July 22, 200916 yr On reading Chapter 9 Electric Kilns of The Kiln Book by Fredrick L. Olsen, the thought occured to me that many of the members here have skills in electrical installations of one kind and another. If some one was looking to move to treating high alloy steel at home it could be a valuable resource. From my reading he give all the information that would be needed to construct a heat treating furnace for knife makers. Most of the rest of book is pottery kilns and woodfired at that with a brief and not unique discussion of gas heating. However the info on using refactories is intresting which is why I picked it up. Charlotte.
July 22, 200916 yr Author "electricaly compentent"? Don't you mean the "electrically incontinent"?Competent maybe inconsequential. Sometimes my touch typing is all type and not touch. Sorry, Charlotte
July 22, 200916 yr Charlotte: Regardless of the spelling, your post was a good one, thank you. I's just havin' fun with ya-all.
July 22, 200916 yr Charlotte- Are you thinking of building a heat treat oven? One of those has always been on my wish list... Don't mind that naked guy... he's always pulling legs and pushing button... As if his machines don't have enough to keep him busy:rolleyes:
July 23, 200916 yr I simply bought a local, used pottery kiln with a timer and t-stat for $150; this was off Craigslist. I can set mine for time and/or temp and walk away. The unit was ten years old by the time I bought it but the owner said she'd only fired it a few times before it got put against the back wall of the garage. Lots of folks get into the hobby (like any other) then lose interest.
July 23, 200916 yr Author Charlotte- Are you thinking of building a heat treat oven? One of those has always been on my wish list... Don't mind that naked guy... he's always pulling legs and pushing button... As if his machines don't have enough to keep him busy:rolleyes: I was interested in the refactory information. I posted the electric kiln info because I knew that some people here have been shipping alloy knives around to get them heat treated. When I saw that I checked out the kiln/heat treat units available and notice that they were sort of high priced,( to me at least), and basically big boxes or round tubs. I thought that some of those people would have the electrical skills to build a box from scratch that would cost less and use less juice. The controls are the hard part but there are package boxes available these days from companies like Sensors, Thermocouple, PLC, Operator Interface, Data Acquisition, RTD Any way that was the idea. Charlotte
July 23, 200916 yr Thanks for sharing Charlotte- Someday I will put one together... Looking for a foundry furnace first though...
July 23, 200916 yr An example of a nice furnace by Dark Wood Forge:Furnace Building - Bladesmith's Forum Board
July 25, 200916 yr If you want to take on an interesting project you could make a fancified 'lectric forge.
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