Home depot press heater

rsotak · Post by **rsotak** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 2:49 pm

Was looking through the forum for a press heater idea that would be cheaper then the $500 or so that silicone pads cost. Has anyone ever used the roof heating cables avaialable from home depot. It seems like if you plugged this into a PID controller box and ran it through the hollow portion of the cattrack (S turn perpendicular to the ski length) you would get good heating and relativly cheap. A 100ft is only $70.

Any thoughts?

infinityskis · Post by **infinityskis** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:18 pm

I don't know much about that stuff but it sounds like a good idea but what worries me is if the fire hose gets too hot but I don't know how hot those things get

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 3:37 pm

At a guess it might not be designed for sustained high temperatures, do you have any specs on the unit? It might have information on max temp, or duty cycle, etc.

More important question is your user name... Sotak isn't exactly the most common name in the world - my fiance's last name is Sotak, and her dad is R Sotak! Is my future father-in-law building skis without me knowing?

rsotak · Post by **rsotak** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 5:46 pm

No future father in law here, unless I made a mistake at a very young age that i do not remember. I haven't run into many Sotak in this country. Is she related to anyone in Colorado or Pittsburg?

About the heater, thwy don't have any wattage information. The PID would have to have a pretty quick on/off rate would be my guess.

As an aside I was thinking that water migth be an easier way of controlling temperature. I have an old peristaltic pump and water bath at my disposal. Was thinking some round tubing for the cattrack with liquid fittings on the end.

twizzstyle · Post by **twizzstyle** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 6:25 pm

I remember long ago someone routed copper tubing all through their mold and ran hot water through it. I suppose it would work, just sounds like a ton of work... Sometimes it's worth forking over the money for the easy solution

. Are you doing skis or snowboards? Single ski, or two at a time? A blanket big enough for one ski should run around $250

rsotak · Post by **rsotak** » Mon Jan 23, 2012 6:32 pm

Totaly agree with time being worth the money at this point in my life. A group of us are making a press to do both boards and 2 skis at a time. I'll have to see if they are up for dropping the cash right away.

MadRussian · Post by **MadRussian** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:31 pm

twizzstyle wrote:I remember long ago someone routed copper tubing all through their mold and ran hot water through it. I suppose it would work, just sounds like a ton of work...

definitely less work compare to make heat blanket and PID controller. It shouldn't take long to feed soft copper tubing or Pex through cat-tracks. If my garage were attached to the house I would definitely go hot-water press heating.

MontuckyMadman · Post by **MontuckyMadman** » Wed Jan 25, 2012 4:38 pm

I actually know of a production ski and snowboard shop that uses this type of pipe heater/roof heater resistance wire type thing to heat every board they press. So this does work, I assume they use a TC and a PID to regulate amperage and heat control but it does work.

Pretty sure they taped it to the cassette itself as putting through the cattrack would be a ginormous heat sink and prolly pretty slow.

MadRussian · Post by **MadRussian** » Thu Jan 26, 2012 5:30 pm

MontuckyMadman wrote:I actually know of a production ski and snowboard shop that uses this type of pipe heater/roof heater resistance wire type thing to heat every board they press. So this does work, I assume they use a TC and a PID to regulate amperage and heat control but it does work.

Pretty sure they taped it to the cassette itself as putting through the cattrack would be a ginormous heat sink and prolly pretty slow.

IIRC electric heat tracing for pipes not the kind you can buy in Home Depot. Kind sold in plumbing or electrical supply shops is self regulated to certain temperature if I would have to guess 100°- 110°F no temperature controller used when the tape to the pipes and often run very long distances 500' and more without problem.

heating tape itself thick and put it through cattrack with insulation of close eliminate need for fancy cassette building to protect tape from crashing. Probably can be done... I would guess it will not be cheaper to make or buy electric blanket.

Richuk · Post by **Richuk** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 2:27 am

Copper pipe through the cat track, approach taken by Line skis, when they were just a baby! Pipes through the mold, Leaf skis - taken from a heating system.

MadRussian · Post by **MadRussian** » Fri Jan 27, 2012 4:33 pm

Run heat trace tape through the cat track will not be cheap alternative to heat blanket this stuff expensive.

http://www.mcmaster.com/#heat-trace/=fzsazw

10 Watts/ft is not enough for what we need. 15 or most likely 20 Watts/ft probably will do the trick... at what cost?

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Home depot press heater

Home depot press heater