HT oven too big?

[muleskinner222]

I.D. is 28.5'' deep, 12'' wide and 9'' tall. I'm using the 240v/14.4-16.7A/3000-4000W/0.438 wire from Duralite. I've got all my parts together and started wondering if it may be a little too big? Everything I have read says to build it bigger than you think you need, what do you think? (it will have a door on the front) Thanks for any input.

 

[deker]

Looks good. 12" wide and 9" tall may be a bit overkill...how many 12" wide blades you planning to make that are 9" thick?

If you kept the interior a bit smaller, you'd take less time to come to temp and use less energy overall.

-d

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

What decker said.
The depth is the thing that people mean when they say make it bigger than you think you need. 9X6 would have been a better chamber size for the long knives and short swords that require a 28" deep oven.
Stacy

 

[SteelSlaver]

I have to agree. At his stage you could narrow it up pretty easy, but, dropping the height would be more work. You could reverse the bricks and put the grooves you have now on the outside. On my oven I place some rigid insulation board on the bottom and put my floor bricks on it. Then had enough room for a layer of kaowool between the outside bricks and the metal enclosure wall. I made mine 7" wide so I could span the ceiling with a brick and have an inch of brick setting on each wall. I used some 309 stainless welding rod with the flux knocked off to pin the whole thing together. I only made mine a little over 2- inches long. To short for a sword Whaaaa.

But I do have a 36" piece of 3" stainless pipe and will be having a salt pot.

 

[muleskinner222]

Thanks for the reply's. I was thinking of treating multiple knives (4-5) at once, to make good use of the energy being used. I also have a buddy interested in using it for color case hardening gun actions. From what I've been told they pack the action in a mixture of bone and wood charcoal.