Oven thermometer accuracy

[ioon44]

Before I got a convection oven I had 4 oven thermometers to check for hot and cold spots in the static oven.


With all 4 thermometers on the same tray I got readings of 395deg F, 400deg F ,410deg F and 425deg F.
To see which one was correct I bought a 400deg F Thermomelt heat stick from a welding supply store and marked a small piece of angle iron.
This gave me a better idea of my actual temperature. Turned out the dial on the Jen-air convection oven at 400deg F was correct.

[Beagle333]

Thermometers do very a lot. Fortunately, I do believe that you would get a great coat using powder at anything between those measurements of 395° and 425°. It isn't really that sensitive. Under 350° and it might not cure, and over 450° and you might get some browning or brittleness - depending on how long you left it there, but 380°-430° should make something nice. If I go from a cold start and don't either autotune or program my PID for the oven I'm using (after using the PID for something else), it'll often run up to 425°-428° on the first bake before coming back down to level out at 400°.

[runfiverun]

over 450 and it won't matter you'll have a pile of lead coated with powder not any boolits.
425 is the slump point of many popular alloys with tin in them.

[ioon44]

First time I tried to bake a tray I used the bottom rack, slumped the whole tray. I found that each rack position had a different temperature, I use the second rack from the top on the Jen-air convection oven.