[TheForge] Subject: Hot box

[Kenneth Mayer]

>Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 09:59:45 -0500
>From: Dave Brown <quahog@tds.net>
>
>I need/want to make a hot box or oven capable of around 500-600
>degrees.  How would you go about a project like this?  I'm assuming that
>you could install one or more electric oven heater elements.  But, would
>heat lamps work, since it's the piece that needs to get to that temperature
>more than the air and the walls?
>
>This would be for powder coating.  Would a soft flame propane burner (such
>as is used in a barbecue grill) under a diffuser plate work, or would the
>H2O by product of the flame present a problem in curing the powder coat?


For curing powder coat you need 400-425F.  Any hotter will burn the finish.

Electric heating elements will be much easier to control, but more expensive
to operate.

Burning any fuel gas will produce water vapor.  Unless you are heating the
hot box via a heat exchanger, the water vapor will condense on the workpiece
when it is first introduced into the box.

Personally, I'd go with electric elements.  Shield them so you get hot air,
not direct infrared energy on the workpiece.

Ken
:-)