A method to quickly package up your temperature controller kit
Your kit comes pre-wired. It can be used with as little effort as
heat sinking the power switch
and splicing it in series with your kiln power line. You can also
mount it up very nicely for the price
of about 20$ in items from Home Depot.
Home Depot shopping list
a) household goop
b) expanded metal mesh
c) 10" X 10" X 4" grey junction box. has 3 knockout holes each side ( cost = ~ 14$ )
d) Knock out wire bundle clamps
1. Cut a hole to fit the size of the controller, I used a jigsaw to cut this one
2) Place a generous amount of House Hold Goop on the bracket
3) Fish the controller box through the whole you just cut and carefully slide the gooped
bracket under and screw into place. Let the Goop cure overnight for full strength
4) When cured you can remove the controller by unscrewing the thumb screw
5) In order to insure adequate air flow I punch out several of the knockouts and
goop into place expanded metal to prevent inadvertent appendage insertion.
You will need to use something heavy to hold down the mesh while curing.
6) Cut an aluminum plate to replace the cover that came originally with the box.
This accomplishes the goal of allowing you to drill and tap holes for switch mounting
and forms a heat sink. The parts stay cool this way insuring long lifetimes.
Use a sheet metal screw through the holes pointed out below to mount the plate
to the top of the box.
7) On the inside of the aluminum plate lid you can mount your switch anywhere you like.
8) Use knock out wire clamps( they're designed to work with boxes like this ) to
run wires through the knockout holes. I use a piece of split rubber hose to
prevent wire chaffing.
9) Now you can wire mount your pre-wired kit in the box. You can see a
picture
of one I did for a friend below. As you can see I wired
up the box so that the
kiln plugs into the box and the box plugs into the outlet
on the wall. This allows
me to use the setup with any of my kilns.
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