Metal Casting Zone

I am thinking about building a burnout oven for small casting jobs. I am having trouble trying to figure out weather to use 16gauge nichrome wire. I need to know the length to achieve 12ohm. coiled of course I'm thinking 1/4' inside? anybody tackle this type of project and any wiring help? Thanks, Plow

hi and welcome to the forum. i too am asking the same question. i hope someone can help us.

I do have some schematics I downloaded from a popular brand name burnout oven. Seems pretty simple, but figuring out the heating coil element ohm is bogging me down. I have some 18ga. nichrome wire I coiled around a 3/8" rod and measured the ohms on it. In that gauge I would need approx. 25' of wire to reach 12ohm. I was wanting to use 16ga. as it would last much longer. Also hoping to find a cheap supplier of 12" square firebrick. contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

This is my next project also, i was thinking of sacraficing a toaster oven. any thoughts?

my thoughts are to make an oven that goes on top of the furnace. i have plenty of firebricks and if i could float some over to the usa i would to help out.

Go to the nearest appliance store and pick up a used electric stove trade in, that maybe has issues with the top burners, but the oven still works. Usually they are free for the taking.

The heating element usually is around the outside of the oven area. Remove all trays etc. from the bottom. Drill a 1" hole in the bottom of the oven and put a catch pan under the hole in the lower drawer that is used to store pans.

Put a rack as close to the top of the oven as possuble, to get your molds in the hottest section of the oven.

Run the oven @ 400 F and the molds will dewax very well. Then put them in a gas fired cabinet to burn them clean.