What make of plate

We have a hot plate with toasted wires. It has an odd layout ( see inside photo attached). It is 6 x9 and we are trying to ID it in hopes of figuring out how to wire it or figure out a source to wire it. It has a threaded area at the top and extends to inner face. It looks like a slot for the probe near the bottom. It is in good shape but we cant figure up how to power it up. The only marking are 4/93 JR on the inside

image: IMG_0944.JPG

IMG_0944.JPG

Log in to reply   12 replies so far

One small E mail to . . [email protected] . . may prove fruitful if only for redirection to dedicated specialist Stateside!!

They also ship worldwide and are Specialist,s in Heatrod elements inc. *Glass Fibre* encased heatrods, (inc., and originally), heatrods not just electrically insulated and protected, but Chemically *flash* protected as well, as in, Chemical laden Print environment.!!!

watlow is a brand to search. i use them when needed and have a local supplier. many sizes and power capabilities.
what i don’t see in your pic is a separate channel for the thermocouple..it would be a bit dangerous to run the power wires right next to thermo wires.
most industrial wire has a thermo rating in the insulation of 250F. it is not really suitable then for this application. automotive wire would handle the amperage but is not rated for 600V. i have both 10Ga. & 12Ga true heater wire. either comes in white or black. it is fabric wrapped over a silicon insulate. this is usually “Silver Brazed” to the connection points to handle the heat. however, most of the time, when ordering new heater rods, you can order the length of lead you want. you can then bring the connections out side the plate and use a more “mechanical” type connection to join them, then use plugs to power system. if you are looking locally for the wire, look into high temp “oven” wire. expect about 3 bucks a foot.
The remnants of the red silicon filler is a “high temp” silicon . i would highly recommend using it. it is readily available at a good hardware store. a really good store would have the wire, and plugs too.

Thank you for the feed back. I had a feeling this was a little different than the normal plate and the feedback confirmed it. The thermocouple wire was run down the center channel and screwed to point cutting out to the left. I have couple of ideas to fix it but wanted to make sure this was not some easy to fix plate before I DYI it. The red silicon was me the first time I worked with this plate I flood sealed the wires but they overheated coming out of the one union sort of had a melt down. I copied what had been done by the prior owner. I think we are going tap two holes for the rod wires and see what kind of thermocouple we can come up with along with a C channel cap at the top to help lock it up. As always beer in one hand fire extinguisher in the other, BriarPress on my computer and i can fix (brake ) just about anything.

a 6 x 9 plate wouldn’t really need 3 heaters. i think this could be done with 2. i would mill 2 new channels closer to center (in Red) the center channel (in Green) would be for the thermocouple. Whatever you do, make sure the thermo
bottoms out” in the channel. i am showing here the complete channel in green. i would shorten it to end a shorter sensor closer to the center. “J” type thermo’s sense at the very tip. You want the tip touching the plate. the old channels (in Blue) would be filled with a hardening heat sink compound. This stuff would transfer heat through the open channel.

image: wetern hotplate.jpg

wetern hotplate.jpg

I like the idea. Do you know anyone who would be able to do this? I would like to get in contact with them to see if they have done something like this before and what it might cost?

yes, me……this is one of my hot plates that i am servicing at the moment.

image: hotplateII.jpg

hotplateII.jpg

Do you have any idea of what it might cost?

i will look into the parts for this size plate.

The picture I loaded did not show the back plate which screws onto the side shown in the photo. The photo was actually the underside of the plate with the plate removed. We do have a second full size 8.5 x 12 plate we would like to sell or trade toward the cost.

i would be open to that kind of thing. i will be contacting you directly. just so i have some details correct. you said the plate as you got it, the power leads came out one side, (to the right in your pic), and the thermo wires came out the left? i would set this up to where all wiring comes out one side.
Note,,, i am hoping you have “lock out” on your inking arms?

All the wires came out through the one common fitted junction which I think may be part of the issue. It was not until after it shorted that I took it apart and saw how it had been setup. The internal wiring looked a little iffy but I figured they used it so it must be correct. It looks at one time a single component with a thread common lead was in place. Just inside the lead area is deeper and threaded and and appears to have been setup for a thermocouple with thread compression style collar. After reading the feedback, we figured they must have blown the theromcoupler and rewire dit with a new contact lead. It would be fine to take all the wires out through the right side. I have a red ball with lockup so we are good.

Follow up - Thank you all for your feedback. We had a new thermocouple made by one of our customers whom we have done printing for over 20 years. Turns out they make what we need, you just never knew what they sold for sure. We also found a Watlow rep close by and got a set of heaters made. We will let you know what happens when we get it all up and running.