Need oven...

E

Eggo

Inactive
Whats up people? I'm new here. Anyway, i need an oven to refinish firearms, mainly rifles. Just a hobby, and doing some friends rifles as well. So whats my best bet? I have no clue about ovens, and i'm tired of duracoat, so what works well without paying too much? Can't fit Most rifles in my house stove. Thanks.
 
Just curious... what type of finish are you planning on using?

I can tell you what my bro did. He "retrofitted" standard household kitchen oven so that he can powdercoat motorcycle parts, frames, frontends and wheels. He cut the thing up and welded sheet metal to make it larger. Used some insulation that is used in hot-form dies. It takes a little "yankee-ingenuity", but cant be that hard. Plus, the stove was a road-side pick-up. F-R-E-E!

i'll see if he cant get me a picture of it.......
 
I'm looking to do gunkote and cerakote. I would consider building one if i had the time, but as of right now i don't. Thanks for the reply, and i pic would be good, sounds interesting.
 
The smell is what got us ours cheap (I think it was $200 at a used restaurant supply). The thing is 3 x 4 ft inside, that's a 5 ft diagonal, you can bake a finish on a Mosin barrelled action if you want.
 
The official solution would be a deep knife oven. But, frankly, unless you are also going to heat treat steel, it's a waste of money. You can insulate a box and fill it with light bulbs in the inexpensive ceramic bases from Lowe's or Home Depot will work, as suggested. They won't last long at 300°, but you probably don't need really long life. You can make series pairs of four times as much total lamp wattage to make them last longer.
 
Google "hot box" -i twould work, as the temps you need to cure all the gnome-kotes is fairly low.

A hot box is a box used by guys who do composistes to post-cure composite parts. They are a fairly simple item, ans pretty scaleable.
 
You won't fit a rifle in one, but the little girls of America have been using a single light bulb in the 'Easy Bake Oven' for years. Cooking cakes at 350 to boot.
 
I've also seen people tear apart toaster ovens for the coil of nichrome wire inside, and use it to make a vacuum former to make canopys for large scale models (think 150" span model sailplanes) . It might make your power meter spin like a 78 rpm record, but it'll work.
 
Eggo (or anyone actually), why are you "tired of Duarcoat"? I'm just about to do my first application when it arrives tomorrow. What's the problem with Duracoat?

Side question; can I put a coat on the outside of the barrel itself to freshen that up too?
 
Oven plans

You might want to go to www.tenring.com, click on coatings, then find oven plans. I built mine from a school locker, lined the inside with duckboard (shiny facing in) and covered the outside with regular home insulation. I use 4 ceramic sockets mounted on a plywood base with 4 heat lamps from Home Depot. Graingers has an oven temperature control that you mount on the outside with the sensor inside. A small fan with the blade inside and the motor outside on the top makes it a convection oven, but you don't have to use one-just makes the heat more even.
I've used this rig for years, done hundreds of guns with no problems.
E mail me and I'll give you my views on DuraCoat vs Gun Kote.
 
That's a great idea. A metal locker is just the right size.

A guy I fly R/C sailplanes with made his own hot box using a digital control from an HVAC setup to control the temperature of his post-cure. Kinda complicated but he trains HVAC repair guys so it was probably easy for him.
 
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