Scott and Warren and the Maytag man (ask Warren)

[SCOTT EVANS]

I like the break it down part after its use. 😉
I think for $50.00 2″ polyisocyanurate at home depot is about the most practicle solution. Now you know why roofers just call it ISO. Used widly in commercial roofing.
I do need to know where to get a thermostat though. One that will work at oven syle temps. Hey an appliance store? Maybe one for ovens? 😉

[BEAR]

Yes, or check your http://www.grainger.com for industrial thermostats or some other industrial supply place like http://www.mscdirect.com. When we did painting of IBM typewriter shells with the crinkle finish (I hope you are old enough to know what I am talking about.) We used to re-work refrigerators and change the thermostats, add a heating element, and we then had an oven for baking our finish. It was never 6 feet on the inside but the principle is the same. (If you could find a a junked up-right deepfreeze you would have a solution but it is not collapsable.) The insulation you have been writing about is unfamiliar to me as to the thermal properties, as in can it take the temperature you are expecting without off-gassing and de-composing? A more intense unit of the cardboard box previously mentioned would be to take double layer cardborad, aluminum sheet .030″ thick or thicker on the inside, and fibreglass insulation on the outside. The cardboard is merely for structural integrity and holding the whole thing together. Aluminum to protect the cardboard and for it’s thermal reflective properties, and the fibreglass insulation to both protect people from getting burned and to keep the heat in. You could probalby bag and suction at the same time, and still be able to collapse it. An electric dryer heating element and thermostat might work here, and if you added a blower fan to circulate the heat, you might have a homemade convection oven. This could probably be done in this more elaborate method for a couple of hundred dollars. You might also find a used electric dryer for sale for $25 to $50, and take the heating elements, the thermostat w-timer, and the blower out of it to put in your oven. You could also find a brand of convection ovens and see who might carry the repair parts that you might be able to purchase. I tend to think of restaurant supply here because I like commercial far better than consumer products. Another source of heat might be a small propane fueled infra-red heater. I think the electric method would be safer.

[SCOTT EVANS]

Ummm…..Whats a typewriter? 😉

[Doug GerrardParticipant]

We used to re-work refrigerators and change the thermostats, add a heating element, and we then had an oven for baking

speaking of using a old refrigerator as an oven, there are many used refrigerators up for auction at Ft. Carson, CO that ends June 1. Many of these look to have stainless steel interior as well as exterior but the minimum bid is $150. I doubt they are 6 feet long inside but it should make a good curing oven.

[SCOTT EVANS]

I actually thought I would follow John Cokers lead. He has a cool idea on his web site. Build two ends that have all the heating gizmos. With simi-disposible center section. All ready ordered the kiln controle.
Will store a lot easier, and I could loan it out for 12 packs. 😉

[BEAR]

That is so cool. What will be the longest length you can get in there? What are the restrictions on fin diameter, what brand of beer do you drink or prefer, and do want pizza with that? Super Supreme w/ extra cheese? Or since you have an oven, can you bake it in there?

[Jeffrey Joe HintonModerator]

Can’t help but thinking of the Talking Heads – “Burning Down the House”.

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

Back when I played with heat cured epoxies, I build an oven out of 2″ foil faced foam from Home Depot – polyisocyanurate. The over was 7′ long and 2′ square with a rotisserie inside, two 4″ computer muffin fans to circulate the air and four 100W light bulbs with a temp controller from Omega Instruments. I think my total cost was somewhere around $150. I could maintain 250 degrees inside the box with no problem in my garage when ambient temp was 30-40 degrees.

Not hard to build.

@Bear – so you were a river guide? Where? I’ve been a boater for 25 years now… in fact, getting ready for a high-water Desolation trip in a few weeks.

[BEAR]

Warren we talked back in January at the meeting. I started on the Guadalupe outside of New Braunfels, Texas in the early ’70’s. Back then the water was always high and you could run it at flood stage too! We expanded the company and started doing Bib Bend and the Rio Grande in far west Texas. It was a 15 hour drive back then. We ran Colorado, Santa Elena, and Boquillas Canyons as 1, 2, and 3 day float trips. Santa Elena Canyon has 1000′ walls and is really cool, only a couple of rapids in it’s 18 miles, but if you are not careful, they would eat your lunch, and I watched them eat a bunch of canoes. Not that the water was high, it was treacherous and technical. Then we expanded some more and ran the Rio Grande in Taos. We ran on day one the Pilar run alongside the highway or if the water level was higher, we would put in at our camp at the bridge over the river at the Rio Grand State Park. On an easy day, only maybe 1 CL V, with the rest 2’s and 3’s. At flood stage and above, abunch of CL V. The second day we would run the Lower Taos Box from John Dunne Bridge down to our camp, just past Sunset Rapid. A lot of 4’s and 5′ there. Then as the BLM got more involved, more people discovering the river, and hard to get a permit, we moved up to Colorado and ran the Arkansas (I grandfathered in on the Rio and the Arkansas. MY first trip down the Rio was in ’74. We did not see anybody else on the river for two days of running during the 4th of July. It was heaven.) We would normally camp at the campground near the top of Poncha Pass. The first day we would start at Buena Vista and run Browns Canyon, the second day we would run the Royal Gorge. The third day we would fly back to Houston or wherever we came from. About this time, some of us were getting bored and so we started running trips in Idaho on the Middle Fork and the Main Salmon Rivers. Absolutely incredible. The Middle Fork run would take 5 to 7 days and cover 100.5 miles if you put in on say July 18th. If you went a month earlier, you would have to fly into a fire camp on the side of a mountian, where the landing strip was carved out with a D-9 Cat. The runway slopes down hill with a mountain on one end and a cliff that drops 200 feet down to the river below. You always had to take off down hill and the jump off the cliff and use the dive to gain the added airspeed that you needed. Not for the faint of heart. You would put in here in June. The trip was shorter then. 18 miles shorter and only take 10 hours to run. Standing waves that were maybe 30′ tall and would get our Avon Pro’s airborne. Incredible. The buddy of mine that I started the river company with was the same guy that I flew rockets in the Astrodome with. We had the #1 NAR section in the nation for a couple of years. He was the Junior level NAR champ a couple of times and we were competeing against G Harry Stine’s daughters. We hosted NARAM 14 at the MSC in Houston, and nearly got kicked out of the Holiday Inn when we launched a “C” motor from the deep end of the swimming pool and turned all the water black. We never really did quite find out exactly who that young man was, but he was not alone. Because of the rafting for 25 years I stayed out of rocketry for that long and longer. Did not have time for both. But I was also getting my open water, advanced open water, and dive master ratings and I was racing sailboats and fighting pirates in the Gulf of Mexico. I also flew aerobatics in a Great Lakes biplane that I was a 1/10 owner in, and chased a lot of girls. (I also had a Jag XKE convertible at the time.) I would love to get back on the river again and try my hand at an oar frame. I do not know of anything like it. I am envious of you for still doing it. I am trying to take a couple of my grand kids down the Poudre this summer for half day trips. If they show an interest then we may go run Brown’s down south. Thanks for asking and I hope we can sit down and exchange stories, tales, and down right lies some time.

[Warren B. MusselmanModerator]

OK Bear… instant river invite. After things calm down a bit (this is a major high water year – like 300% of normal in the Colorado/Green basin), I’d be proud to have you come along on an upper Colorado trip. I even have a couple extra boats (all catarafts) that you can row – your choice.

W

[Author]

Posts