# Conveyer Dryer's Dead!!!



## zymerguyer (Feb 15, 2007)

Our Conveyer Dryer just died. It's a really old-school, archaic machine that didn't work that well to begin with. We were spit-balling some ideas and we think it might work to find an old electric cooking oven, take out the brain-center and use that for our head unit for the dryer. In theory we'd just hook up the old ceramic elements in place of the metal coil elements found in the cooking oven. Does this sound like it may be feasible, are we screwed out of our only dryer? Also, we need to dry our shirts now, how do we utilize our cooking oven for the time being. (Time, Temp??) Thanks. 

-Travis


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## controlledimages (Mar 31, 2007)

I'm sorry to hear of the recent passing of your beloved conveyor dryer. 

As for time and temp for the use of a cooking oven, I've had success with 320 degrees for 10 minutes (gas oven).


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## triplej (Apr 18, 2005)

zymerguyer said:


> Our Conveyer Dryer just died.


I would stay clear of taking the coils out of the oven. Unless it's a pizza oven. Different drying idea entirely. You can use your flash dryer in a pinch (no light on dark drying though) if you have one. You can also buy the infrared panels fairly cheap and hook them up in place of the old ones. I've also recently heard of the "little buddy" which is a really compact conveyor dryer that is inexpensive and works great.

Good luck man... 
__________________


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## RichardGreaves (Nov 7, 2006)

controlledimages said:


> I'm sorry to hear of the recent passing of your beloved conveyor dryer.
> 
> As for time and temp for the use of a cooking oven, I've had success with 320 degrees for 10 minutes (gas oven).


There is no way it should take 10 minutes for a shirt to get to 320 degrees. All you have to do is get the ink and shirt up to 320.


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## controlledimages (Mar 31, 2007)

10 minutes was a suggested length of time from another post. Seemed a bit excessive to me, too. But since I'm a newb to this game I tried it and it worked. The shirts didn't scorch, the ink cured and didn't wash off. 

I'll experiment with short lengths of time.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

zymerguyer said:


> Our Conveyer Dryer just died. It's a really old-school, archaic machine that didn't work that well to begin with. We were spit-balling some ideas and we think it might work to find an old electric cooking oven, take out the brain-center and use that for our head unit for the dryer. In theory we'd just hook up the old ceramic elements in place of the metal coil elements found in the cooking oven. Does this sound like it may be feasible, are we screwed out of our only dryer? Also, we need to dry our shirts now, how do we utilize our cooking oven for the time being. (Time, Temp??) Thanks.
> 
> -Travis


Did you think to look at the wiring? Open it up and see if your ceramic wiring is broken at the leads, etc. You might find it's a simple fix and then you would end up with an even better temperature than before.


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## rusty (Feb 9, 2007)

triplej said:


> You can use your flash dryer in a pinch (no light on dark drying though) if you have one.


I cured many, many light on dark shirts with my flash before I got my oven. It works fine if you do it right.


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## DigitalMayhem (Aug 4, 2007)

Ceramic Infrared Heating Elements

I'm thinking of making my own dryer, I'm going to use these.

Ever work in a restaurant?? You will remember the salamander.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

DigitalMayhem said:


> Ceramic Infrared Heating Elements
> 
> I'm thinking of making my own dryer, I'm going to use these.
> 
> Ever work in a restaurant?? You will remember the salamander.


The problem I see with those heating elements is, the recommended distance is 4". I assume that means from what you are heating. That doesn't give you much of a clearance if you are trying to build a conveyer. A flash unit would work, but a with a conveyer, you would want more space than that.


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## DigitalMayhem (Aug 4, 2007)

It appears they come in a variety of "recommended distance to material" ranges from 3.25" to 8". Also, why is 4" too close? I'm gonna measure my little buddy when I get to the shop.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

DigitalMayhem said:


> It appears they come in a variety of "recommended distance to material" ranges from 3.25" to 8". Also, why is 4" too close? I'm gonna measure my little buddy when I get to the shop.


I did look before and only saw 4", sorry about that, must have overlooked the other sizes.

In my opinion 4" is too close because what if you want to put hats through it, or a thick jacket. For a flash unit, 4" would work fine, but for a conveyer, you want it to be versatile and it prohibits you from being able to cure everything you can come across that needs heat.


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## DigitalMayhem (Aug 4, 2007)

You would want to incorporate a feature to raise and lower heat element from the conveyor surface? Then you could adjust for garments of different thickness's.


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

DigitalMayhem said:


> You would want to incorporate a feature to raise and lower heat element from the conveyor surface? Then you could adjust for garments of different thickness's.


Quite honestly I wouldn't even go that far. It's just more mechanism within the heat chamber itself that could easily get destroyed and not function properly. I would simply have it at a good height and be done with it. You would slow down or speed up your belt for different materials.

Simple is almost always better.


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## DigitalMayhem (Aug 4, 2007)

Touche, Mr. Hill, Touche


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## JeridHill (Feb 8, 2006)

DigitalMayhem said:


> Touche, Mr. Hill, Touche


All I can imagine is Jerry's nephew in Tom & Jerry saying "Touche, Mr. Poosiecat"!

(Spelled incorrectly because the filter went like this *****cat)


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## DigitalMayhem (Aug 4, 2007)

That would be good for a shirt. The copyright police would probably get me.

And as the drunk French mouse who helped Jerry fend off Tom in the "Three Musketeers" episode said: "Touché, Monsieur *****cat."

I love google.


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## Mad Brad (May 31, 2007)

I have tunnels available that were used for shrink wrapping trays of bottled water etc. they can come in many different sizes and with all the various controls on them I can't see why they would not work for garments. they usually go for 2 to 4 thousand canadian depending on year size etc. They are always 3 phase/220V and up/lots of amps etc.

Brad


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## krokker (Mar 15, 2007)

I have a small startup and I cure white on dark with my cheep junk ok. I am looking at the little buddy as a step up.


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## n.signia (Nov 21, 2007)

What are your conveyors "symptoms"? It might be easier to fix than you think...


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