Homemade welding electrode oven

[ATK 11]

This is my first build using the new welder and one of my first videos thanks for watching
-9 min
-feel free to comment and give a thumbs up if you enjoyed watching thanks
-Suggestions on design improvements welcomed

Cheers Alex

[DIYer]

Thanks ATK 11! We've added your Welding Electrode Oven to our Welding and Heating and Cooling categories, as well as to your builder page: ATK 11's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Welding Electrode Oven by ATK 11

tags: oven, welding

[Moby Duck]

Nice design, I particularly like the angle cut lid and the pop can lifter BUT there are some serious electrical safety problems with your design.
1. All electrical devices need an earth (ground) wire connection unless they are certified and double insulated. If a fault develops in the element the whole oven can become 'live' and touching the live oven and any other earth, (say your welding table), can result in electrocution. A two pin plug is not good enough.
2. The un-insulated neutral wire push on connector, although technically at earth potential is just as dangerous as a live wire under fault conditions with any other piece of shop equipment.
3. There appears to be no thermostat or cut off fitted. In theory this oven should keep heating up until the element burns out or melts. It needs to switch off automatically at a predetermined temperature.
4. At the temperatures that you are getting the electrodes will be too hot to handle with an un-gloved hand.
5. Your power supply wires need to be heavy enough to take the current drawn by the element. Your wires look quite thin, especially if your element is a high wattage one salvaged from a dishwasher or similar water heater.

I am not a welding expert but I think that the purpose of this type of oven is to keep the electrodes dry as opposed to cooking them at a high temperature. I have had very good results from mine when they have been stored in a drawer underneath a water bed and also in an oven similar to yours but with a small indicator light bulb in the bottom as a heat source.
On the odd occasion when I have had to use damp electrodes, I burn off about 1" of the electrode on a piece of scrap - that soon dries out the rest of the electrode.