Heat Treat Oven Done- Thanks!

S

StuNY

Joined
Feb 16, 2014
Messages
152
Well after a few week labor of love I finally finished it today! Thanks for all the help here in the posts and stickies- made it very easy! Especially the parts list by Jbblount on this thread:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/927793-Homemade-heat-treat-oven/page2

Quick specs:
4.25x6x18
220v, 3100 watts

Here it is just getting first break in run going:
i-RsZdTdx-L.jpg


Interior:
i-htfbsRk-M.jpg


Controller- knew I would use that anodizing setup again haha!
i-J3NJLGP-M.jpg


Finally after a couple levels went for 2000 degrees. All went well, outside skin got pretty warm but seemed to get there pretty quick:
i-wZswZbL-M.jpg


Thanks for all the helpful tips and discussion.
FWIW, anyone thinking of undertaking this to save a few bucks should probably just buy the commercial units. I have about $500 in total parts in this and countless hours. I enjoyed the process but if you would rather be making knives that might be best!


Stuart
 
Wow thanks! I had to learn how to weld with a wire feed unit- I had done some stick welding as a kid but it was a good excuse to buy a cheap HF welder and get back into it. Next project will be a belt grinder hopefully.
 
629hugo said:
how much $$$ do you have into it in parts?
Click to expand...
About $500 including the stainless. That turned out to be one of the hardest parts- Between cutting it to size and drilling for rivets- it is 20ga. Looks nice though, but what a PITA!
 
Good work! I'll be buying a heat treat oven. That there would likely take me a year to complete.
 
Thanks! Yeah, you really have to love doing the project to make it worthwhile. I haven't made a knife in a month!
 
what kind of box do you have there for the PID and SSR? are the corners of the kiln welded?

BTW:INCREDIBLE job!!!!! Beautiful


DR.....
 
Daniel Rohde said:
what kind of box do you have there for the PID and SSR? are the corners of the kiln welded?

BTW:INCREDIBLE job!!!!! Beautiful


DR.....
Click to expand...
Thanks! I made the box for the controller myself since I couldn't find anything to purchase that wasn't huge. I wanted it to be narrow enough not to take up much additional bench space. I made the interior the width of the PID and everything else fit in nicely under that. I used aluminum stock I had already on hand and my mill. Yes, the corners are all welded. First time with welder but it is not so difficult and easy enough to grind off the ugly stuff!
 
That's a good looking machine! $500.00 ain't bad at all for that kingd of quality.
I'm sure it will serve you well for a long time.
 
FWIW:
I have been using the oven a bit now and can pass on a tip for anyone that ends up using the same PID controller for their oven. I have the SYL-2352P from Auber Instruments and found that it was not staying very precise at HT temperature- generally 10 degrees under and varying quite a bit up and down. I did the auto-tune when it was at temperature and now it is locked on very well! stays within a degree of target for both HT and tempering. Nice! The datasheet said it should work well enough on default settings but turns out a quick tuneup really makes this unit shine!
 
Thats exactly what we had to do with mine, runs like a top now

and i must say you did an outstanding job building your oven, looks great, ;0)
 
Thanks John!
After running it now and getting a feel for how it performs -especially with the auto tune- it looks like it will be everything I hoped for. Had to make a lot of decisions on choosing brick thickness, layout, door seals, latches etc. but nice to see everything worked out. Fortunately this won't be one of my projects where it takes endless tweaks to get it working right!
 
Purchase Offer Removed - Moderator

......... I can't seem to send you a PM, can you drop me a PM or e-mail. I think you have done a wonderful job!

Congrats!!
 
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