Drawings/Plans for building Powder Coating Oven

A. You may be able to buy a used one [on eBay] for less than building a new one. If you shop carefully, you should find one that includes the original drawings.

Many powder coating books explain some of the important design issues. I strongly recommend "Powder Coating" by Rodger Talbert -- it's a 141-page softcover published by Chemical Coaters Association International, Cincinnati (ccaiweb.com). It has a 10-page chapter about curing ovens, with sketches, as well as info about dry-off ovens, and it clearly explains the features that should be included in each type of oven and why. Good luck!

A. I am also planning on building an oven. My past experience is that you are better off to buy off the shelf rather than build especially if a employee is involved and parts are bought new. I have experience with large industrial ovens used in bakeries. I have learned a little lately as I have started to plan my oven.

First if you aren't experienced with gas fired equipment and safety requirements you probably ought to concentrate on safety first. In the bakery environment my experience had taught me that there are 2 types of ovens 1. direct fired and 2.indirect fired. I have learned the indirect fire is the way to go. My experience has been with direct fired ovens so I am learning about how to duct the hot air around the oven for even heating.

I am very honest in what I do and plan to ask one of the powder coaters we use if I can inspect their oven to learn more about the ducting of the hot air and also exhaust. I plan on buying almost everything for this oven from the junk yard and plan on it being around 25' long by 8 or 9 foot tall by maybe 5 foot wide.I am hoping that I can start the ball rolling on developing a plan instead instead of waiting for some manufacturer to chip in and give away their knowledge they have developed (which won't happen).I am thinking I will use a burner similar to what they use in building a forge which is a orifice with propane shot out it and a blower pushing air around it.There would be safeties on it to shut the system down if a flame detector isn't sensing a flame as well as sensors which would shut it down in case of a high temp as well as a number of other sensors for the flame detection safety. It has been a few years since I worked on ovens and I could be all wrong on this but I believe the way to get started is to start. I hope others will chip in their 2 cents that may help put together a plan for an oven. One concern I have is if a 20 ga sheet metal would work for a sheeting inside and out on the oven and if it won't work, WHY? Our scrap yard in town gets loads of square tubing which I plan on using for the frame work. Is there any other input?

A. I see several people seeking help/direction in building small powdercoat ovens. I have a website at www.powdercoatoven.4t.com/ ⇩ that details how I built an oven such as this.

[Ed. update Dec. 2023: The above link is broken. Thankfully, Archive.org's wonderful Wayback Machine saved a copy for us
These days information rarely sees print, then simply disappears. If that bothers you please consider a donation to The Internet Archive.

A. I am using a modified kitchen oven with thermocouple sensors, and a very successful 5' x 7' x 4' oven that I built 10 years ago. It is heated with the core & fan from a home electric furnace. The fan motor is outside and a jack shaft extends inside. After years of trial & error it is now VERY accurately controlled by a new $75.00 PID controller from eBay [on eBay] and SSR "contactors" . I can run various programs to powder coat or lower to a specific temp ±1 degree to mold plexiglass.
I am now building a propane oven 8'x 8'x 24'.
One thing that scares me is an attitude out there that gas is dangerous don't do it, electric is safe.
This is a misleading idea. Some think that a flame could ignite powder and electric won't. I have seen fuel vapours ignited by red hot steel cause an explosion, (like a glowing element), no flame. Don't spray powder in your oven and you should not have a problem with suspended powder in the air in the oven. Direct flame heat is common in commercial ovens, i.e.: no heat exchanger to isolate the flame from the oven interior atmosphere. But they are behind baffles otherwise radiation heating would create local hot spots on the parts. A very good fan forced circulation system is needed.
I am not an expert and my opinions are suspect, BE CAREFUL and think it through.

A. Hi brothers and sisters of the Powder Coating Fraternity, I have a wee bit of news that might suit you all in the USA and alike, I was in the same situation as most of you all, I have all the gear and nowhere to bake my work, luckily enough I went to my local scrap yard/junk yard and lo and behold I bought two bakery ovens big enough for wheels and engine parts for £ $180.00, took them home and they do the job just proper, then I went for a stroll on eBay.co.uk on search for a bigger oven to broaden my horizons, to absolutely no avail, next step was to hit eBay just for a look and I found a guy in the USA who not only has been powder coating for years BUT built his own ovens, the two ways are from NEW or your local junk yard, I purchased a dvd & cd from him @ $19.95 Dollars USD, and although it tells you step by step just how to build this oven, you can adjust it to your own specification, I did, now I have built one of my own oven 10 ft L x 6 ft W x 7 ft H, and I used reclaimed materials from my local scrap/junk yard to the total cost of approx. £ 400 - $700 USD that was including the outer paint work etc, being a total success I was offered £ 3500, £ 6500 for it last week by another fellow powder coat operator in the next county, I am now building one for him exactly the same, so go get him guys, its gotta be worth 20 Bucks, post me back and let me know how you get on, I hope this helps you all, warm regards