Evenheat Oven Problem

M

Michael Minto

Guest
This week, when getting ready to use my Evenheat knife oven to harden a blade, I noticed two of the insulating bricks have come loose, and I'm afraid they are going to fall out. Anyone have a similar issue? I called Evenheat, and of course, they said they had never heard of this happening before (I get this constantly, nobody has ever seen things that happen to me - drag). Anyway, I feel their warranty is basically worthless in such a situation - unless it gets much worse - if it would still be in effect at the time I needed it. The cost of having the thing professionally packed, and then shipped to them and back, with downtime, would be too much. The oven still works fine, but has me worried. This is my second Evenheat, and I think I'm going to try a different brand when the need arises.
 

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That's a bummer Michael, I have an Evenheat and while I never had any issues with it, if that happened to me I would take two ceramic rods like in your knife holder pictured and just jam them in there to prop that brick up.
 
thought about supporting it with a brick, if i can cut one. will post any fix i try.
 
I'd use rods if you can get them, putting bricks to close to the elements might create hot spots on them and shorten their life. then again maybe not, I don't know.
 
i'll look at a kiln supply house and see if they sell them, thanks.
 
The steel band that holds the oven together can be tightened. Have you tried something easy like pushing the brick back into place and retightening the band? Even our ovens need a little TLC once in a while.

Erik
 
cnccutter said:
The steel band that holds the oven together can be tightened. Have you tried something easy like pushing the brick back into place and retightening the band? Even our ovens need a little TLC once in a while.

Erik
Click to expand...

Along with what Erick just said looking at the pictures 1549652440246.png it is merely compression that holds the brick in place. If you look at the outside brick is fitted the same way! I would try loosening the clamp ever so slightly, push the brick back into place and hold it with something while you re tighten the clamp. Remember you can pop or strip a clamp but they will take a lot of tightening till that happens. Use a hand driver and not a ratchet and you really don't have too much problem with overtightening!! According to the brick in front of that one it has to be the clamp that has let it go. Nothing else holds it but compression!!
 
I'd try tightening the band first. If that does no good, I'd try really hard to get Evenheat to sort it. If that also reaches the end of the line and you have no choice but to do it yourself, my method would be as follows.

Push the offending IFBs up into position and pack them with something temporary to hold them in place. Take a 3/32" gas or tig welding rod and cut off the flat bit (s) with the material code on using a pair of combination pliers or similar. You want a straight rod with a"V" on the end, so don't use flush cutters or anything fancy. I usually use a stainless rod because I have them.

Take the longest 3/32 drill you can easily get hold of. Cheap is good in this case, as you'll be drilling IFB. Chuck it and drill a starter hole into the brick, making sure the direction is correct. Remove the drill-bit and chuck the welding rod into the drill with the cut "V" as the new cutting edge. Locate it in your starter hole. Carefully drill into the IFB until the welding rod is pinning everything together. Stop the drill, undo the chuck and cut off the protruding welding rod. Remove temporary packing. Job done.

Obviously be aware of what you are drilling through: avoid the elements and the thermocouple.

If you are one of those folk who really cannot buy cheap tools, you can drill a 3/32" hole through a block of hardwood or similar and hold that against the IFB to provide the starter hole.

With every IFB I have so far encountered, this works fine without pecking. I'm pretty sure the dust just gets packed into the pores in the IFB.

When I first tried pinning IFBs together like this, I ground a D-bit from a TIG Tungsten and it worked perfectly, but would only drill 6 1/2" holes, using a 7" tungsten. Then I tried progressively lazier ways to drill and pin through deeper holes until I arrived at the method given above.
 
opaul, yes, i did contact evenheat - and after saying they had never heard of this happening, as i posted above, their only response was to try and tighten the compression bands that other guys have posted - mine are tight as can be. :(
 
C Craft, yes, Evenheat's response was to try tightening the bands - mine are tight as they can be, no soap there.
 
timgunn, i did contact Evenheat; as I said above, I could mail it to them but that would be expensive for me (not as much as a new oven, but this one is working fine, for now, anyway). i'll keep your suggestion in mind - did you mean to drill thru the metal jacket into the bricks, wasn't sure i understood that. thanks.
 
No. I'd just push the sagging brick up and put a pin right through from front to rear to keep it in place. I'd go a bit over an inch in from the right-hand end of the brick and about the same up from the top of the chamber. You'd be drilling into the exposed front face of the IFB where you can see it in the first photo.
 
Oh, i see ('duh' to me). i'll have to get a pretty long drill bit. thanks again.
 
Here’s a stupid, off the cuff question...

Would it work to mix up some satanite to coat the sides of the brick and push it up into place? (to use it like cement/mortar?)
 
not sure, but i'm thinking it wouldn't be thick enough to hold, but hard to say, not having tried. thanks.
 
No. You don't need a long drill bit. The welding-rod pin IS the drill bit. You do need a drill bit that makes a hole to start it off in the right direction (maybe an inch or two deep), but then you just use the welding rod as the drill bit, drill as deep as you want to go, cut off the bit that is left sticking out. It's so simple it's difficult not to overthink it: you would not believe how complicated I made it the first time I did it.

Sticking IFBs together with refractory mortar (I'm over the pond and have not tried Satanite) is a lot harder than you'd expect. The IFB sucks all the water out of the mortar almost instantly and it won't squidge properly. It is the reason I came up with the pin-together construction method.
 
thanks for the clarification. sounds like a good fix. mike
 
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