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s. anomalous · Joined: 11 Dec 2006 Posts: 1 Location: philadelphia, pa

i ended up being 6 insulators short after i made some last minute changes to my oven as i was wiring it. infraredheaters.com has a $25 order minimum...so if anyone out there has extras i'd be interested in buying them from you. thanks!
~K

drcrash · Posted: Sat Dec 16, 2006 11:54 pm Post subject:

I think you should be able to get by without them. The cement board can handle having the coils right up against it. (If you look at pictures of Jim's oven, you see that the coils are right on the Hardibacker.)

The ceramic inslulators seem to only provide electrical insulation, so you should be able to just leave them off, and wire the nichrome directly to the backer board with steel wire, if you don't let anything touch the wires. (They'll be electrically live.)

I'm getting ready to make an oven that way, with no ceramic insulators at all. (I may put the coils up an inch off the board, though, on bent wire standoffs.) We'll see if it actually works...

Paul

jegner · Posted: Mon Dec 18, 2006 11:53 am Post subject:

During a rebuild of my oven this Summer, I damaged about 4 of the ceramic posts. Turns out, that you can rob from some from the rest of the oven, and still get good steady wire holding. Just spread them out more, keeping them on the corners and use fewer in the long middle stretches.