Recommendation? Using Burnout Kiln for heat treating, am I missing anything?

M

MM52100

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Dec 29, 2020
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I'm going to start doing in house heat treating and was leaning towards an Evenheat LB 18. Recently I came across a Vcella B-30 burnout kiln for ~$600 in the area. I would be adding a PID (most likely an Arduino) pushing an SSR for temp control. There are elements on the back and sides, recessed coils similar to a knife kiln. Inside is 16"x16"x15".

Am I missing something that makes it a bad idea? Any inherent problems with the height or elements being on the back wall? Should I just suck it up and get an Evenheat LB 18 for 3x the cost? It seems like it should work fine but as they say, you don't know what you don't know.

This is the model: https://pacificcombustion.com/product/vcella-kilns-burnout-kilns-b-30-1260/
 
You should stick it up and but the evenheat. Those burnout kilns aren't built to reach the kinda of temps that ht ovens are. It might work, but probably won't be as good as an actual product made for ht.
 
A.McPherson said:
You should stick it up and but the evenheat. Those burnout kilns aren't built to reach the kinda of temps that ht ovens are. It might work, but probably won't be as good as an actual product made for ht.
Click to expand...
1260 deg C?

the downside is the volume inside is more than you need for knife blades and so it takes a while to heat up
 
I don't see why it wouldn't work. HT ovens really aren't that complicated, nor do they need to be. If you'd have seen the first one I built, you'd probably laugh, but it worked for years until the bricks finally caved in.

I personally wouldn't bother with an arduino, though I'm not much of a programmer. A decent digital PID is super cheap now days, and the autotuning capabilities are really nice.
 
HSC /// said:
1260 deg C?
Click to expand...

I stand corrected!
Admittedly I didn't look at the link, I justed assumed that it was like most burnout kilns I've used, which barely reach 1500f.

Oh well! You know what they say about assumption!
 
Only thing that really stands out with me is it looks like it’s going to take a long time to heat up. 16x16x15 is 3,840 in^3, my oven is about 4,500watts and it’s 852 in^3. My oven takes about 45min to hit 1900° the I give it another 1/2hr Of soak before I use it just because.
 
I have use burnout kilns for nearly 50 year... for burning out casting flasks. I still own two or three. I used one of them for knives in the beginning. Problems are:
1) Large chamber and big door. It dumps the heat when you open the door and takes a while to rebound.
2) Don't believe the temperature gauge or the specs. Most won't go past 1600°F very well. It takes a long time to reach carbon steel temps, and they can take hours to reach 1900°F - if they ever reach it.
3) Regulation - they are designed for long slow burnouts periods where exact temperature is not important. You can make them better with new circuitry, but they rarely will equal a proper HT oven.


If it was free or $100, I would say take it, but for $600, I say you should save a bit more and get the LB18.
 
Thanks guys, I started to price out the materials and now I am thinking I should just make an evenheat clone. I think I can do it for under $200 and get exactly what I want. I'll thank Drew for that, it really is a simple machine.

All I really need to buy is fire brick (which is cheaper than I imagined) and some kanthal wire. I'll report back with some progress.
 
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