My powder coating guy had gotten sloppy. His work used to be awesome and then it started, I would go to pick up parts and they would be seriously flawed. He sees the flaws and says … OH, I need to redo that. The problem was every time I would go to pick up parts over 50% would have big flaws. I knew he had to see the flaws, yet he tried to pass them off to me in hopes I would not see them. Powder Coated surfaces should not have bubbles or look like orange peel.
I decided to do my own Powder Coating at Home. The powder coating gun and powder is very inexpensive. The oven is the killer !!!
I need an oven that is at least 3 feet long inside. I went on Craig’s List and bought a Whirlpool Double oven for $80 from someone that just remodeled.
I took the Whirlpool 30″ Double Oven and cut it apart and put it back together as one oven. I have tested it with oven thermometers in different areas from top to bottom and I am really surprised by the consistent temperatures from top to bottom. I am going to do some test powder coating before I decide if I need any fans to circulate the heat.
Here are photos of the finished oven. I had three goals here. 1. Build it as cheaply as possible
( Under $250 including the oven! ). 2. Build it big enough to fit items up to 36″ long. 3. Keep it small enough to fit in my already overcrowded garage.
A Bonus: It is big enough to do car rims. 🙂
Next I will build a small spray booth and get to some powder coating.
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- Oven Rear
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- Oven Front
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- Oven Inside
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- Oven Left Side
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- Oven Right Side
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I have an oven that I want to do the same thing to. How did you remove the frame material between the two ovens?
Author
I used an air saw with a hack saw blade to cut them apart. Harbor Freight sells the Air Saw for a very good price. I also used a Metal Cutting Band saw to cut the pieces to size when assembling. Hope that helps.
That does help, thank you. You must have taken the doors off and relocated the hinge. As far as the burners, did you have to relocate them? Thanks
Jared
is there any way you could contact me on how you did this did you only use one side of the control panel and relocate the lower burner in the top oven to the bottom of the oven and remove the rest im attempting to copy your design and need a little more info If you could please contact me at 9512887623 or email at e5josh@yahoo.com
I love your idea for a DIY oven. I just picked up a double oven for $10
Did you relocate the bottom upper and bottom lower elements to the sides of the bottom oven? I cant tell if you kept the broiler element on the upper oven.
filling in the gaps between the two ovens looks like it’s gonna be fun.
Author
Sorry, it has taken so long to respond. Ok, I took the Double Oven completely apart. Then I cut the upper and lower ovens to make them fit together. Cut the bottom off the top oven and the top off the bottom oven. I cut the leftover pieces into wide strips and used the cut off pieces to screw the oven back together in the same size. I bought a heavy duty hinge and bolted the doors together. Mounted the new hinge and doors to the oven. Used an automobile hood pin to guide the door when closing so it stays square and even. Got a latch for the door as well as high heat stripping around the inside of door. I relocated upper and lower baking burners to the bottom. I have the connections coming out the left and right sides instead of in the rear where they were. I put both exhaust fans along the top. One was there from the factory and put the second from the lower oven next to it. That was the difficult part of the is build.
What did you use for the gasket around the door? i t looks silicone’ish.
Author
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004JU1VKA/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Author
And this is the door latch… http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006NC612/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Cool, thanks.
Finally got the front off the oven. Man this thing is gonna be a pain isn’t it?
Trying to decide on how to tackle the cutting. Pull the sides off then pull ovens out or try and slide them out, leaving the sides attached at the top and bottom, or cut an peel away as i go with the ovens intact.
I already got the doors figured out and the bottom burners mocked up to drill holes for element connectors.
I see why you used the metal boxes to hide the end of the connectors.
Hey Venom
I am in the process of replicating your effort to create a double oven into a powder coating oven.
Just wondering if you would change anything you did originally if you had to do it over again?
Thanks
Author
The only change would be to run a small vent duct toward the rear or straight up since these in wall double ovens vent out through the front. Post a pic when you are done. Would love to see it.
Did you run both elements from one temperature control?
Author
No, I ran them separately.
My cousin and I are getting into powder coating. Ive been doing research everywhere and seeing “pregnant” oven hacks. But they look just like that, a hack. This is by far the greatest DIY idea I’ve come across. You say the elements are still controlled separately. So are there still two temperature sensors? And do you just set both controls at the same temperature? For example if im baking at 380 would i se both controls to 80? Thanks in advance! This is such a great idea!
Author
Yes, Two temperature sensors. I spaced them apart in the oven and set both controls to the same temperature. I was hoping that spacing them out in the oven would help give more of a uniform heat.
Hey Venom
I got mine done
You said you wanted to see pictures. Mine is not as pretty as yours but it works. I had to stretch it. Not sure if I can post this link but if not let me know how I can post pictures.
https://photos.app.goo.gl/xee0kSnomF5Oknwq2
Author
That came out great!!! Have you tried it out yet?
No got it up to 500. let run for 20 minutes worked good. Did like you said put one of the thermostats halfway up and used both controls.
It was a lot of sheet metal work. I made a new door frame out of angle that i had laying around and put an old copier dolly under it. Extended the door with some uni-strut. The only thing i need to do is put some stabilizing legs on it, with the new frame on the front it is kind of heavy and if you open the door up the oven will tilt to the hinge . I have some left over uni-strut to do that.
Thanks for the idea!
I will post again when i do my first run.
I just purchase a double oven for powder coating. I am interested in how you wired the double oven for a 3 plug 50a circuit. I am using a standard range right now with a 3 blade 50 a plug, the oven I have has 3 wire and a bare wire. any info would be great
Hey there. Freakin awesome build I love it and I’m picking up my double oven on Saturday from letgo for $75. You stated you completely tore it apart. So once I start I’ll see where I need to go from there? Also how would you change the ducting from the front to the rear as you stated?? Will I see how it’s ducted when I rip apart? Any help greatly appreciated
Author
You should see fans and a shroud the direct the exhaust.. you would need to change the way it directs the exhaust. Not all ovens are the same. The one I did , I was going to mount the fan backwards so the air blew to the rear and them use some sheet metal to make a duct.
Author
I wired it with a Dryer plug so I could plug it in when I needed to use it. My washing machine and the dryer were in the garage.
Finally got around to building my double oven! Again thanks for your inspiration! The trickiest part was using a stainless steel oven. I got it for free, but stainless is hard to drill. A couple of broken cobalt bits and I got it done. I moved the lower temperature sensor up to the upper right side, so both temp sensors are up top to try and keep an accurate temp measurement. I lucked out and reused the factory door seals and made one long continuous door seal around the one large door I made. I moved the upper element to the bottom and stacked them together. The broil elements were deleted. Here is a link with photos:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1X2__5nlSydN7bL6DVMUgTKrfEKy0KoxC?usp=sharing