Cerakoting
- Thread starter shdybrady
- Start date
Dfariswheel
New member
A friend set up an oven for other bake on gun finishes, but would work fine for Cerakote.
He bought an old used gas oven, claiming that he thought the gas ovens were more accurate then electric.
Whether that's true I don't know.
He bought a small industrial oven thermometer which is not expensive but more accurate than a baking thermometer.
He cleaned the oven out VERY thoroughly to remove all traces of old grease.
He bought some perforated steel strap material and a box of small nuts and bolts.
This was steel strips about 3/4" wide as I recall, with holes every 1/2 inch or so, which you can get at many hardware and steel supply houses.
He bolted that together to form a square box structure inside the oven.
He added more strips across the top and down two sides.
This gave him a support structure from which he can attach wire hangers to hang the parts from.
He says that before starting a job he first sets up the liner with hooks and wires to hold the parts so the parts can be quickly and easily mounted in the oven and not touch anything.
You can pick up a quite serviceable oven very cheap or even for free if you look around.
He bought an old used gas oven, claiming that he thought the gas ovens were more accurate then electric.
Whether that's true I don't know.
He bought a small industrial oven thermometer which is not expensive but more accurate than a baking thermometer.
He cleaned the oven out VERY thoroughly to remove all traces of old grease.
He bought some perforated steel strap material and a box of small nuts and bolts.
This was steel strips about 3/4" wide as I recall, with holes every 1/2 inch or so, which you can get at many hardware and steel supply houses.
He bolted that together to form a square box structure inside the oven.
He added more strips across the top and down two sides.
This gave him a support structure from which he can attach wire hangers to hang the parts from.
He says that before starting a job he first sets up the liner with hooks and wires to hold the parts so the parts can be quickly and easily mounted in the oven and not touch anything.
You can pick up a quite serviceable oven very cheap or even for free if you look around.
I thought about going that route. Only thing I am worried about is being big enough to longer guns. I took a quick measurement and i I know i wouldnt be able to fit my shot gun barrel and action in my oven. I have considered repurposing and old fridge or gun safe and install a heating element ,pid and thermocoupler. Of course onling with any insulation that would be needed
I did...
A popular choice are small steel gun cabinets that get insulated...
I needed something much larger that could handle multiple actions at one time, so I visited a local commercial restaurant supply place and found a large aluminum, wheeled cabinet. Would have preferred an insulated cabinet, but couldn't find one. I've never seen a standard household size oven that could fit a barreled action vertically, let alone racking horizontally somehow. Mine is about 6 feet and will accommodate the longest barreled actions with 48" of vertical racking height available. Be sure to allow for space for heating element, insulation, interior board (if using) to make sure you have a large enough "finished" space when done.
Here's the main pointer I can provide- buy the PID controller (and timer, if wanted) from Auber Instruments- resist the temptation to buy somewhat cheaper stuff off Ebay that may not be compatible nor have the parameters that you may want/need.
Again, depends on how "sophisticated" you want to make it. It can be as simple as a locker with a hot plate inside and remote oven thermometer...and time it manually.
Mine is fully controlled, temp held within one degree with the timer starting automatically when the oven reaches the temperature setpoint, and turns off automatically when the timer cycle is complete. My big regret is not setting it up for 220v- easy enough to do, just haven't found the time to replace the 1500w, 120v element and re-wire it. It holds the heat/temp fine once there (and it'll still be hot inside the next morning 8 hours later), just takes a long time to get to 325 for Gun Kote. Cerakote requires lower curing temp ("H" series 2 hours at 250 degrees)
Sorry about the huge pics, no time to resize
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A popular choice are small steel gun cabinets that get insulated...
I needed something much larger that could handle multiple actions at one time, so I visited a local commercial restaurant supply place and found a large aluminum, wheeled cabinet. Would have preferred an insulated cabinet, but couldn't find one. I've never seen a standard household size oven that could fit a barreled action vertically, let alone racking horizontally somehow. Mine is about 6 feet and will accommodate the longest barreled actions with 48" of vertical racking height available. Be sure to allow for space for heating element, insulation, interior board (if using) to make sure you have a large enough "finished" space when done.
Here's the main pointer I can provide- buy the PID controller (and timer, if wanted) from Auber Instruments- resist the temptation to buy somewhat cheaper stuff off Ebay that may not be compatible nor have the parameters that you may want/need.
Again, depends on how "sophisticated" you want to make it. It can be as simple as a locker with a hot plate inside and remote oven thermometer...and time it manually.
Mine is fully controlled, temp held within one degree with the timer starting automatically when the oven reaches the temperature setpoint, and turns off automatically when the timer cycle is complete. My big regret is not setting it up for 220v- easy enough to do, just haven't found the time to replace the 1500w, 120v element and re-wire it. It holds the heat/temp fine once there (and it'll still be hot inside the next morning 8 hours later), just takes a long time to get to 325 for Gun Kote. Cerakote requires lower curing temp ("H" series 2 hours at 250 degrees)
Sorry about the huge pics, no time to resize
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Gas has to light and then stay lit. This takes time and limits the range of power available. Plus gas has water vapor as one of its combustion products, as well as CO and CO2. I have no idea what effect they will have, but do know that with epoxies in general, the presence of CO2 will pop small surface bubbles. But for tight temperature controls you just want electric because the controller can vary it infinitely.
Tobnpr,
If you have the room, get a second 1500 W element and put it in series with the first to get a 230V heater with the same net current demand. You might want to take an ohm meter to pick out a more closely matched second one to keep the voltage drop closer to equal, but you probably don't have to.
You can run a hole through the oven wall for a shaft and spin a metal fan blade with it using a small outside motor. You may want to put a blade on the outside, too, to help rid you of heat heading toward the motor via the shaft. I was just thinking that temperature stratification my be significant in that tall shape without some kind of forced convection. But perhaps you've already spot measured temperatures at different points inside to check for that.
Tobnpr,
If you have the room, get a second 1500 W element and put it in series with the first to get a 230V heater with the same net current demand. You might want to take an ohm meter to pick out a more closely matched second one to keep the voltage drop closer to equal, but you probably don't have to.
You can run a hole through the oven wall for a shaft and spin a metal fan blade with it using a small outside motor. You may want to put a blade on the outside, too, to help rid you of heat heading toward the motor via the shaft. I was just thinking that temperature stratification my be significant in that tall shape without some kind of forced convection. But perhaps you've already spot measured temperatures at different points inside to check for that.
I did stub out a set of wires for a small fan inside, but haven't hooked anything up yet. You can see the thermocouple mounted at the midpoint, to try to get an "average". I rely on convection currently (the element is in a recessed area in the base), but I honestly have no way to see how even the temp distribution is without more thermocouples top and bottom. I do need to hook up a small, low rpm fan in there.
Hadn't thought about adding adding another 120v element in series- I've done this with DC though. Just use the second hot for the second element, and tie the neutrals together? Electrical work is definitely my Achilles heel, lol...