can alumium be used for oven door???

[merlyn]

Ready to make my oven door,, as I have several different thickness of aluminum sheeting and grades of hardness around I like to use it .. Most of it is left over from projects such as my hurricane shutters .. I would make the door 2 or 3 inches thick , that is,, 14 or 16 gage aluminum filled with left over ceramic board and blanket . I can use 7069 T6 aluminum for the side in the oven ,, very hard used for fuselage in jets . Melting point is around 1400 degrees Fahrenheit . How about fumes would it be a problem ??[[ I won`t cook in an aluminum pot .]] or possible heat transmission .. I could go with stainless steel but I would need to buy it .. and hard as h--- to bend and form also don`t have a mig or tig to weld it .. Thought about regular steel sheet but the gage I would use would make it really heavy .. Thought about concrete board for the interior part , but don`t like the idea of dust off of coming loose when I pull it out .. I know I can use the aluminum for the outside part of the door .. Sooo what do ya all think about the inside .. ??????

[moderator]

Re: can alumium be used for oven door???

Aluminum is more conductive than Carbon Steel. Carbon Steel is more conductive than SST.

As a result, any door made of Aluminum will get much hotter.

We recommend you use a steel product and either paint it with a high performance paint such as used in racing engine applications (900 degree rating).

Or go with Stainless

[deejayoh]

Re: can alumium be used for oven door???

People have built aluminum doors. As the mod points out, it does conduct heat pretty well - but put some handles on it and I doubt it will be any sort of performance issue. Just fill the cavity with CF board or blanket and it will work fine.

A SS door is nice to have, if cost and/or workability aren't issues. But given you already have the AL, I would start there.

Also, check out the "show us your doors" thread for ideas

[Greenman]

Re: can alumium be used for oven door???

I built mine from aluminium sheet and aluminium angle. Works a treat and looks fine too. The pics of the construction of it are in my build pics. The material was new offcuts from the scrap metal dealer and the whole thing cost a few dollars, only needed a hacksaw, rivet gun and angle grinder with cutting disc to make it as well.

[vtsteve]

Re: can alumium be used for oven door???

I've riveted together a couple of "prototypes" using 24ga 304 stainless. It's easy to cut, drill and bend... I've been meaning to do a full write-up. Basically, I have a strip shear-cut and bent into a shallow (~0.7" x door thickness) u-channel, which gets snipped through the flanges and bent into an arc. If you offset your cuts, the face of the channel forms triangular facets between cuts, and it's very stable.

The inner and outer panels (hand-cut with snips) get riveted to the resulting tabs - fill the space between with fiber scrap before you close it up. I bought a bunch of clecos (temporary rivets) so I could do all the drilling and fit-up before final assembly.

[deejayoh]

Re: can alumium be used for oven door???

VTSteve - you must have access to a cheap source of stainless! That stuff is about $25 for a 2x2' sheet where I usually shop

[Greenman]

Re: can alumium be used for oven door???

Sounds good. Interested to see how you put it together. Some pics would be good. The metal dealer I use sells stainless as well. It is all by weight and the only way to buy small sections. It is all a bit opportunistic and it is what is around on the day. The S/S section I have used for heat breaks I had to buy new and it was $10/metre! The aluminium from the dealer is $15/kg regardless of what shape or section it is. Long live upcycling!

[mrchipster]

Re: can alumium be used for oven door???

VTSteve - you must have access to a cheap source of stainless! That stuff is about $25 for a 2x2' sheet where I usually shop

Keep an eye in Craigslist.

I got a stainless fridge for free and cut it up. Also stainless dishwashers can also be a good source of sheet stainless. The inside does not need to be thick material and using stainless rivets works great. I used a thicker piece of aluminum as my outer skin and it seems to be working great, three years later.

The only major change I would make to my door would be to have the handles only attach to the outer skin of the door. My handle bolts go all the way to the inside and they do conduct a significant amount of heat to the outside.