so would I take the heating element ut. don't strip heaters have built in thermostats. so just take the elements out and mount them in the bottom? I was thinking a baking element from an oven but would have to change my setup to 240v for that and I have no good plug to get 240v. hmm. I want something that would get to temp relatively quick and keep a steady temp. does not have to reach temp in 5 minutes. hoping it would reach in maybe 20 minutes or so.
 
i seen those on ebay but am not sure they would reach temp fast enough or how hot they get. does anyone have an old toaster oven they no longer want? lol. or even an old electric water heater they can give me the coil out of before they scrap?
bigblue said:
What about water heater coils?
Click to expand...
 
Water heater coils are only $10 or so online but I have no idea how hot they get.

EDIT: Sorry, $13.50 120V 1,000 watt. Not sure what more you are going to get w/o popping 15A breakers.
 
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Hot enough to heat 50 gallons of water to 280 degrees. I think the bigger problem would be regulating the temp so they don't burn out.
 
ok so im thinking maybe get something like this for the frame
http://hartford.craigslist.org/fuo/4914448581.html
then just strip out the drawers, insulate the inside (maybe some fire brick and some insulation) then fabricate a a door. hmm i will hae to see if i have any of these laying around at work in our closed down building. i don't see why this wouldn't work if insulated properly.
 
I thought that might be a problem

I still think that a junk oven is your best bet as it will already have an element and heat insulation. What usually breaks is the electronics that you don't even care about.
 
pochito413 said:
ok so would I take the heating element ut. don't strip heaters have built in thermostats. so just take the elements out and mount them in the bottom? I was thinking a baking element from an oven but would have to change my setup to 240v for that and I have no good plug to get 240v. hmm. I want something that would get to temp relatively quick and keep a steady temp. does not have to reach temp in 5 minutes. hoping it would reach in maybe 20 minutes or so.
Click to expand...

Resistive heat doesn't care what the voltage is.
 
the rims off my buggy wont fit in those ovens lol. neither would a 16" barrel. I do think I will be getting one to steal the elements out of unless theres a better way
1903Collector said:
When I Dura-baked some Glock slides I bough a cheap toaster oven from Wally world, worked like a charm but only good for smaller items.
Click to expand...
 
I used a toaster oven for heating elements. Even a new one is cheap. I also used a PID controller and thermocouple to regulate temperature. Available on ebay or other places on line.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk Pro - typos are from the GD auto correct unless they are funny substitutions those I'll take credit for.
 
how big is your oven. I have the thermocouple and pid and all that all set up just need some heating elements and a cabinet
beaker said:
I used a toaster oven for heating elements. Even a new one is cheap. I also used a PID controller and thermocouple to regulate temperature. Available on ebay or other places on line.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 using Tapatalk Pro - typos are from the GD auto correct unless they are funny substitutions those I'll take credit for.
Click to expand...
 
I used three 500W elements in my cure oven. Ran them through a SSR to the PID with a single switch to power everything.

With my setup I can get the oven I built (24" wide, 18" tall and 12" deep) up to 300F in about 10 minutes. It easily maintains the temp too. I built the frame from 1/2" square steel tubing. I skinned it with 18G or 20g sheet metal (forget what I actually got). It weighs about 100# total hut works really well. I did get some bbq seal/gasket to use around the door.

I do plan on making a larger oven when possible (later this year). If you're going to make the frame thick enough, fill it with insulation. Even though I got away with just air between the inside and outside skins, actual insulation would help.
 
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Golddiggie said:
I used three 500W elements in my cure oven. Ran them through a SSR to the PID with a single switch to power everything.

With my setup I can get the oven I built (24" wide, 18" tall and 12" deep) up to 300F in about 10 minutes. It easily maintains the temp too. I built the frame from 1/2" square steel tubing. I skinned it with 16G sheet metal. It weighs about 100# total hut works really well. I did get some bbq seal/gasket to use around the door.

I do plan on making a larger oven when possible (later this year). If you're going to make the frame thick enough, fill it with insulation. Even though I got away with just air between the inside and outside skins, actual insulation would help.
Click to expand...

do you have a link to the heaters you used. do you have any spares you are looking to sell?
 
pochito413 said:
what are the inner dimensions of your oven?
Click to expand...

23" wide, 18" tall and 12" deep... I used some L brackets to mount the heating elements on the bottom of the oven. I also installed the thermocouple in the back of the oven.

cure_oven_working1.jpg


cure_oven_rack_inside.jpg


cure_oven_rack.jpg
 

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