Powder Coating Ovens

In order to powder coat, you will need some type of oven in order to cure the powder coating.   You will need an oven that is capable of sustaining 450 degrees and it will have to be large enough to fit your powder coated objects inside of.  There are several different options available to a beginning powder coater and they will be discussed in this post. 

The cheapest powder coating ovens that you can use to start with if you don't want to spend too much money are: a toaster oven, a household oven, or a propane grill. You can also get lucky and find a cheap commercial oven.  If you have a larger budget, you can build or buy a large dedicated powder coating oven.  Powders coating ovens are one of those things where the price goes up gradually with the size until you pass household oven and then the price jumps into the thousands of dollars range. An oven you could fit 4 wheels or a bike frame would cost you $2000 or more. If you want to an oven that will fit a car, you're looking at $10,000 to $20,000.  

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BUILD YOUR OWN POWER COATING OVEN

The absolute cheapest way to a large powder coating oven is to build one yourself.  If you would like to see complete step-by-step instructions to build your own powder coating oven like the one below, check out our article "How to Build a Powder Coating Oven" and How to Build a Powder Coating Oven: Part 2.

POWDER COATING OVENS FOR BEGINNERS

 

Toaster Oven

If you want to start powder coating this week, a toaster oven is the perfect type of oven to start out with, also good if you know you are only going to be powder coating small items. They are cheap, readily available, heat up faster than a household oven and use less electricity. They take up less space and they can operate off of a normal 110 volt outlet so you can plug it in anywhere.  If you want the absolute largest toaster oven out there, check out the Oster TSSTTVDGXL-SHP Extra Large Digital Toaster Oven.  This is the toaster oven that I was planning on buying but instead, decided to just go straight to a household oven.  If you want to use a toaster oven though, the Oster is the one to get. It is ~16" wide x 13" deep and it bows out in the back to make it a little bigger.  Highly recommended as far as powder coating toaster ovens go.

A simple solution to cure powder coated Yeti cups.  (Do at your own risk)

Household Oven

Household ovens are the go-to oven of the beginning powder coater. They are cheap, abundant, and big enough to powder coat individual wheels or a handful of smaller parts at once. If you have $100, you have the option of basically any used oven in Craigslist/Facebook Marketplace appliances section. You don't really need any fancy features except a timer, and the oven has to be able to keep a stable temperature throughout the powder coat curing cycle. You can also get a double oven if you want to coat larger quantities of parts at the same time.  Assuming you are using a used household oven, all of the old food grease needs to be thoroughly cleaned out or it will cause issues with your coatings. Any oven used for powder coating should never again be used for food.  

 The standard oven racks are very useful for hanging parts from, but one issue is that they have to be put an angle to slide them into or out of the oven. You can easily modify the oven rack so that you can slide it in straight and level.  Place your oven rack on a solid surface with the back angled edge facing down, and hammer it flat. Focus on the thicker outer edge and the rest of the smaller bars will follow. 

The downside to a household oven is that they need their own 240v outlet/circuit. Unless you have one in your garage already, you will need to have one installed or install it yourself. There are guides all over the internet, like this one teaching you how to install it, and it is pretty straightforward. You really only need a few parts such as a breaker specific to your breaker box, 10/3 wire, and 240v receptacle. However, it is a job that can KILL YOU if you make a mistake. Electricity is no joke and is something to respect. An improper install can also lead to a fire. Keep that in mind when you are choosing between doing it yourself or calling an electrician. I did do it myself, never having experience with home electricity, and I'm still alive and my house is still standing, but I was extremely careful and spent an entire day making sure it was right, after spending an entire day researching it. You can also use a gas oven, just keep in mind that a cloud of powder has the potential to be flammable, so powder coating in an enclosed room with no ventilation, right next to your gas oven is a practice that should be avoided. Shield your powder coated part from any open flame and never spray the part while it is in the oven.


Pregnant Oven

For those needing a bigger oven, you can make what is called a "pregnant oven" . This is when you make an add-on extension to add on to your existing oven. Usually the oven door is left open and a box with an open side rests on it and seals against the oven opening to make a larger oven.

Here is an example of a temporary Pregnant Oven setup made using cheap insulated panels and foil tape. materials.

NOTE: This is a "do at your own risk" type of thing. Please use caution when modifying any oven.

You can modify an existing oven such as a double oven. If you cut the center out of a double oven, you will have a pretty good size oven. They are also not too expensive on Craigslist.


PROPANE GRILL

This is a less conventional method. In fact, when I searched for others doing it, I found none. I tried using the propane grill for one reason. I was brand new to powder coating, was researching toaster ovens but hadn't bought one yet, my powder coat gun arrived in the mail, and I had to try it out right then. I didn't have an extra house oven, but I had a grill I never used in my backyard. It worked great, I put a cookie sheet down on the grate to shield the part from the flames, and made a rack using a gutted computer tower to fit inside the grill. All of my parts came out with no issues. However, with a grill, you have to babysit it the whole time to keep the temperature correct. I stood there with my infrared thermometer for the complete cure time, anytime the temp would move, I had 3 knobs to turn to get it back to the right temp. I became very good at this eventually. I eventually upgraded to a household oven but the grill served its purpose.  If I couldn't install a 240V outlet in my garage, I would still be using the grill. The same warnings apply as the gas oven, you are dealing with an open flame and flammable powder.

Powder coated parts cured in a grill.

HARBOR FREIGHT POWDER COATING OVEN  (This oven was discontinued unfortunately)



This is an oven that was sold at harbor freight specifically for powder coating. The nice thing about it is that it is a lot bigger than any toaster oven, yet it plugs into a normal outlet. The inside dimensions of this oven are 18"x18"x18". In comparison, a household oven averages around 23" wide x 19" deep x 15" tall. This oven from harbor freight is considered to be very good quality and also has 5 star reviews. This oven was discontinued at Harbor Freight, but you can still find them used if you search hard enough.








INFRARED LAMP

Another way to cure your powder coated items is using a infrared curing lamp. This would be another solution to coating a large part without having a large oven. The down side is you must build some kind of enclosure around the part to keep the temperature high enough.  The part will will not reach the desired temperature or heat evenly in open air.  Also these infrared lamps can be expensive and they can only cure 1 side of a part at at time.  If you were powder coating a cube, you would have to reposition the lamp 6 times to cure all sides.