dps9999 Posted March 17, 2016 Share Posted March 17, 2016 Hey guys i am thnking about getting into new types of steel i really wanna do some stainless. BUT i am on a huge budget right now any one know where to get a cheap but decent HTing oven everything i can find is like 750- a few thousand i dont have that much right now. Even if any one is selling a used one as long as it works. if any one got any tips it would be apreciated! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latticino Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 Depending on the size of the stuff you want to treat it is pretty easy to make a small oven out of an old enameling kiln. You just get PID controller, contactor, and some basic wiring and your golden. I've done it with coils from an old duct heater and soft brick also. With a bit of scrounging I've done it for around $200 in parts. You won't get an easy argon purge for that, and it might be tough to program, but once tuned it will do the job. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buzzkill Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 When I looked up enameling kilns it seems that most of them are very small - far too small for blades of any decent length. For anything that approaches the size that would be useful for blades it looks like you'd be better off just buying a name brand heat treating oven. What am I missing here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 Might I suggest before you start trying to find things you need to practice a highly technical and precision craft like bladesmithing and heat treating you get your terminology and language straight. Were I to take your statement at face value you have a "HUGE Budget." so just go buy professional equipment. Why are you asking us? You aren't going to get very far if folk have to "ASSUME" what you mean. If you're serious get serious. If you don't know the jargon, no shame, LEARN the jargon. Right now you're depending on luck to stumble into something that "works." That my friend is a really POOR way to do precision work. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latticino Posted March 18, 2016 Share Posted March 18, 2016 2 hours ago, Buzzkill said: When I looked up enameling kilns it seems that most of them are very small - far too small for blades of any decent length. For anything that approaches the size that would be useful for blades it looks like you'd be better off just buying a name brand heat treating oven. What am I missing here? Guess it all depends on what you call a decent length. I did say for a small HT oven after all. I picked up what I call a small (i.e. I can lift it myself and carry it to my car without help), older, front loading Paragon oven, used, at a tag sale for around $50 about 20 years ago. It only had a pyrometer and a manual dial for setting temperature, but it still worked. Haven't used it for a while since I built my PID controlled hot box, but used to do some manual glass fusing in it back in the day, so it easily got up to 1450 deg. F. I think it could fit several 10" blanks easily, but I could be remembering poorly. Basically I was just saying that there are many sources for electric ovens that are not traditional heat treatment units, but can be used for same. One of the alternate units might be easier to come by used, at a good discount. If I were looking now and willing to do some of my own sweat equity, I'd look into used enamel ovens, ceramic kilns (found one someone was throwing out for free once, just needed a couple of new coils) and industrial liquidators for different burn out ovens and associated controls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dps9999 Posted March 19, 2016 Author Share Posted March 19, 2016 latticino...thanks i may start looking into something i could alter to suit what i need....there is a lady by me that owns a art/craft store, i actually found her when i first started making knives when i was looking for soft fire bricks locally (wich was unsucessful had to order them) but she had told me she had just sold a kiln, that was a while ago i completely forgot about this until a minute ago maybe its worth it to go talk to her.. frosty....i may be taking what your are saying wrong but you are cunfused because you had to assume what i ment by "huge budget"?, sorry i figured people would understand that "huge budget" means i dont have a $1000 to go buy a new HT oven. i have read and seen on forums that some one decides to sell a used oven (or any equipment) so i though maybe it was worth a shot. Again i may not understand what you ment in your post but usually a budget means you dont have alot of money....i guess that was my bad assuming most people understood that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frosty Posted March 19, 2016 Share Posted March 19, 2016 Good, you understand how assuming other folk will know what your slang terms mean in YOUR head is a poor thing to rely on. You are of course joking when you say I'm confused. YOU used the word HUGE to mean SMALL. Had you said you have a small, tiny or limited budget folk would KNOW exactly what you mean. I knew what you meant or assumed I did I should say. I was pointing out your use of slang was going to get you into trouble sooner than later. Here's another example, say you and I are working at the anvil and you're not getting the results you were expecting and looked to me for why. so I reply, "Alapah." would you have any idea what I'd told you, even if you'd heard my tone so you could gauge the intensity I meant by the word? You'd have to either speak Inupiat or have Inuit friends to know the word for "cold." The tone you use tells the listener how cold. Learn the correct jargon or you'll waste HUGE (and yes I mean HUGE) amounts of time chasing chimera. Frosty The Lucky. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted March 19, 2016 Share Posted March 19, 2016 Budget means a limit Hugh means large, substantial Hugh budget means lots of money small or limited budget means lttle money Just my understanding of the words. being an international forum it helps keeping to standard usage of words, the translator programs have a hard enough time with us here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dps9999 Posted March 19, 2016 Author Share Posted March 19, 2016 i get it...everyone takes things differently i guess... i have used that phrase my whole life and never had a problem....either way that being said it is what it is i will try and be more literal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BIGGUNDOCTOR Posted March 20, 2016 Share Posted March 20, 2016 Go to your nearest ceramics supplier. Also check craigslist for kilns. I bought a cress 23 for $100 in great shape. The newer kilns have digital controls , and would be a better choice to start with. Items can be wrapped in stainless foil with some charcoal to mitigate scaling in the kiln. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dps9999 Posted March 23, 2016 Author Share Posted March 23, 2016 Hey guys i wasnt sure if anyone was still watching my last post as its been a few days so i thought i would create a new one. So any way some one has agreed to loan me the rest of the money i need for a HT oven. So i started looking around and have a few questions. I see they have both 120 volt and 240 volt. I do have a 240 volt outlet but i only have one and its not in a good spot for me to put the oven so MAYBE i might go with one of the ones that are 120 volt the bigest i could find with 120 v is 18in deep. So performance wise whats the difference they both have the same max temp so am i right to assume the 120 would heat up slower? any one ever used one how long does it take to heat up? does any one have any opinions on evenheat vs paragon? and also what is a good stainless steel to heat treat? i am not going to have the option of any cryo freezing so thats out. so i may be able to buy alluminum plates for plate quenching. is there any good air hardening? basiclly what would be a good stainless for me to start with? any opions would be appreciated we try to keep a thread into only one thread, not posting pieces of it all over the place like a scavenger hunt. I deleted one post and merged the other one here, since you admitted it is the same thing. Please stop thinking of new ways to make us work more, we honestly have plenty to do already Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gearhartironwerks Posted March 25, 2016 Share Posted March 25, 2016 Yep, Craigs List. Start watching it regularly. They do come up frequently. A front loader would be ideal. Good hunting (which I think is part of the fun). John Gearhart Ironwerks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
j.w.s. Posted March 28, 2016 Share Posted March 28, 2016 If you're just looking for tempering and not an oven that can ramp up to 1750°F, which has never been an issue for me because I use one of my gas forges for hardening, here's my cheap $150 505 cu in tempering oven. I can do about 40 blades and Pete could throw 9 hammers in this thing all at the same time. Was walking through Ollies, found an electric smoker for $119, insulated the bottom with some scrap kaowool, added a PID, type K thermocouple (it has a port for one already even if that wasn't their original intent) and wired the factory controller through a relay (2 wires) - viola! Simple, spacious, gets the job done very well and even looks good. Only things I'll be adding in the future is a convection oven fan for more equal heat distribution ($60) and a panel box on the side for the electronics. Proving once again that you don't need to over complicate things. J Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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