Home made ceramic oven

[Twisted Steel Performance]

My build is almost ready to start a thread, I have the heads almost done and ready to start the ceramic coating process along with everything else that will be coated.

some of you have asked for some pics of my home made oven, well here they are, this is a simple set up that anyone can do with some research and practice and a few other tools, blaster ans such. I am not new to the coating as I do some for the race motor shops around here. There is only a few of Tech Line's products that require a high temp -- 700+ deg to cure, most of the other coatings cure at 300 deg or so....

 

[ak diesel driver]

so temp is controlled by turning the valve downstream of the regulator?

 

[Twisted Steel Performance]

Yes, I use a high pressure reg, I think 10lbs or so, and the small T valve just past the reg is how I control the flow of gas, I took out all the old insulation and replaced it with high temp insulation, it takes the oven about 3 minutes to get up to 700deg, and from there I just adjust the valve to keep a temp constant. In the coating process the coating doesn't start to bond with the metal until the entire part is up to temp, then it needs to stay at that temp for at least 1 hour, I always go higher on the temp & longer on the time, from the feed back from my users it is as good as the high priced places. Everyone uses Tech Line stuff anyway, they just don't tell ya, and I but the "shop only " product, just a higher grade than the public can purchase.

 

[ak diesel driver]

so what did you rob the burner from? is it a high flowburner or is the higher psi pushing more fuel thru it?

 

[Twisted Steel Performance]

I used a turkey cooker burner & the reg came with it..... It someone is thinking about doing this, the high pressure reg works best, you can control the heat much better.

On a side note, you will need to "vent" the oven, I drilled several 1/2" holes in the bottom & top all the way through and inserted some pieces of copper tubing so the burner can breath, without them the burner doesn't have any air to burn and will go out.

 

[ak diesel driver]

I've often wondered how much "air" movement you could have inside before it messed up powdered applications

 

[Twisted Steel Performance]

I hever have done powder, don't have the right type gun to spray powder, I have done the ceramic based paint and it gets really hard & shinny, just never tried the powder coating.

 

[DennisG01]

That's pretty slick!

Just an FYI... I had my manifolds ceramic coated by JET. They refused to do the inside of the mani's because of having a turbo. They said there is a possibility, however slight, that if the coating came off it could mess up the turbo.

 

[deejaaa]

i think you need to use electric for powder but not positive.
how far would a 4 oz can Tech Line go? is that enough for a set of manifolds and downpipe? how do you apply yours?

 

[Twisted Steel Performance]

i think you need to use electric for powder but not positive.
how far would a 4 oz can Tech Line go? is that enough for a set of manifolds and downpipe? how do you apply yours?

What product are you asking about, there is 2 types I use, 1- TLHB - shop only purchase, it goes inside the part, spray,brush,or flow, 2- turbo X - also shop only ,spray, goes on the outside of hot stuff.

I buy the quart bottle size. Most of the stuff will mix with water and spray just like paint. Tech Line.com will give you very good advice on all the different ways to do there products, just read EVERYTHING, the tech page is good.

 

[Twisted Steel Performance]

That's pretty slick!

Just an FYI... I had my manifolds ceramic coated by JET. They refused to do the inside of the mani's because of having a turbo. They said there is a possibility, however slight, that if the coating came off it could mess up the turbo.

There is always that chance, I have not had anything happen as of yet, the KEY to any of it is the prep work, the coating will only bond to the metal if the metal is prepped right, and the product is applied and cooked right. It does take some practice to learn the tricks.

As for doing the manifolds --- what would be differences between the pistons?? if it comes off where is it going??

 

[DennisG01]

As for doing the manifolds --- what would be differences between the pistons??

Don't know. I was just simply passing along some info. I don't now enough about the process and if there is any difference in how well the ceramic holds up in each application. Maybe no difference at all.

 

[Twisted Steel Performance]

There is a difference in the products, for instance the pistons, basically 2 different kinds, there is a coating for non high comp motors, and another for high comp anything over 13:1, turbo, supercharged,diesel, gas, the stuff you use to coat a part totally depends on what the part is going to be doing and what it is subjected to,,, heat, compression, how fast it will be turning, lots of different products for everything it just depends on what you want the coating to do for you is what it comes down to.

You can use TLHB on the inside of a manifold, and turbo X on the outside of the manifold and you could almost put your hand on it while running, the TLHB is a very slick heat barrier used in the exhaust system, runners, valves,manifolds,turbo,pipe, and it stops the heat transfer to other parts and you let the heat leave the pipe, == less heat soak to the motor.

The turbo X does about the same thing but it works on the outside of the part,,ie.. it is black, and also is a heat blocker, it helps keep under hood temps down and helps the heat in the exhaust system turn the turbine and not heat up the motor as bad..

If you have some time, search You Tube for "Tech Line coatings" there are several vids showing some things, only 1 that shows you how to prep & apply there "DFL-1", the dry film lube, some of them are interesting to see.

 

[deejaaa]

What product are you asking about, there is 2 types I use, 1- TLHB - shop only purchase, it goes inside the part, spray,brush,or flow, 2- turbo X - also shop only ,spray, goes on the outside of hot stuff.

I buy the quart bottle size. Most of the stuff will mix with water and spray just like paint. Tech Line.com will give you very good advice on all the different ways to do there products, just read EVERYTHING, the tech page is good.

you answered my q's, thanx.

 

[SmithvilleD]

I've often wondered how much "air" movement you could have inside before it messed up powdered applications

The natural gas heated cure ovens I've seen for powdercoating generally use some kind of heat exchanger, so the flame can't contact the powder. While the powders don't have all the volatile organics of liquid paint systems, the powder is still somewhat flammable. Depending on how tall the oven is, you often need some kind of slow air movement loop, often just a convective loop - to keep the temperatures from being stratified top to bottom.

 

[SmithvilleD]

Don't know. I was just simply passing along some info. I don't now enough about the process and if there is any difference in how well the ceramic holds up in each application. Maybe no difference at all.

One potential reason would be the challenges in getting some of the coatings (ceramics in particular) applied evenly to the correct thickness on the inner surfaces of irregular shapes like exh manifolds. One common cause of the ceramics delaminating is too thick application. Spraying around nooks-n-crannies makes getting the application thickness correct challenging.

 

[ak diesel driver]

The natural gas heated cure ovens I've seen for powdercoating generally use some kind of heat exchanger, so the flame can't contact the powder. While the powders don't have all the volatile organics of liquid paint systems, the powder is still somewhat flammable. Depending on how tall the oven is, you often need some kind of slow air movement loop, often just a convective loop - to keep the temperatures from being stratified top to bottom.

Some of the oven specs I've looked at show a large amount of air movement. I always thought it seemed like enough to disturb the powder

 

[DennisG01]

One potential reason would be the challenges in getting some of the coatings (ceramics in particular) applied evenly to the correct thickness on the inner surfaces of irregular shapes like exh manifolds. One common cause of the ceramics delaminating is too thick application. Spraying around nooks-n-crannies makes getting the application thickness correct challenging.

There's certainly no shortage of nooks-n-crannies is these manifolds!

 

[Twisted Steel Performance]

The product Tech Line recommends and I use for the INSIDE of the manifold, exhaust runners,turbo,down pipe, can be sprayed, brushed, flowed, it is different than the other coatings as the cure temp is 700 deg. it is only used for these apps, it cures very slick and will withstand over 3000 deg gas temps. This stuff isn't cheap and isn't easy to work with, as for any of it, the prep is the key on all of them and it does take some practice to get it right, that comes with time.

As for the powder coating, I don't do it, I only do ceramic so my oven, simple as it looks, does have some flow to it that the pics don't show, the gas won't keep burning without air flow coming in, I have copper tubes in the bottom & top so that air flows through it while it is heating, it can be a little hard to regulate the temp but I have that figured that out now.

When i start my build thread, I will have lots of pics to go along with the info, I am coating everything that moves inside the motor.

Chris