Oven Recomendation

F

featherhead

Guest
Wanting to get an oven to do medium sized knives and miscellaneous small machine parts. Looking for one that will heat up and cool down as fast as possible. Preferrably with a door that opens easily for easy part withdrawl. Controllers seem to be cumbersome and have too many features. Generally I'd say I'm going to be sticking close to the oven while working so wondering if an analog controller would do just as well. Anyone out there with hands on experience to help guide me through some choices?
 
It depends on the size of knives you're doing, but you might check out the new Evenheat small oven:

It's 8"Wx8"Dx6"T, and diagonally, you can fit almost 11". If I remember correctly, the coils are mounted internally in the walls of the oven. It's small and pretty fast. Otherwise, check out the small 220V Evenheats (13.5") or the small Sugar Creek kilns (though I think they're somewhat slower).

--nathan
 
It depends on the size of knives you're doing, but you might check out the new Evenheat small oven:

It's 8"Wx8"Dx6"T, and diagonally, you can fit almost 11". If I remember correctly, the coils are mounted internally in the walls of the oven. It's small and pretty fast. Otherwise, check out the small 220V Evenheats (13.5") or the small Sugar Creek kilns (though I think they're somewhat slower).

--nathan

Thanks Nathan, Would be nice to hear from someone who has hands on experience with the artisan 688
 
Shoot Tracy an email or post on one of his subforums here (Mickley Knives or Midwest Knifemaker Supply). As the Knifedogs forum owner, I'm sure he peruses this board, but he's a busy guy and it will catch his attention quicker if you post in his regular haunts. I'm sure he'd be willing to talk on the phone with you as well, but it's sometimes hard to catch him.

He helped design the oven and has been using them for a while now (well before they even came out for production). He could give you some good insight on if it will fit your needs.

--nathan
 
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I would go with a digital controller, if you ever want to do some air hardening steels, eg. 440C, D2, A2, they require long soaks at temp, and a controller can do that, even O1 needs a good soak to get the best results. That new Evenheat looks great for small blades.
Dale
 
Wondering what might work better for heat treating, the fire brick lined or ceramic lined oven? Assuming the controller will bring an oven up to temp and keep turning on and off during the soak, the ceramic might have to work a bit harder to maintain the soak. But after removing the steel you want to the oven to cool down quickly for tempering. Opinions are greatly appreciated.
 
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