Large Tooling order = New Heat treat oven for my shop (ME) Reccomendations

Carl_First_Timer

Carl_First_Timer

Joined
Dec 6, 2010
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So I am making quite a bit of tooling for a customer. It is all rush and they want each one usable as soon as it is off the CNC. My HT oven has cracked insulation and only gets up to mid 1600's (when it does get that high it is painfully slow). So instead of paying our local heat treat shop $250 minimum charge on 10 separate occasions, I am buying a new oven.

If you guys could take some time and recommend Oven brands and options I'd greatly appreciate it. Looking to be able to handle A2 temps, preferably quick ramping speeds, of course.
 
How big ?

Are these pieces that could fit in to knife type ovens?



Paragon
Evenheat
Suger Creek

are the 3 I see most here

but once you get beyond knife type sizes, other commercial brands take over.
 
Looking at the Sugar Creek ovens they seem popular for knifemakers and are at a good price.
 
12345678910 said:
How big ?

Are these pieces that could fit in to knife type ovens?



Paragon
Evenheat
Suger Creek

are the 3 I see most here

but once you get beyond knife type sizes, other commercial brands take over.
Click to expand...

Yes, that is the beauty of it. Anything larger than a Knife sized part would be cheaper and more reliable to send out to heat treat. ;)
 
I like my Evenheat 22.5" with Rampmaster controller (numeric keypad for quick and easy set-point entry). And as mentioned, Paragon has a good rep. Sugar Creek ovens are the bargain kilns in the knife industry, and things like digital controllers are add-on costs to the base price, but I hear they work just fine.

--nathan
 
I haven't used a lot of other ovens, but my Lindberg Blue has worked well for those quick turn around tooling jobs. The inert gas purge is great for those parts that don't lend themselves to foil. The coils are covered so you don't get the IR hot spots and it gets to temp in a few minutes. The down side, of course, is the cost of even an entry level commercial unit. I have also found the cost of operation (inert gas) isn't insignificant. Unless I need it NOW, I send to Peter's HT. Their minimums are very reasonable, the quality is great and the turn around time is usually pretty good. That said, I do still need to fire up the oven on a fairly regular basis.

I'd look at:
inert atmosphere
a good PID control
time to reach temp

I'm sure there are a lot of other considerations as well.

I think you'll probably find something to fit your needs in the 3K-6K range.
 
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