Heat Treating/ Tempering Oven

[Brian Stucker]

I've had this project shelved for a while now. I planned on buying one of those fancy Paragon ovens. But my finances won't allow it. I'm gonna finish this one. I have a 3800w heating element for the HT oven. The elements on the tempering the top one reads 18.1 and the bottom reads 30.1 on my ohms meter. I plan on running everything off of one breaker. I plan on using a 60 amp breaker. Running 2 40 amp SSR's per PID. I plan on using a ramp soak Pid for the HT oven. And a normal pid for the tempering oven. If anybody see's something that won't work. Would you let me know. Thanks in advance.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

It seems OK. Are you running it on 240VAC?

 

[Brian Stucker]

Yes

 

[Brian Stucker]

Where would the best place be to get an electrical enclosure big enough to house everything? I plan on getting most everything from Aubrins. But I didn't see any enclosures big enough to put 4 40 amp SSR's in.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

Just go on Ebay./Amazon and get a metal or plastic project box.

 

[AI2]

I'm working on an oven myself, and almost have all the parts I need. One thing I didn't see in your pics was where the heating elements will go (the grooves) which I would have expected to be done before assembly.

In terms of electrical boxes, I have 2 kinds in stock that I'm considering using. One is 12x10x5" and the other is 8x7x3.5". If one box can't fit all, there's nothing stopping you from using 2 smaller ones.

 

[Brian Stucker]

I scored a 12 x 20 x 8" nema 4 box from our local phone company today really cheap. I made my oven to come apart. The top comes off where on the sides and top I have 1 inch ceramic fiber blanket over the bricks. And on the bottom I have 2" ceramic fiber board. The bricks are joint fit together with no cement. I made it that way so I could replace bricks and heating elements easier in the future. I still have to go in and cut the grooves and install the heating elements.