Greetings Gents.
Just an update, the powder coating oven works!
here's some pictures of the oven:
After many sleepless nights on how to turn these corrugated panels into a box, I finally stumbled onto the idea of wrapping the edges with 1 5/8" galvanized channel from Home Despot (normally used for metal stud framing work).
Once the panels were edged, I pop riveted them into the ~3'x3'x6' tall rectangular box, and added some angle iron hinges and feet. Now the problem was how to insulate the dang thing.
I searched for some of the rigid fiberglass duct board, but promptly turned that idea down as "Holy Mother Of Pearl!" is that stuff expensive ($45 a 4x10 sheet, the best price I could find locally, and it was only 3/4" thick, couldn't find any 2" stuff locally)
After much head scratching, I picked up some cheap R14 wall insulation, peeled off the paper liner, tacked it to the chamber walls with spray contact cement (Not much contact cement, just enough to temporarily hold the stuff in place).
Once the insulation was in place, I wrapped the whole stinking thing with Al roofing flashing held in place with Al duct tape (the most expensive part of the whole project). At 400F internal temperature, the outside skin is just above room temp :)
Three salvaged oven heating elements provide 6KW of heat, resulting in a 20 min run at full power to get up to working temp (400f), then the elements run at about a 40% duty cycle to keep the oven at temp.
Here's some pictures of the first test samples I coated:
One pole is coated in "Black Chrome" (which is way cool!)
The second pole has a base coat of black chrome followed by a second coat of candy purple (which turned out WAY FREAKING COOL!)
Considering I had no clue, I'm pretty impressed with the results! I'm using a horrible freight powder coat gun, and powders from here:
So tonight, I lift my cup to Gary Brady and all you fine folks here on RCM for the excellent advice and inspirations!
Take Care, James Lerch
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