Help needed with simple heating circuit

Need help creating a simple heating circuit
Ok guys,

I am working on a project where I need to wrap a heating element around a 3 inch diameter steel pipe without touching it and heat the inside of the pipe to around 130 celsius. I have installed high temperature plastic wire guides on the pipe to isolate the heating circuit. I also need the circuit to cost less than a hundred dollars. I'd prefer to run it on 110 volts. I'm thinking it needs to be in the 1200 -1500 watt range.

Unfortunately I don't know much about electronics (read that as basically nothing beyond red positive black negative stuff)... I already tried using the heating element out of a space heater but I accidentally shorted it out and blew it up. What I need to know is how many feet of what gauge of heating wire I'd use and what else I'd need in the circuit to make this run on 110volt power at under 15 amps.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

THanks,

Roguetechie

reply to post by roguetechie


Try this pipe heater source.
www.oemheaters.com...

Hope that helps.

reply to post by roguetechie


Find a used water heater somewhere and you can use the heating element from it with a little work. It stays at a lower temp then space heaters. Be sure to use a temp sensor or regulator of some sort.
....or order one from the link that was given, that would be the least dangerous for you since you don't have the background knowledge in electricity that will keep you from getting hurt.

reply to post by roguetechie


How do you intend to monitor the internal temperature of the pipe?

Originally posted by roguetechie
Need help creating a simple heating circuit
Ok guys,

I am working on a project where I need to wrap a heating element around a 3 inch diameter steel pipe without touching it and heat the inside of the pipe to around 130 celsius. I have installed high temperature plastic wire guides on the pipe to isolate the heating circuit. I also need the circuit to cost less than a hundred dollars. I'd prefer to run it on 110 volts. I'm thinking it needs to be in the 1200 -1500 watt range.

Unfortunately I don't know much about electronics (read that as basically nothing beyond red positive black negative stuff)... I already tried using the heating element out of a space heater but I accidentally shorted it out and blew it up. What I need to know is how many feet of what gauge of heating wire I'd use and what else I'd need in the circuit to make this run on 110volt power at under 15 amps.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

THanks,

Roguetechie

What is the purpose of this project and the length of the pipe to be heated?

130 C? Why would you want steam? Unless you meant F instead.

130C you would need a boiler and just insulate the pipes to keep the heat from radiating away.

the Purpose of this project is to extrude ABS plastic into filament.

ABS plastic melts at 105 celsius I figure by the time 150 celsius gets through the pipe which is relatively thick walled stainless steel it will be down to around that range. Basically though I'd rather have a little bit more heat than I need than a little bit less.

Originally posted by roguetechie
the Purpose of this project is to extrude ABS plastic into filament.

ABS plastic melts at 105 celsius I figure by the time 150 celsius gets through the pipe which is relatively thick walled stainless steel it will be down to around that range. Basically though I'd rather have a little bit more heat than I need than a little bit less.

Ok,what ever you are making,
here you go

www.instructables.com...

3d printing?

The guy above me has the right idea. Did a quick Ebay look and found this.

Various surplus heaters.

The guy above me had the right idea. Did a Ebay search and found this.


Various surplus industrial heaters.

Wow thanks a bunch guys.

You've really saved my bacon on this one.

I think that OEM heaters link has something that will work just perfect for me. ANd yes this is to make 1.75mm filament for 3d printers.

Originally posted by roguetechie
Wow thanks a bunch guys.

You've really saved my bacon on this one.

I think that OEM heaters link has something that will work just perfect for me. ANd yes this is to make 1.75mm filament for 3d printers.

I have got to ask you,did you do a simple search for what you needed ?
Took me a few seconds.

Just wondering,CM always a spinning.
(CM) conspiracy minds.

well no I didn't search for that because I had no idea something along those lines existed... I was making it much more complicated to say the least.

You should see the poor space heater that died a horrible death at the hands of my dremel in the pursuit of it's heating element and basic circuitry.

Needless to say the heating element kept grounding out on the stainless steel overheating and breaking.

Now that I know there's a cheap easy way to do this though I will be pursuing that rather than messing with nichrome wire and a space heater circuit.

reply to post by kdog1982


THis is what i'm thinking of buying

I think of all the stuff on the site you linked me to that most perfectly meets my needs. My only question is whether it can be controlled to provide more or less heat.

Edit to add: I really want to thank you guys for helping me out.... it's stuff like this that makes ats a great place.

reply to post by roguetechie


If you want to go cheap and not shy to experiment a bit just get some wire with 1100Watt / 110V = 10A, 110V / 10A = 11 Ohm resistance. Every cheap multimeter can be used to measure resistance btw. 1 meter 0.25mm Copper Nickel (Constantan) wire would do it for example or 5-6m iron wire.

For temperature control I think a bimetal disc thermostat could work: NTE-DTO250 or NTE−DTO320

Two ways I would do it, cut a hole in a toaster oven and use it to heat the pipe or use steel heating elements from one (toaster oven) and fiberglass muffler packing. Then add one of those bi-metel heat switches somewhere near the middle.

reply to post by roguetechie

Most, if not all, Stainless Steels alloys are TERRIBLE conductors of heat. The thermal conductivity of a typical stainless steel alloy is more than 10 times lower than aluminum. Copper and silver are the best heat conductors with a thermal conductivity about twice the value for aluminum.

Replacing the stainless steel pipe with an aluminum pipe will dramatically reduce the power required to melt ABS plastic and reduce project cost; stainless steel is both very expensive and very heavy compared to aluminum.

Best regards,
Z

That is a good thing to know... What I have isn't exactly a stainless steel pipe but it's close enough to that that anything that will work for one should work for the other.. And I had a choice between iron with a tin coating or stainless so I chose stainless because I was worried that when heat was applied the coating on the cast iron one would flake off and get into the abs mix ruining it.

Anyway I think I found what I want to use to do this now I"m just trying to decide what wattage I need to successfully heat the mixture to the right temperature.

I am having a hard time deciding how much information to share about this project since it has potential financial implications for myself and my family if I share too much and let others beat me to a working solution. Needless to say though this thread has been a MASSIVE help and I am very grateful to the ATS brain trust for once again coming through in a pinch.

reply to post by roguetechie

I am having a hard time deciding how much information to share about this project since it has potential financial implications for myself and my family if I share too much and let others beat me to a working solution. Needless to say though this thread has been a MASSIVE help and I am very grateful to the ATS brain trust for once again coming through in a pinch.

You don't have to tell us,we just want our cut.