Off topic: Powder finish oven?

[henrik_o]

This doesn’t really belong here, but since there’s so many great and experienced minds around I might ask here as well.

A local industrial finishing company is buying a new powder finishing oven, making their oldest and smallest one superfluous. I have indications I may be able to acquire it for about $1000, plus transport ($500) and our costs to install (~$2000). The owners basically just want to get rid of it for a pick-up fee.

I don’t have a brand and model number, but its internal depth is ~2300mm, width ~1600mm, height ~1400mm. I think it draws 22kW max (though I may have misunderstood that). It comes complete with two carts, dedicated ventilation and fire safety equipment. Heat up time approx. 20 minutes.

It is reportedly in very good condition, having had heating elements replaced, has always been very well cleaned and maintained, etc. I trust the reporting party, they offered us a paint mixer unit for free and it was great but we didn’t have a real need for it and it had a rather large footprint for where it needed to be placed so we turned it down.

We can presumably fit the oven into our finishing area, with some re-disposition of spaces and dismembering of one wall.

Now, this is obviously a better-than-great price for this type of equipment. I’ve read the data sheets for our most common types of two-component finishes, and our current setup has a time-until-stack of 3-5 hours with the time-to-stack with a unit like this would be 3-5 minutes (not counting flash-off).

Still, I’m not really sure. Does anyone here have any experience with this kind of equipment? Is it hard to break in? Are results consistent? Is it costly to maintain?

Also, apart from two-component finishes, is there any way we could get into powder finishing? I’ve seen the XIOM approach, but that doesn’t apply here.

[thewoodcrafter]

Can't help with the machine but isn't 22,000 watts like 100 AMPs at 220V 1 phase?
With our cost for electricity and demand charges I would not want the electric bill.

[henrik_o]

At 400V 3-phase it's 55 amps, still, a huge deal.

I think I got confused when he explained this to me, it may have been 'just' 11kW.

This, however, is when they heat it for powder coatings, in the region of 250 degrees celsius. I would need about 70 degrees C for two-component finishes, so I'd never draw more than a third of the max output.

That is, unless there's a way to powdercoat mdf/wood using an oven.

[rhfurniture]

I assume you've read this:
http://www.talkshopbot.com/forum/messages/312/13529.html

[henrik_o]

Thank you Ralph, that's some good info to get me started on that possibility.

[drodda]

I would not worry about the electric bill just the fire insurance?

[henrik_o]

Dave, our finishing area is a self-contained fire cell. If the worst happens, it's going to be an inferno in there, but it's enclosed in concrete, fireproof steel doors and with automatic ventilation cutoff.

Still, yes, the fire hazard is definetly something to think about.

--^*^--

I've gone over this a few times in my head, and right now I am kind of leaning towards saying thanks but no thanks. If we were making lots of small parts that needed to go out finished with relatively low profit per part, I'd jump all over it, but that's simply not what we do, nor what I wish to do.

I haven't ruled it out, though. If it turns out I can acquire it for about the price given, which is far from a done deal, I might buy it and put it in storage, for now.