Heat treating oven???

cappaletti

Well-Known Member
Harbor Freight has a powder coat oven on sale for $399.99 on their web specials page. It goes up to 480 degrees F and has a fan inside to move the hot air w/outside thermometer. Just wondering if this would work for HT...thanks

Gene:confused2::confused2::confused2:
 
It would work for tempering of some steels but is not hot enough to be very versatile for even that. It won't get anywhere near hardening temps. It is basically in the same class as a toaster oven.
 
For $400 you may as well get a regular kitchen oven, then you can temper in it and use the broiler and range-top when it's lunchtime in the shop :D
 
I have a home-built HT oven that I use, I also have a toaster oven with a thermocouple for tempering when the other oven is too hot from running at hardening temps.
The home built oven is a 110v unit and cost about $300-$400 and a few weekends to build. It is plenty happy operating at 1950 F.
Even with the fairly low cost to build the oven, it is cheaper in the long run (for me and the steels I am using, at least) to work in batches of 6-10 blades and send them out for HT. I am planning to use the oven mostly for doing prototypes in the future and send most of my blades to Peter's for HT.
 
There are some things that can be built for less than what is commercially available, like forges, and there are those things that it's reallly hard to save money on-and this may be one of them. When you have to spend almost as much as a ready made product, run around town finding parts, ordering things out of a catalog, and then spending 10-20 hours putting it together, it's really hard to say you're saving much-and that's if it works. It's like building an hydrolic press for drawing out steel. If you have a lot of what you need laying around the shop, if you can get a good deal on the rest of what you need, if you don't have to pay a lot of shipping, if you don't count the hours needed to assemble it, and if you know what you're doing you can save money. If not, then you're better off looking for something that is ready made.

Doug Lester
 
A 40 or 50 dollar toaster oven is likely to give you the same results as the $400+ harbor freight oven.
As others have said, for that kind of money (or a little more) these days, you can get a half way decent HT oven that WILL get up to the temps need to harden a blade (1450F to 2000F).
 
I just move the meat loaf over. My Wife has no problem when I put 1000.00 worth of blades next to her meatloaf. Plus she don't mind me sanding in the living room either when it too cold in shop. I was think of moving the furnace to her bathroom, I don't want to push it.
Just clean your oil off the blades and it won't smoke. For god sake sell one or two and buy her diamond necklace. That reminds me I have to clean the quench oil out of her foot bath.
 
I just move the meat loaf over. My Wife has no problem when I put 1000.00 worth of blades next to her meatloaf. Plus she don't mind me sanding in the living room either when it too cold in shop. I was think of moving the furnace to her bathroom, I don't want to push it.
Just clean your oil off the blades and it won't smoke. For god sake sell one or two and buy her diamond necklace. That reminds me I have to clean the quench oil out of her foot bath.

Sounds like my set up.............

I just don't do it when she's home

Rudy
 
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