Small heat treat or ceramic oven and toolpost grinder

[brian Rupnow]

My heat treat oven arrived today. Isn't that the cutest little thing you've ever seen!!! The inside measures 4" x 8 1/2" x 8". And as you can see, it works. It doesn't have any controls on it---just plug it in to a 110 volt circuit and it heats up. I'm going to want some kind of on/off switch and something that I can set a dial on for the temperature I want it to hold at. I'm not worried about gradually ramping up the temperature. I just want it to go to whatever heat I wanted and then cycle it off and on to hold that temperature. I don't need a timer on it but if that comes as part of a package I would use it. I'm doing something totally new here, so be gentle with me. Can someone recommend what I need please. Ontario supplier works best for me, but I can shop USA if I have to.---Brian

[Sparky_NY]

What you want is a PID temperature controller and a thermocouple. Generally the thermocouples are type-K but verify what the controller requires to be sure. Import PID temperature controllers are available cheap, $25 US from online sources. Get one with a built in solid state relay if you can (SSR), it makes it even easier to wire up.

Only other thing you will need is a small metal box to mount it in, probably on the side of the oven with standoffs.

Here is a example, on your side of the border https://www.ebay.com/itm/30398926684...wAAOSwxRhglN32

[Mcgyver]

have a look at ThemoMart. They run out of a house in Thornhill. Its all the cheap offshore stuff, but they are nice to deal, have good prices, the stuff seems to work and are local. PID controller instructions and operation are a special kind of hell, you know, a '70s approach where you have to do everything with 2 buttons and one crappy digital display....but they all the seem the same.

I would recommend a programmable model. The cost difference is almost negligible and it increases the usefulness, i.e normalizing or annealing. You say you only want the oven for one thing, but like every other piece of equipment it has lots more uses than piston rings. Its good you got one larger than you first sought; this will make it more useful for other things.....you wouldn't get lathe and think it was only useful for the current turning job right?

[nickel-city-fab]

My heat treat oven arrived today. Isn't that the cutest little thing you've ever seen!!!

Well, I'm envious. That is one heck of a deal you got. Congratulations!

[dian]

I know the kaowool can be coated to harden and protect its surface. I had started reading up on gas forges after acquiring an anvil and a number of tongs. Blacksmith's enclosed forging ovens seem to be a bit more crude in construction. A lot more infomation is available on Anvilfire or I Forge Iron.

yes, you should not really use kaowoll unprotected. waterglass works (melts at 1100°c), otherwise a hardener (colloidal silica i believe).

[brian Rupnow]

I measured up all of the equipment on my garage wall, to see where I could find a place for my heat treat oven. Once I found a place on the wall where the compressor tank, stick welder and hose reel and 220 volt power outlet was, I designed an angle iron frame to support the oven. I asked my good wife if she could check Marketplace and Kijiji (local buy and sell forums) for anybody giving away bed frames. I got one free, one for $5 and one for $10.00 I spent this morning dismantling them---(I love bed frames for building this kind of thing. The steel in them is absolutely horrible to machine or drill, but it it cuts and welds just fine). I have ordered a controller for the furnace, but I'm not 100% sure where it is going to be mounted on the furnace, so I will wait for it before I build the frame.

[lbender]

I got one free, one for $5 and one for $10.00

That's preserving the Rupnow fortune!!

[Dan Dubeau]

I've almost worked through my stash of bed frame. When we lived in the condo downtown TO, we used to have a "trading post" where you could drop stuff off that was still usable and others could grab it for free. I checked everyday on my way down to the parking garage, and probably grabbed over 10 bed frames from there over the years. I'd rather just go buy new material now as I've grown tired of the processing and questionable material. But if I drove by a free bed frame, I'd probably still stop and pick it up. It's still handy for some stuff.

I DID grab a free adjustable bed frame a few weeks ago. Lady had it listed on market place in the next town over and I went and picked it up, stripped the linear actuators off of it and all the controls in my truck bed, then stopped at a scrap metal bin and tossed the rest of the frame on the way home. Maybe cost me $10 in gas to go get it.