I made a new putty oven for curing epoxy-based sculptures quickly. I’ve always found that when I try to sculpt in epoxies, I lose my focus while waiting hours for the epoxy to cure. Not to mention that the other demands of life don’t give me the luxury of waiting, even if I had the patience.
I typically have a little quiet time each morning after the dog gets his walk and is finally docile and asleep on the couch. I probably have somewhere between 60-90 minutes where I could realistically get some hobby time in before the rest of the day's tasks come calling. Hopefully, this oven will allow me to work on two figures at once; while I'm building up a putty layer on one, the other figure will be curing and by alternating between figures, maybe I can sculpt for a full hour.
Originally I planned to use only three tins for this oven, but the figures I’m currently making are ~60mm high and the lid rested on their heads. The extra two tins provide plenty of space, and probably better serve to create a chimney effect.
My previous putty oven used a light bulb for a nice, steady heat source, but I’ll be damned if I can find an incandescent bulb here in my new home city. OK, to be fair, I have located expensive specialty infrared bulbs. Add to this the cost of the bulb socket, properly safe electrical leads, and the time sink of wiring everything up, and the project cost would be out of hand. The electric hot plate cost €19, puts out far more heat than I could need for curing, and is useful for other media (like melting wax).
I’ll need to figure out how to best set the heating element. My first experiment saw me spread out an epoxy/polymer clay mix on a glazed ceramic tile, which I placed in the oven with the burner set to 4 (of 5 maximum) for five minutes. I then turned the burner off and let the putty stay in the oven for five more minutes. Upon inspection I found the putty bubbled with browned edges, and required scraping to get off the tile. The tile of course required a tool to handle safely, and retained its heat for some time. The putty required only one to two minutes to cool and then was rock hard.
The stove certainly gets hot enough and cures the putty in minutes. I think the timing was actually OK and that the ceramic tile acting as a heat sink resulted in the “overcooked” appearance of the putty.
I’ll probably try mapping out the burner’s duty cycle after a three minute warm up on the “5” max setting. I think maybe 30% on, 70% off might be the right duty cycle, and no ceramic tile.
Feeling the heat of the tile makes me think my original idea of heating sand would work. Looking for an ultra cheap option, I thought about heating sand in one of the aluminum tubs, and using that for a heat source.
Originally I planned to use only three tins for this oven, but the figures I’m currently making are ~60mm high and the lid rested on their heads. The extra two tins provide plenty of space, and probably better serve to create a chimney effect.
My previous putty oven used a light bulb for a nice, steady heat source, but I’ll be damned if I can find an incandescent bulb here in my new home city. OK, to be fair, I have located expensive specialty infrared bulbs. Add to this the cost of the bulb socket, properly safe electrical leads, and the time sink of wiring everything up, and the project cost would be out of hand. The electric hot plate cost €19, puts out far more heat than I could need for curing, and is useful for other media (like melting wax).
The stove certainly gets hot enough and cures the putty in minutes. I think the timing was actually OK and that the ceramic tile acting as a heat sink resulted in the “overcooked” appearance of the putty.
I’ll probably try mapping out the burner’s duty cycle after a three minute warm up on the “5” max setting. I think maybe 30% on, 70% off might be the right duty cycle, and no ceramic tile.
Feeling the heat of the tile makes me think my original idea of heating sand would work. Looking for an ultra cheap option, I thought about heating sand in one of the aluminum tubs, and using that for a heat source.