We pulled the Helios out into the bright sun so the mirrors could be pointed and adjusted.

Finally, all the spiders are welded, sand blasted, painted, glued, and mounted on the array. The pulleys and cables are hooked up, and the three double rows of mirrors can be adjusted up and down on the front side of the oven. Here is a photo taken shortly after pulling it out of the barn.

None of the mirrors have been adjusted yet. Here is a photo from the other side.

At this time, I had pointed a few of the mirrors, and noticed some smoke curling out of the front of the oven. (The inside of the oven was getting really warm, too.) So, you may wonder what took so long..South-Central Texas has had a severe drought for the last several years, but it finally rained. The weather folks say May is one of the wettest months of the year.

We haven’t really had any serious rain during the month of May, but it has been cloudy every single morning since the Helios has been "ready". The other problem was the wheels and tubes on the old boat trailer I obtained from my neighbor. The inside of the wheels had turned to rust, and the valve stem holes were rusted away. I needed to sand blast the wheel, and weld some steel and some washers into the rusted areas. Getting the tires off the wheels was almost impossible. I finally let the local tractor repair shop sell me a new tube, and mount the tube and tires on my newly painted wheel rims.

Anyhow, it is now out in the sun, and I still need to hook up my temperature measuring stuff. I have the thermocouples with the meter that reads in either Fahrenheit or Centigrade, but it needs a little shelf on the rear of the oven to hold it out of the sun. For now, I’ll just stick an oven thermometer in the oven while I tweek on the mirrors.

Saturday, May 29, 2010 update

An earlier blog showed the idea of using a discarded automatic dishwasher carcass as the inside of the oven, mainly for the latching door mechanism. I used some black recycled metal shelving kickplates for the outside (black) welded to a frame constructed from discarded real estate sign frames (1/2" angle iron). Between the dishwasher carcass and the outer frame is fiberglass insulation with the paper backing removed. There are sockets on the bottom of the oven, and matching sockets on the cart, so it can be removed if I decide to make steam or ???. However, it probably won’t be changed, because it is too heavy to lift off. (50 years ago, the two of us could have done it easily..we barely got it mounted!) Here is a photo of the oven interior: The three shelves are from a Jenn-Aire Electric Range, and they are mounted side-wise. The light shines into the cavity and strikes the 1/4" steel plate mounted at an angle. The 1/16" steel blocks the light from the operator. The heavy steel plate is held to the top of the steel oven with a very strong magnet, and at the bottom are several heavy-duty hunks of angle iron, for thermal mass. Without any glass at the light entry point (through the stainless steel bowl cut-out) the temperature has been running over 350 F while adjusting and pointing the mirrors. I have boiled water for my super-insulated thermos bottle for the morning coffee, and managed to burn (blister) a nice spot on my right hand. We also re-heated our left-overs for lunch. What is really cool, is that the oven only moves about three feet, maximum, when cooking from 9 AM to Noon. A chicken is defrosting, and will certainly be roasted tomorrow! (The chicken came out just fine.) After the glass and the thermocouples are installed, and the beams "tightened up" this oven will be HOT!