Powder Coating Oven

In powder coating you only go to 500F so I don't suspect there would be a problem. For a heat I would use an oven element, or several of them. These can also be controlled with a household oven controller and the parts can often be scrounged from behind the appliance store for a good price (free).

You might also look for the glass out of the oven door and perhaps look at how they rig lighting inside

At the risk of sounding like a smartass... Maybe you could powdercoat it.

If you do decide to strip the galvanizing then you might want to simply immerse your item in a solution of hot lye, as zinc is readily soluble in lye. I did this recently on some old casters which I intended to weld onto a steel plate and then paint and use indoors, and not only did it remove the zinc, it also reduced the iron oxide (rust) so the resultant parts were shiny steel again, just like new. Lye isn't a very expensive chemical. Disposal is up to you, of course ..

GWE

Galvanizing gives off fumes at high heat that are noxious. Dont know if they are deadly or at what temperature. However, it does burn off with fire. Maybe a few dry runs to season your oven will do the trick.

Take a look at my website. I've built one much the same as what you're planning. No problems with the galavanized sheetmetal so far. I used conventional oven elements, 4ea for a total of 12k watts. It heats up in less than 10 minutes.

Zinc melts at 787F I doubt the temp in a powder coating oven would ever get close to this unless the element was sitting directly on the tin.

I used galvanized corrugated roofing material to build my 3'x3'x6' tall chamber, and have not experienced any problems.

I used three old stove elements, which draw 29 amps at 220Vac, or a little over 6KW of heat. It takes 20 minutes for the chamber to get to 400F, and then its about a 40% duty cycle to hold it there..

Here's some pictures of the Oven:

The first sample pieces coated:

And finally the first project that actually used the powder coating chamber, a 6" telescope for my father (Most of the powder coating images are on the last few pages)

Take Care, James Lerch

(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

You will need to wash it to remove any trace of oil which will contaminate the paint. You will not get hot enough to damage the galvanizing (high of about 400) if you are doing sheet metal only look into an infared source as it is much faster at heating the "tin" , but if you need to do bulky items oven heaters are the way and "soak" the piece to 400 degrees remove and allow to air cool. Good luck!

Thx everyone for the info.... Will be very useful. as far as powering it. i found a dryer heating element for 15 bux. with this definite purpose contactor piece which from what i understand somehow keeps the electricity from shorting out and gives the ability to heat the elements. im not really an electrician but can ne one explain a lil more on that subject. correct me if im wrong. all of these contactors serve the same purpose, so depending on its coil voltage either 110 or

240 , whatever it is. thats what you plug it into. then as far as amps go, the contactor is what regulates how much amps go to the elements therefore making them either hotter or cooler? and its the thermostat that regulates the contactor? how would i know which one would work with which one? lol some one Help :p

The contactor is nothing but a big relay, a magnetically controlled switch. The thermostat senses the temperature inside the oven and sends a signal to the contactor to turn the power on and then turn the power off when a certain temperature is reached. You only need a contactor when you use more elements (more current draw)that the thermostat is rated for. If you were to use the two elements that the thermostat origially controlled, you wouldn't need the contactor. The contactor has nothing to do with how much current the elements draw. It's either on or off.