Heat Treat Ovens on Craigslist

W

Wowndeye

Joined
Apr 15, 2014
Messages
88
I was looking on CL in my area and found these two kilns for sale.

You'll see the first is a Paragon but I'm not seeing any sort of controls for heat control. Would this be easy enough to add as well as a thermocouple and work as a first heat treat oven and then if so, would it even be cost effective?

http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/art/5230036909.html

And this one has a controller on it but could an electronic one be swapped in as well?

http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/art/5222143533.html

Would one be considered better than the other. As far as size goes, they both look more than sufficient for the size of materials I would be working with for the foreseeable future and it looks like they'll get plenty hot enough for the materials I'll be working with as well.

Thanks,

Josh
 
Excellent greenjebadiah. Just starting to read your thread and browse the forum for more info but I'm glad it's at least doable. Looks like there's lot's of info out there. I just wanted to jump on one of these if they were a good deal and didn't do any reading.

How has your kiln ended up working out for you or do you have it all set up yet?
 
Last edited:
I haven't started the pid yet, but the analog gauge seems pretty accurate.
I've done 2 blades in it and I'm glad i bought it.
Like Stacy recommended in the other thread I'm going to use only carbon steels and send out for the higher temp crucible steels.
For $200 that's a really good deal.
 
Right on... I'm going to be sticking with carbon steels as well, more than likely getting real comfortable with 1084 for a while but I am ordering a stick of 80CRV2 as well to give that a try. We'll see if my grinder can handle it.

It would just be awesome to have confidence in the temps I'm working with so I can be more sure of my heat treats. Do you temper in yours as well?
 
So one more question because I don't know anything about these units and extremely little about electricity but the guy selling the Paragon said his unit has no controls as is and you just plug it in and it heats up. Can a PID controller still be added to that?
 
Most likely you can add a temp controller/pid to the kiln. It might take some doing, but there isn't much to a electric kiln, so you can probably do it.
 
Wowndeye said:
Right on... I'm going to be sticking with carbon steels as well, more than likely getting real comfortable with 1084 for a while but I am ordering a stick of 80CRV2 as well to give that a try. We'll see if my grinder can handle it.

It would just be awesome to have confidence in the temps I'm working with so I can be more sure of my heat treats. Do you temper in yours as well?
Click to expand...

I don't temper in mine, i have a small toaster oven that i use because i have set it up already with ceramic tile and a temp guage.
I don't know much about kilns either but you're definitely going to want something to be able to stop the kiln once it reaches the temp you're shooting for.
You could call the company that sells the pids or maybe someone with more experience will chime in on here.
 
Wowndeye said:
So one more question because I don't know anything about these units and extremely little about electricity but the guy selling the Paragon said his unit has no controls as is and you just plug it in and it heats up. Can a PID controller still be added to that?
Click to expand...

Yes. It is even likely to be easier to add one to a unit without one at all, than to replace an existing one.

The best way is probably to build a separate control box that you just plug the kiln into and connect the thermocouple.

If you use a plug-in connection for the thermocouple as well as the one for the power, you can use the same controller for both the Austenitizing kiln and a toaster oven tempering setup.

In most cases, this should work fine just plugging in and setting the temperature, but if there is a big difference in the rate of heating, it might be necessary to change the P,I & D values in the controller between the ovens. That only takes a couple of minutes, so is not a deal-breaker.
 
So I haven't heard back from Auberins yet but I had e-mailed Paragon who suggested getting their Xpress TNFII which is a stand alone or portable controller that the kiln would plug into. This seems like it would be the easiest route as far as a setup goes so I don't have to actually mess with the wiring of the kiln itself but she said the unit is $564 which seems a little steep considering it looks like I could get the parts for significantly less.

I'm obviously trying to get a little setup here as inexpensively as possible but would it be difficult to make something like the Xpress TNFII from parts from Auberins?
 
Keep in mind that those are both jewelry kilns. I saw them when they were listed. They are okay for small knives but will likely leave you wanting in the end. A cheap knife making kiln on one of the main knife suppliers that is 13-14" deep goes for between $750-850.

I'd recommend saving a little longer and getting a tool that will last a lifetime.
 
Hey Bryan! I know they are jewelry kilns and understand their limitations but my hopes were if I could get a heat treat oven in the ballpark of $300-350 or so, it would be more than adequate for the size of knives I'll be making for a while now as well as the type of steels I'm working with (1084 and 5160). Granted, if it looks like I'll be spending much more than that I'll probably just end up saving for a new unit from someone.

Having a unit that is able to hold a specific temperature will give me a huge peace of mind when it comes to my heat treating and make me comfortable with the idea of trying to sell in the near future.

I have a handful of blades I've started sitting in the shop, from smaller to longer ones and I decided a short time ago that I'm going to focus on a few designs that are all under 7 inches so that I'm working on shorter bevels, 3 inches and under so that way I can refine my grinding skills and not have so much blade to worry about. Not to mention working with a HF 1x30 clearly isn't the speediest piece of equipment to work with either.

My goals at the moment are first to ensure my heat treating process is on and produce consistent results and then do some of the more aggressive blade tests to challenge my work. Once I'm comfortable with understanding what the blades are capable of I'd like to start selling and then start saving for future equipment probably starting with a 2x72 and then a better oven that's capable of working with longer and more advanced steels. Again, I figure if I get the kiln at a reasonable price and have a minimal investment either I can just sell it when the day comes I upgrade or keep it as a backup, but for now I'm hoping it will help me take the next step in the process. :)
 
I was the same way, if it's that cheap, might as well try it.
I was planning on building one and my two brick forge was good, but would get hot spots so for that price I figured, why not get a cheap kiln.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top