61 replies to this topic

[Dee]

The New Day Dawns.


ok .. so ..
today it is ... its make or break time.
ive got my serious face on ... i put my Abney Park albums on the repeat... cause nothing says scratch building like steampunk music.

and off we go.

i didnt want to use bricks to house the elements because i didnt want the reflected heat to burn out anything ..
mainly the hookup wire is my concern .. i know that its insulated .. but i just dont like the idea of things burning out or frying in the middle of some delicate process.

so .. i looked around the scrap piles in my workshop .. and couldnt find anything too suitable ..
but what i did find as i was thinking was one of the many toolboxes that my mum had bought at the auctions in order to fuel my tool addiction.
so .. i went at it with an angle grinder and cut some holes through it .. and drilled a couple holes into the top or the hookup wire to gain access.
i flared the end so that it would sit on the metal i had welded on the bottom ... and could be affixed by use of more of those self tapping screws.



this will allow me to check things by opening the covers door and make sure its all going ok ..
and if needs be i can do repairs or (heaven forbid) replace the elements without too much issue.

i also remembered that i needed to create some way to lock the lid down...
so i drilled a hole into the support bar and put some chain onto the end ...
that way when the support is down i can hook the chain over the end and the lid wont come up when people pry and stick their nose into places



so ... now i had it all pieced together ..
i put an extra self tapper through the door of the element cover... again, to make sure that nobody can open it when they shouldnt.



by all accounts .... that would be it ... right?
hopefully ... yeah.

i double checked my wiring ... triple checked it ..
then remembered i needed a hole for the TC to go inside ..
i didnt like the idea of going through the sides .. because no matter where i go i come out near the element ... so i went with a hole in the roof ...
i went right in the exact middle of the lid ... in between two bricks ..
i didnt trust the drill to be careful enough with the drilling of the hole ..
so i used a screwdriver to drill the hole ...
just twisting it with light pressure .. and there we go.


also used some of the offcut brick to make a little detail to stick on the top ... it helps hold the TC in place .. and ... well .. makes me happier to look at it all
(kinda like painting Goliath, my press.... for those who know Goliath )

all up the unit has two power cords coming off of it ... one for the controller itself ... and the other to the element.
plugging in the controller unit ... i set it to the learning mode .. and switched on the element .... from afar .... with a broom handle ..
there was a buzz ... as i could hear the element kick over.
YAY!
the little light on the SSR (my new one has a little red light to show activity...its very star trek ) .. shows that it was all good .. and accepting the controllers influence ..

i set the controller just to a small temperature ... about 60 degrees C ..
it made the temp in short order ... and the controller switched the power off .... the little light on the SSR turned off .. and i waited....
i started sweeping up all the brick dust ... waiting for the temp to come back down ... but after 45 minutes i gave up.
so ... it for sure keeps the heat inside ..
though it will take some fiddling to get it sorted in terms of being able to reach the temp without overshooting it.

but ill deal with that once i have something to temper in it.

so ... now was time to wrap up and come and report in ..
so the only thing left now is to name it .. and to paint it ..
i dont have any paint at the moment .. and im out of money
so i will have to wait until i can get it painted ...

and as for name .... iron butterfly gave me inspiration there .. .



the ende.
questions?

[Mike Barton]

Dee,

Did you clean the interior of the furnace prior to initial burn in? Are you going to test the heating elements with another run with temperature increase set to normal operating range? You might want to read this Paragon pdf for a Paragon KM HT furnace. Some of it is model specific, but there is a lot of good information in the start up and preventive maintenance sections that can prolong the life of any electric furnace/oven.
You also want to consider finding a couple of ceramic insulator rings for the power wiring going through the top of the junction box you made for the element connections.
This looks like an eventual short circuit...
smoke and flying sparks, at the very least, with people running wildly about crashing into things forgetting there is a power kill switch handy. Ask me how I know Be sure to check into the paintability of those soft fire bricks, I'm not sure if they would like that, but I don't know for sure.

I've been told that I'm real anal about safety, double checking, and testing stuff. I don't really care though, as I have all my fingers and toes (whole too), both ears and eyes, my nose and mouth are working fine, and I am fully mobile without back pain issues

Please show us something you've made using your new furnace when you can. I love your sword work you have posted on your website.
Mike

Edited by Mike Barton, 15 May 2009 - 08:37 AM.

[Art Lawrence]

What a nice looking oven and a great story. You should think about writing.

Between you and Mike I have learned a lot.

Thanks, -Art

[Dee]

Did you clean the interior of the furnace prior to initial burn in?

Mike~

ok ... sounds like a plan @ the ceramic inserts ... good thinking there.
ill have to find some that will stay in place and not end up slipping through and gumming everything up.

yes, i did clean out the interior ..

and i am slowly going to build up to a full heat ... mainly because i want to make sure that the cement that is inside in places doesnt crack up from the stress of going way up ..
but also because its my widdle furnace and i dont want to hurt it any .. tehehe
so baby steps.

but first i want to quench the wakizashi that im working on and get that ready for tempering ... that way i have an excuse to waste electricity.

i dont plan on painting the bricks ... though the brick i made the flame icon out of seemed to take it in stride.
i just want to cover up the zinc metal is all.
i find it ugly looking ... but think that some nice black fire paint will go well with the white bricks.
or it could just be my inner goth talking again.

i value your input and welcome any suggestions people have ... just so long as they are made for good reason.
if someone messages and tells me that i need to put bunny ears on my furnace ... i might say no to that one.

...... hmm ... bunny ears ...


Art~
ive learnt a lot from Mike too ..
but, remain blissful in my ignorance at that same time ...
so .. all in all a wonderfully successful build thus far .. lol

i am glad you liked my write up ..
but i think ill stick with just boring people around here ... im hopeless at writing when it counts.


D.
(thus far resisting the urge to bake kiln cookies)

[Mike Barton]

Dee-

D.
(thus far resisting the urge to bake kiln cookies)

Give in to your inner voice...

Use the force Dee, use the force..umm use the kiln...bake cookies.

Me luv coookies

Mike

[EdgarFigaro]

Well I'm very glad you got it working.
Gonna be great having it to temper swords.
=]

[Marius A Bacher]

Great build, Dee. I'm gonna steal some of your ideas.

How many Watts do you have per cm³, and are you using it for tempering only or normalizing and hardening too?
Mine runs on ca. 3700W and is currently (I'm gonna fire it and check how even the temperature is before i glue down the bricks so i can widen it if i need more volume) 115cm long, 10cm wide and 11.5cm high. So I have ca. 0.28W/cm³.
I'm going to use it for normalizing and hardening.

Please keep us updated on how it works

[Dee]

Great build, Dee. I'm gonna steal some of your ideas.

oh dear gawd .... are you that short on ideas?


ive tried to set it so that i can reach hardening temp if i want to do so ..
but i already have a forge that does that ... and quite frankly .. i prefer flame to electrical.

i just wanted to make sure that if i ever want to do something without flame, i can.
and then there are some steels that normalising or annealing might be easier if i used the furnace...
but really ill have to wait and see.

cant say that i know the specs as to how you put it.
ive no mind for the electronics really.
and have enough of a figure so that if someone sells me the right equipment .. i can piece them together and get something that works.

but really, the electronics side of things kinda only serves to scare me .. tehehe

[Mike Sheffield]

I think that says it all...well maybe the rock on smile, but I don't see one.

[charred]

I would definitely bake cookies in it, nice.

[Niko Hynninen]

Hi Dee


I think this furnace will work good.
Nice work !

I need one of these too but Im bit afraid of electric..had one nasty accident years ago.

Are you able to test run it soon? I keep my fingers cross it works ok.


Love the name
BR
Niko

Edited by Niko Hynninen, 17 May 2009 - 12:07 PM.

[Chuck C]

Dee thats a realy kool furance two years ago i drew up plans to build one like yours only i was going to cast the bricks
anyway great job

[Tom_Malabar]

i loves my bullant earmuffs
they have great ear protection .. plus they have an inline jack attached to them so i can listen to music while i forge in perfect clarity.


when it comes to protection equipment ... ill forget my dust mask sometimes ... ill forget to turn on my extractor fan .. ill forget to put on my face shield .. but there is no way you will have me forgetting my hearing protection.

I thought that I was the only one that used a pair of those.
Nice job on the furnace

Edited by Tom_Malabar, 23 June 2009 - 02:46 AM.

[Greg Thomas Obach]

Hi Dee

very good tutorial... and how does hell fire work... do you by chance have any action shots... ..what i'm curious about is how you get a blade outa there in short order, for the quench...

do you have a pair of bent tongs ? or maybe you just grab the blade with flat tongs and be quick bout it.. ( keeping the toasty finger factor down )

i was thinking of making one myself... but i thought it maybe tricky with curvy blades... ..


anyhow.. cool post !!!

Greg

[Strongind'arm]

I love reading build projects, thanks for posting! BTW your welding is even worse mine

[dablacksmith]

ime doing a similar build but useing a toaster ovens elements for heating and ko wool for insulation.. still trying to figure out how the pid thingy works tho ... got the hookups figured out and got it powered just have to figure how to program it . got the correct ssr (luckily) .. just have to wrap my mind around the setup mode ... your tempering kiln looks good good luck!

[ronin70]

Yeah, some one else that listens to Abney Park while beating hot steel, my new cutlass im working on is going to be nick names "OPHELIA". Are you going to put a basket or something inside to keep from hitting the elements when inserting or extracting the blade?

[frontier forge]

Dee
Great Buildand website too....I went to ebay and was quickly over whelmed by the choices for pids and ssr's. There were a bunch of contollers with 40 or so settings, and ramp features. Then I found a stand alone unit http://www.budgetcas...-Controller.php, but that seemed pricy.
I liked your idea of the ceramic rod incide your elements....I only wish some book was available to show all the parts needed. I cant find a good online instructional...

[bronzetools]

Dee
Great Buildand website too....I went to ebay and was quickly over whelmed by the choices for pids and ssr's. There were a bunch of contollers with 40 or so settings, and ramp features. Then I found a stand alone unit http://www.budgetcas...-Controller.php, but that seemed pricy.
I liked your idea of the ceramic rod incide your elements....I only wish some book was available to show all the parts needed. I cant find a good online instructional...

For anyone interested in building electric kilns and controllers I strongly recommend checking out
Dudley Giberson's- Joppa Glass website - http://www.joppaglass.com
Dudley sells plans and controllers and is just a phone call away if you need any help.
He has also written a book called the Glass Blowers Companion which has become one of the bibles for Hot glass studio builders.
Hot glass artists use a lot of similar temperatures in their equipment as do bladesmiths.
Good luck
Steve

Edited by bronzetools, 14 February 2011 - 10:04 AM.

[frontier forge]

For anyone interested in building electric kilns and controllers I strongly recommend checking out
Dudley Giberson's- Joppa Glass website - http://www.joppaglass.com
Dudley sells plans and controllers and is just a phone call away if you need any help.
He has also written a book called the Glass Blowers Companion which has become one of the bibles for Hot glass studio builders.
Hot glass artists use a lot of similar temperatures in their equipment as do bladesmiths.
Good luck
Steve

Thanks Steve.....