Thermostat-Controlled Hot Plate for Steam Box?

[(PeteCresswell)]

I wimped out and bought a steam cleaner - hoping to avoid making my own steam source for a small steam box (for bending a cane handle).

But the capacity is insufficient.

The good-right-and-holy path seems to be a sizable stainless pot with a top on it feeding one or more dishwasher hoses..... sitting on an electric hot plate.

The idea being to load the steam generator, turn the hot plate on, and then forget about it for a number of hours.

The auto-shutoff comes in if/when one misjudges the amount to water and/or forgets to come back soon enough and the pot boils dry.

Does anybody have experience with electric hot plates in a situation where the plate needs to shut itself off if/when a certain temperature is exceeded?

Google turns up a number of possible solutions, but I am not clear on exactly what situations they address.

[gfretwell]

They will have a thermal fuse. If you put a thermocouple and a comparator next to it that dropped out the element before the fuse blew it would work. There is probably an off the shelf solution tho.

[gfretwell]

Have you thought of just buying a vaporizer?