Dog’s Head: Aluminium Furnace Electronics

This entry is part 6 of 15 in the series Dog's Head
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Quick one – the electronics for my aluminium foundry. AliExpress shopping list was in my last post.

A Couple of Progress Photos

I got all the electronics wired up and tested it by sticking the thermocouple in the oven while I was cooking a frozen chicken kiev for dinner – I figured the oven thermostat was ‘accurate enough’. Turns out it was: 200C on the oven read 200C (ish) on the PID.

I housed the electronics in an old charity shop toolbox. I added the venting because solid state relays need some cooling – might potentially have to add a cooling fan. Not sure yet.

 

The innards. As per label the (heat resistant) red wires on right-hand side of the SSR are for effect only….not wired to anything. In the actual installed those terminal are in-line with the mains power, power switch and heating element. The ‘ground’ is an area of contention…for reasons I might get into some other day.

 

 

Wiring to the PID: Red and blue on the left are to the K-thermocouple. Blue and red on the top-right are the DC output to control the SSR switching. Brown and blue is the AC mains (220-240V) which powers the unit.

Wiring the ‘Power-Switch with a Light’

I bought this from Jaycar. It rated to 15A @ 240V. It has 6 terminals though and I could not for the life of me (through my usual trial-and-error approach) work out how to wire it up. There are no technical spec sheets or anything, just some numbers. I found video below which answered my question…


The guy who posted it was actually installing it on a foundry too. He, VegOilGuy, has pre-empted and done-MUCH-better all my various projects, which is a little shattering 🙁

 

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