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WARNING: If the thought of listening to some random dude you’ve never met going on for hours and hours about sheet metal, oven elements and PIDs makes you queezy, then I suggest you brace yourself. Now on the other hand, if you DO enjoy hearing about steel studs, rock wool insulation and thermocouples, then go mix yourself a gin and tonic, or simply pour yourself a glass of water and venture in to my world of building your own powder coating oven.
In the process of rebuilding my 1999 Suzuki DR350 I had a revelation. When it was time to fix all of the rusted metal on my DR350, including the frame, I would try my luck at a process called powder coating. This article is how I went about it.
First off, let me warn you now that this is by no means a tutorial, how-to, or any other kind of guide meant to be duplicated or copied. This is the first time that I have done this and honestly I’m simply not the type of guy you want to follow during a zombie apocalypse. Buuuuttt…if you are keen enough, you should be able to get it all figured out, and you might actually be able to do it without passing away. But seriously, don’t get pissed at me when you realize that I didn’t mention dimensions, or any other “important details”. I just create this junk as I go.
Powder coating is a pretty slick process that leaves a durable and long lasting (if done properly) finish on metal. I won’t bore you with all of the science behind it now, but here are a few general differences between paint and powder coating. Unlike paint, powder coating is, well… powder, not liquid. It’s normally some form or another of plastic or polymer that is electro-statically charged by a special powder coating spray gun.
The (generally) metal piece that you’re coating is grounded, which makes the electro-statically charged powder attract itself to the object the way static also tends to secretly cling a freshly dried sock inside of your pant leg when you aren’t paying attention. Once you spray the powder onto the object, the powder must be cured, or baked, to actually activate the real beauty. The process of curing is quite simple. The part must be baked at about 400 degrees Fahrenheit for about 10 minutes give or take in order to “melt” the powder onto the part.
So, we now know the fundamentals of powder coating and can finally continue with the article without being confused. But for those who skipped all of the above text, here is one last chance to get a very basic understanding of the process of powder coating…
1) The powder is electrostatically charged and adheres to the grounded part. 2) To cure the powder, you require something to bake the part in. Generally an oven.
Step 2, my friends, is what this article is about. I invite you all to join me on this journey of sorrow, despair, triumph and prosperity. Lets begin!
So, the idea here is to build the entire oven, including the frame out of metal, instead of wood or any similar materials that would cause my house to burn down while I wasn’t looking. That does neither me, or my house, any good. Seems easy enough…right?
The solution for a nonflammable frame is a simple one. I will use steel studs that can be purchased from my local big box store. The studs are fairly priced and can be purchased (at my location) in 8′ and 10′ lengths. I bought enough linear feet for my frame, and you should do the same, or not!
Shown above, for anyone who needs to read it just to be certain, are some of the steel studs that I picked up from my local ©The Home Depot. Actually, my local store didn’t carry these for some reason so I had to drive to the next nearest store. Luckily there are almost as many ©The Home Depots than there are ©Starbucks so the next nearest store was only 15 minutes away from the nearest… Anyhow.
These metal studs come pieced together as 2 and you have to pry them apart in order to use them for this specific project. I’m not really sure if they are designed to stay together, and the more I think about it, they probably are, but that didn’t matter, because for this project, they need to be pulled apart! Oh, and no, I didn’t take any photos of this process, nor am I going to write about separating them, but I will say that if you can’t figure it out, please stop now because it only gets worse.
Warning: these studs are sharp, so don’t scuff your stuff.
These are the things I used – without photos – because if you don’t know what a measuring tape looks like, my heart goes out to you.
Planning this build wasn’t so tough with the help of this newfangled internet phenomenon. I have been able to search around and find photos and other information on what I am trying to accomplish and things like that help guys like me do stuff like this.
So, after some internet research, I decided to take a route that I didn’t really see used which is the overall method of assembly. It may or may not be more difficult, but I must say, it worked well for me. That said, I now know that my overall goal is this:
The general idea:
Assemble the oven in panels. One “panel” at a time, 3 walls, 1 door, 1 floor and 1 ceiling for a grand total of, you guessed it, 6 panels. Rivet the panels together. Finish.
A little more detailed:
So now I have a general plan, which is always good when tackling something like this. Oh and don’t worry if you think you missed something. I haven’t mentioned anything yet about sheet metal yet, or a few other things, mainly because I haven’t gotten to those part yet. But don’t worry, I promise if you decipher this entire article, every detail will be here…somewhere.
So, we know we are going to slay this beast by making one panel at a time. So what you – and I – need to decide is what the overall size of the oven will be. My decision was fairly limited due to the (affordable) sheet metal near me. This stuff generally comes in 4×8 or 4×10 or some shit like that, but don’t quote me, I’m not an expert on sheet metal. Anyhow, you can get other sizes I’m sure if you want, so figure it out, because it will be the most factoring step on what you can or can’t do/afford.
I knew that my oven was going to have an exterior dimension of 4’x4’x6′ which means that I would approach it like so:
Floor and ceiling would be a no brainer at 4’x4′ for both. The three walls would be as follows: Rear Wall: 48″ wide by 65″ high Side Walls: 41″ wide by 65″ high Door: 4′ wide by 6′ high (more on the door later)
If my calculations are correct, and I’m not too drunk, that should end up with an external dimension of 4wx4dx6h. If not, let me know and I will edit it, or tell you to screw off, depending on how you approach me.
This step is straight forward and goes like this:
Once your panel is nice and insulated, it’s ready for the final layer of skin. How exciting!
Do what you did earlier and lay the sheet metal on top, drill and rivet, drill and rivet, drill and rivet, etc etc etc etc etc…
Once complete, you should have something that resembles the following. If not, you did something wrong and I can’t help you. No one can.
Finally! We have a panel done! Guess what? After you do panel one, you get to go all the way back to the beginning and start over. Guess what? After that, you get to start over again! Guess what? Again. What? Yep, again. Eventually you will have a floor, a ceiling, and three walls for a total of 5 panels.
BUT WAIT! (You are reading the directions first, right?)
There is one difference from the floor to the other panels, and it is VERY important.
DO NOT SKIN BOTH SIDES OF THE WALLS!
If you skin both sides of the walls, you won’t be able to rivet this crap together and you will end up having to tape it together or something ridiculous like that. So just trust me on this and only skin one side! Here’s a photo just in case you aren’t understanding me!
You can however, completely fabricate the ceiling panel the same way you did the floor.
Get a pal or something or just get swole and lift these panels up and butt them together where they need to be. Once they are butted up, you can start riveting everything together. Down into the floor, and across into the neighboring panels.
Eventually you will have something that looks similar, but probably better, than the photo shown below.
Here is a test fit for fun. Suzuki DR350 Dual Sport frame. The whole reason behind this crazy ass project.
Another picture shows one more wall up.
Get some help, because the fabricated ceiling is heavy, and needs to go on the top… I didn’t have help, but then again, I am comparable to superman as far as strength goes.
Now we can start to insulate the walls. Follow the same directions as the floor and ceiling and you should be A-O-K.
Once the walls are nice and insulated, it’s time to skin them. The way the oven is designed, the skin runs the total length of the outside walls and will grip both the floor, and the ceiling panels making a nice solid oven when finished.
Shes a beauty. Now all we need is a door!
Ok, so since this thing feels like it’s made out of recycled tuna cans I knew for sure I would have to stiffen up the door “hinge” area or else the weight of the door would rip this thing to shreds.
I went out and purchased the angle iron you see below, the kind with the holes in it. Also, i grabbed some self tapping screws (and washers) and the biggest rivets they had at home depot. I forget the size, sorry. Do you still love me?
The piece ran the length of my oven perfectly without cutting it, so I put it on the corner, and used the self tapping screws (with washers) to secure it to the panel. Choose whatever side you want your door to open towards.
I bought regular door hinges and mounted them using the beefy rivets that I mentioned earlier. This allows them to close without bottoming out like it would if you used a self tapping screw.
Assembly begins on the door.
The entire door was based around one important item. The window. You don’t need one, but not having one is pretty much a horrible idea. So its up to you.
I removed a “window” from a dilapidated convection oven. Much easier than trying to make a window yourself because you run into expansion/contraction issues with the glass and the glass frame. Trust me, find a junker and use the window from it. You will thank me in the end when you don’t have to remove glass shards from your eye sockets.
Basically, use your imagination for the rest. By this stage, you should be a metal stud fabrication guru and have absolutely no problems trying to figure this part out.
Below is some mock ups, and final assembly of my door. Enjoy it!
Here is a shot of the oven assembled. Its a beast, isn’t it? There aren’t any controls yet, or heating elements, but that part comes next, so stay tuned!
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