Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Gunsmithing oven for bake on finish

hope this is not to much to ask but has anyone built an oven for cerakote baking if so could you post up a pic and a brief how-to.thanks.

I had a local HVAC dealer make me a sheet metal box 12x12x40, as well as a baffle 4" tall to place in the bottom.
I then put two electric charcoal starters in it wired up to a ceiling light dimmer switch. Drilled a hole in the middle of the box cover and put a candy thermometer in the hole.

To adjust temp, just turn the dimmer switch up or down till it reaches desired temp. Then mark the switch.

You could build the box out of 1x12's or 1x6's and line it with foil faced fiberglass insulation.

Sorry, no pics of it on hand and it's fouteen miles to town where my box is at.

"You could build the box out of 1x12's or 1x6's and line it with foil faced fiberglass insulation."


exactly what I just did....

going to use a heat gun(HF $10) and regulate the temp by opening and closing holes in the box covered with duck tape....

simple turkey frying thermometer will do...

Doesn't it take 350 degrees for an hour?

I read somewhere about building one out of a garbage can with a heater in the bottom.

I was thinking of making one out duct pipe with an adjustable hot plate in the bottom.also I've never blasted anything in my life,how much media does it take to do a rifle or shotgun?

250 for 2 hours

Here is the one I built a few years ago. The chip board was $7/sheet, the coil was $8 (rest of the stuff I had on hand). The heat is adjusted by a simple dimmer switch. When I first tested it, I took it past the thermometer - until the wood around the screw eyes inside started to smoke . Two changes I would make: use rigid aluminum to line it, and use high temp silicone around the posts.

I had thought of making one that would hold a barreled action, but I never made it.

What I was thinking about was using a piece of heating duct from Home Depot, metal pipe about 8" in diameter, with a hot plate in the bottom. Or a charcoal starter, as mentioned. I hadn't thought of the light dimmer switch, but that is an idea, too.

A heat lamp bulb might get it hot enough.

I thought of using it vertical and just hanging the barreled action inside, and a cap on the top to keep the heat in.

If the heating duct pipe lost heat too fast, then I thought about wrapping it with fiber glass insulation.

But, I never did do it. Just throwing the idea out to see if anyone wants to try it this way.

how much alum/oxide does it take to blast a barreled action,I have no clue i've never blasted anything before.

It all depends on the size, and style of your blast box.
Small box, 15-20 lbs..
Box long enough for barrel and action,, 40-50 lbs

Aluminum oxide is like flour, it is fine, but heavy. In fact, a fifty pound bag is around the size of a 25lb flour bag.. ...
And make sure you have no air leaks, this stuff will fly right out of the box� Oh, and it is not cheap�..
Those that want to do one item, might want to just send it to someone like Edie or myself.. We have a lot invested into our equipment, and licenses, and could use the extra work..
Just a thought...

15 years ago I tried Brownell's lacquer bake on process in the kitchen oven.
I still have brain damage from the fumes.

I wanted something nicer. I went with an aluminum truck tool box with a single lid. I've just ordered some engine bay insulation from whitney to wrap it in. I have a small house trailer oven for the heating concerned parts. Overkill, sure, but will it work, for sure.

bocephus, here is a cheap easy oven that'll work great for ceracoating barreled actions.

Buy a piece of 8" double walled vent pipe. Next, buy some pipe insulation, a BBQ grill thermostate, an "eye" bolt and a paint can lid. All these items you can buy at Lowes.
Next you need a hotplate and you're in business.

It'll look like this and it'll work great.

The bottom of the 48" vent pipe sits open on top of a hot plate. The thermostate on top tells the tempreture and is adjusted by the heat setting on the hotplate.


Top, paint can lid with thermostat and eye bolt installed.

inside, action is hung from eye bolt and hangs in the heated tube.


Terry

Excellent Terry


lot's less work than I went to

Mine is similar to Terrys', but I used 8 and 10 inch duct and put the insulation in between. Also, since I break the barrel/action down, I just made it 30 inches tall.

One thing though, when I put the BBQ thermometer in the cap and it read 300, I found that at the bottom of the duct it would be closer to 400 degrees. I ended up experimenting with a temp probe on a wire and finding what it took to get a happy medium.

Also, for the small parts (shroud, bolt stop, extractor, trigger, screws, etc.) a second hand toaster oven from a yard sale works great. Just have to be creative on hanging the parts.

Take a look at this as well: Building a heater oven.

Stuart

Dang, you guys have a lot of good ideas--lot simpler than the oven I built years ago..........

Gonna bookmark this thread.


Casey

250 degrees for 2 hrs = 50 degrees for 10 hrs. Can I do this in a cool basement?

If you deep freeze it, it undoes the work.

I am just about finished on my oven curing oven. I started out with a proofing cabinet, about the size of a refrigerator, they are used by bakers. I got the cabinet from a local online auction for $20. I lined the cabinet with 2" rigid rock wool then faced that with aluminum sheet metal.

I have the PID controller from a smoker I built a few years back and only need to add the heating elements and it should be GTG for everything but artillery pieces as I have 40" of clearance.

I understand this is probably overkill but most of the stuff I had on hand.

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but if you search over on Snipershide, there was a thread on ovens. Ranging from a home-made gun cabinet version, rehab-ed industrial ovens to flower pots and chimney tiles.

Harvest some ideas and run with 'em.

Get on Norrell's site and hit them up for how to's on using a school locker and a toaster oven to make one.

Access to a game smoker with digital temp control ,, most go to 275 degrees.????????????

Ummm, any chance you could do this on a normal barbeque? My BBQ is just large enough to lengthwise hold a barrelled action up to a 22" bbl, pending action length. So, my 20" .375 H&H bbl'ed action fits with a couple inches to spare.

It's outside, temperature controllable, and big enough. Any bad news if I did this? How badly would this affect my BBQ after all is said and done?

I would think the problem would be keeping the barreled action clean inside a BBQ grill until the coating cured.

The oven pictured above can be built for about $40 and you'll never eat out of it. The hardest part about building it is putting 2 holes in a paint can lid. It's pretty much downhill from there.

Terry

As soon as I saw TC1's "oven", I thought of the HiTemp pipe insulation.
If you know, or work in the oilfield, that stuff is plentiful. At least up here it is.

Thanks to the OP for starting this, and the rest of you for you input.
Maybe I'll give cerakote a try on an old 22.

Later....

Bump