Hand held pyrometer

SBranson

SBranson

Joined
Oct 29, 2006
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2,912
I looked but I haven't found any discussion on these.

I see several pictures in WIP of hand held IR pyrometer/thermometer and wondered how useful they are. I would like a back up and maybe something to get a reading on a blade during HT and particularly in the cool down when thermocycling.

I saw this on ebay and the accuracy looked good and the price looks good too.
http://www.ebay.ca/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230686204943&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNARL:CA:1123


Sure it's probably one of those "you get what you pay for" things and the next option I saw at twice the price is this one:

http://www.testequipmentdepot.com/extech/thermometers/42511-42512.htm

Whatcha think?
 
I have the extech, and it's very good for what it does. I initially got it to check the temp of the blade while in the forge, and it does not give a stable (workable) reading.
I use it now for more mundane things, like checking the temp of my quench oil.
I wound up drilling a hole in the wall of my forge, and using a thermocouple to monitor the temp of my forge.
 
I've got theromocouples on my forges. What I was asking about is the hand held IR types so I can point it at a blade and look at the temperature.
For instance, heat treating in a forge, I would like to measure the temperature at the tip versus near the ricasso. I have a Don Fogg style HT forge and I would like to know if in fact when my thermocouple reads 1466℉ that the tip isn't up at 1550℉ because it's a little deeper in the forge.
I figure it would be a good tool to make sure how things are working and to double check my thermocouples etc..
 
Stuart, I have one and use it frequently. They aren't as accurate as they state (IMO) the issue I cam across is that at different distances from the spot you are reading it takes a reading of different size areas. so if you were hitting the tip of the blade it would be reading some of the space around the tip (Air?) I find it reads inside forge temps pretty accurately.
 
It reads emissivity, which is different for different materials and also different for carbon steel, stainless steel, shiny steel, scale...

If you read the insides of the kiln, and soak until the blade matches that - that's different


Search emissivity here for more info.
 
In my Don Fogg style HT forge, it's a large volume tank with a burner low at one end. The idea is to keep out of the flame but mine isn't exactly as wide as I would like and I sometimes wonder about whether the tip gets a bit of direct heat and is over the thermocouple reading.
It's a good forge and judging from the walls it's evenly heating. This even temperature is pretty important for hamon making so I just wanted another thing to help in control of the heat.

I guess my real question isn't so much whether to get one but whether that one from ebay seems like a good enough approach.

I'm thinking you get what you pay for so I'll likely just get the Extech one unless someone has an alternative (that doesn't cost more than the Extech)
 
12345678910 said:
It reads emissivity, which is different for different materials and also different for carbon steel, stainless steel, shiny steel, scale...

If you read the insides of the kiln, and soak until the blade matches that - that's different


Search emissivity here for more info.
Click to expand...

Yes, what the Count says. Search this forum for this, I explained some of the issues/limitations.
 
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