- Joined
- Oct 20, 2008
- Messages
- 5,547
I'm currently uploading video to youtube, or I'd upload a vid I took recently of my temper oven. Perhaps I'll come back and do that later today. Wish I had a good pic of it to hand.
Anyway, it's a simple concept and easy/cheap with very common items.
Find two old rotten travel trailers, the kind that you demolish and turn into flatbed trailers. Rip the propane oven out of each one. Or, find someone who does these kind of shenanigans, or who sells or trades or stockpiles old RV appliances.
I was lucky enough to salvage two ovens of the same make, the common Magic Chef brand, so they are the same height although one is a couple inches longer.
I kept the controls intact, including thermocouple and gas adjustment knob. I cut a rectangular hole in the right wall of one, and into the left wall of the other, matching in size and position. I used flat steel bar to make a mating flange between the ovens along the top outside and back and bottom flat surfaces, then drilled and pop-riveted the ovens together using the bar as a scab plate. Screws would also work. I stuffed some kaowool scrap around the edges of the pass-through hole between ovens, and bent up a sheetmetal flange to trim the very short resulting tunnel, 1 inch or so between the walls of the two ovens.
So I end up with a double length heat chamber with a controlled burner and thermocouple under each side.
I put an oven thermometer in each side so I can monitor the actual temp, and just set both ovens to run at 400 or whatever I want, using their respective gas dials. I pre-heat and adjust the oven to a stable condition, and temper.
It actually works quite well, I just did a 39.5" damascus khopesh in there, and the one I won FiF with was tempered in that oven too.
Anything seems unclear, I'd be happy to explain further. Here's a pic of the last sword I tempered in it, anyway.
Anyway, it's a simple concept and easy/cheap with very common items.
Find two old rotten travel trailers, the kind that you demolish and turn into flatbed trailers. Rip the propane oven out of each one. Or, find someone who does these kind of shenanigans, or who sells or trades or stockpiles old RV appliances.
I was lucky enough to salvage two ovens of the same make, the common Magic Chef brand, so they are the same height although one is a couple inches longer.
I kept the controls intact, including thermocouple and gas adjustment knob. I cut a rectangular hole in the right wall of one, and into the left wall of the other, matching in size and position. I used flat steel bar to make a mating flange between the ovens along the top outside and back and bottom flat surfaces, then drilled and pop-riveted the ovens together using the bar as a scab plate. Screws would also work. I stuffed some kaowool scrap around the edges of the pass-through hole between ovens, and bent up a sheetmetal flange to trim the very short resulting tunnel, 1 inch or so between the walls of the two ovens.
So I end up with a double length heat chamber with a controlled burner and thermocouple under each side.
I put an oven thermometer in each side so I can monitor the actual temp, and just set both ovens to run at 400 or whatever I want, using their respective gas dials. I pre-heat and adjust the oven to a stable condition, and temper.
It actually works quite well, I just did a 39.5" damascus khopesh in there, and the one I won FiF with was tempered in that oven too.
Anything seems unclear, I'd be happy to explain further. Here's a pic of the last sword I tempered in it, anyway.
