New Furniture Grade Rack

[ItsAllNew2Me!]

All put together... Now to wiring the heat tape and thermostat!


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[BigIan]

did you route out a channel for the heat tape?

[ItsAllNew2Me!]

Nope i am just putting heat tape down and will add aluminum tape to keep it secured

[ItsAllNew2Me!]

Tonight I am hoping to have this bad boy all finished and testing will commence! I still have to add the veneer to the edges to hide the plywood edges to give it a nice clean look. I also have to wire the heat tape, thermostat, and toggle switches. I am only putting toggle switches in the last four slots\shelves. I figure that if i am not at least using three of the shelves at any given time then this whole rack is a waste of space . I will continue to post pics through the end. Any suggestions or questions are welcome as always!

[ItsAllNew2Me!]

Hey all an update. No pictures right now...i got the heat tape wired and place at the back of the rack for belly heat... but ran into a snag . The heat tape will not heat when attached to the thermostat! We tested the heat tape with just plugging into an extension cord and it starts to heat. My dad had us go with 18 gauge wire to the heat tape (3" thg - 7 runs at 34"). Do you think the wire gauge is too small? The thermostat powers on and reads temps just fine and it does switch on and off when it hits the proper temperature (tested with water and two handheld thermometers). I am using the STC-1000 Fahrenheit thermostat. This is so simple to wire that I am 100% we have it correct. Any ideas would be great. Thanks.

[Ax01]

i used and chopped up a simple extension cord i bought from Lowe's to wire my homemade rack with heat tape running parallel (6" THG x 20" long x 6 shelves). this one here - http://www.lowes.com/pd_70290-66906-...tId=3129337&Ns. i guess it's 16 gaage. i recall i bought a 15 ft one to give me plenty of cord to work with. i think 18 gauge is enough to run 3" THG.

anyway, let's do some math with your set-up.


3" THG is 4 watts/ft


34" x 7 strips = 238" or 19.83 ft of total heat tape


19.83 ft x 4 watts/ft = 79.32 or roughly 80 watts of total heat tape


lol is my math correct? i'm sure any thermostat would be able to handle 80 watts. but i'm not familiar with the brand of thermostat u are using. a quick search online says it can be used to heat and cool. lol is there a possibility that your thermostat is set to cool?

nonetheless, i think your thermostat is the issue. if the heat tape heats up and runs fine unregulated into an extension cord or outlet, it shows that it works. i guess just fiddle around with the thermostat a bit more? also what about your toggle switches?

anyway i'm just trying to help u bounce ideas off the wall. i may not have the solution. :/

[ItsAllNew2Me!]

thanks for the reply. Yes i did get the toggle switches in i just have not gotten around to posting the pics (finished at midnight last night). The thermostat is set to heat or cool meaning that in the case of heat tape you can have it set to heat when it reaches a low temp. In the case of cooling once it reaches a high temp (like in a fridge) it will switch on like if you were running a cooler. It is definitely set to heat and during testing we set it to just heat to 80 degrees. it would not get over room temp. I plan on fiddling with it more tonight. thanks for the math it looks at about what i got from the tape the thermostat should run it no problem...

[Ax01]

what is your room temp? where did u place the probe for the thermostat? set the thermostat higher than 80degrees. ideally the heat tape is supposed to provide a hot spot between 89-91 degrees.

i would set the thermostat higher, measure the temp over the heat tape from inside the tub. do a few spot checks. get it between 89-90.

[ItsAllNew2Me!]

it was just a dry run...my parents house temp is set to 60 degrees so 80 degrees was more than enough to get it up to temp. i placed it directly on the heat tape and placed some of the plastic bins in for heat retention. The probe never got past the 60 degree room temperature and the thermostat was on as if it was trying to heat but the temp never increase per the thermostat. I gripped the probe in my hand and the temp shot up immediately to around body temp so i do know it is reading correctly. Just weird. Ill have to do some tinkering tonight. Anyone else use the stc-1000 that may have any ideas? i got the simple fahrenheit model

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281294885235...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

[bproffer]

it was just a dry run...my parents house temp is set to 60 degrees so 80 degrees was more than enough to get it up to temp. i placed it directly on the heat tape and placed some of the plastic bins in for heat retention. The probe never got past the 60 degree room temperature and the thermostat was on as if it was trying to heat but the temp never increase per the thermostat. I gripped the probe in my hand and the temp shot up immediately to around body temp so i do know it is reading correctly. Just weird. Ill have to do some tinkering tonight. Anyone else use the stc-1000 that may have any ideas? i got the simple fahrenheit model

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281294885235...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

Do you have a volt meter that you can use to check to see if the output on the thermostat has voltage when cycled on? If not, you can plug in a lamp to see if the light goes on and off when cycled.


Edit... Just looked at the controller on the Ebay link you posted. It is just an simple on/off relay type PID controller. Do you have your heat span set up correctly? Looks like it can be set from 1°-24°. Meaning, if you have the temp span set to 20°, the relay wont engage (energize) unless the temperature of the probe is more than 20° lower than the setpoint and wont disengage (de-energize) until the temp is more than 20° above the setpoint. You need to really make sure you only have your temp differential set to 2-3°.