a beginner's question

Sounds kind of dangerous to me to build something like this unless you take a LOT of precautions. I would worry about elctrocuting not only myself, but others who may wander into the vicinity of the heater you are planning on building. So before you make this device, consider your own liability.

Now, I know this sounds like cheating, but why not use an infrared heat lamp or maybe even a floodlamp or something like that? Unless you absolutely need to generate the heat with the plate, you could probably consider some kind of secondary heat transfer (this way, you are mostly insulated from the electricity).

Hope I have offered you some options...

Buy a hot-plate and add a temperature control. What kind of accuracy do you need ? <nbucska@pcperipherals.com>

Suggestion: It would probably be less expensive and more direct to apply a hot plate element only and associated heat control. Install it via the safe electrical installation according to NFPA 70-1999 National Electrical Code (as a minimum). You will probably need a very small element, e.g. 200Watt approximately, 120Volt, single phase.