Evenheat Rampmaster & annealing D2

nateman_doo

nateman_doo

Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Messages
157
Just bought myself a heat treat oven. Trying to figure out a way to program the ramp master to anneal D2.

looking online for information I find it says heat slowly & hold @ 1600°F, hold, then drop the temp slowly to 1000°F. Has anyone successfully done this? I havent had much luck finding programming videos that deal with annealing, only initial heatup and hold.

The questions I have are:
1, how "slowly" to heat to said 1600°F (degrees per hour)
2, how long to "hold" at 1600°F
3, is this a dual segmented program?

The way I see it going in my heat is to make 2 separate segments. One being set the degrees per hour all the way to 1600, hold for whatever time then second segment is going from 1600 back down to 1000 (which @ 40°F is 15 hours) back down to 1000, and have it shut down.

Id love to hear if and how you guys have your ovens configured.
 
Annealing: Annealing must be performed after hot working and before re-hardening. Heat at a rate not exceeding 400°F per hour (222°C per hour) to 1600-1650°F (871-899°C), and hold at temperature for 1 hour per inch (25.4mm) of maximum thickness; 2 hours minimum. Then cool slowly with the furnace at a rate not exceeding 50°F per hour (28°C per hour) to 1000°F (538°C). Continue cooling to ambient temperature in the furnace or in air. The resultant hardness should be a maximum of 255 HBW.

Found info on Hudsontoolsteel.

Now that I answered myself.... the programming question still remains.
 
Try this:

Turn on the oven
Develop 2 (or any number you want) enter
Segs 2 enter
Ramp 400 enter
Of 1600 enter
Hold 2.00 enter
Ramp 50 enter
Of 1000 enter
Hold .05 enter
Alarm 9999 enter

Once your program is ready, place your steel in the oven, close it, then select your program.

Recall 2 enter
Run/stop enter

Once your program is complete, take your steel out and cool to ambient.

If the alarm sounds, just press enter to turn it off.

Hope that helps you.
 
I anneal D2 quite abit. I don't pay any mind to heating slowly at 400° per hr, but I could be wrong, need to check my program. I load the oven up full and start it up. Yeah it takes a little while to get that much steel up to temp. I then wait the 15-20 hrs it takes to drop from 1600 down to 1000 (@ 20-40° Per hr). ends up nice and soft.
 
S.Alexander said:
Try this:

Turn on the oven
Develop 2 (or any number you want) enter
Segs 2 enter
Ramp 400 enter
Of 1600 enter
Hold 2.00 enter
Ramp 50 enter
Of 1000 enter
Hold .05 enter
Alarm 9999 enter

Once your program is ready, place your steel in the oven, close it, then select your program.

Recall 2 enter
Run/stop enter

Once your program is complete, take your steel out and cool to ambient.

If the alarm sounds, just press enter to turn it off.

Hope that helps you.
Click to expand...

Have you heard the expression.... Not all hero's wear capes? Thats you.
So is this thing going to shut down when it hits 1000° and just slowly cool to ambient?

I started this last night and when I came downstairs in the morning, the alarm was beeping. I was worried it would wake the whole house. Thankfully it didn't If it goes off while my wife is nearby, she is going to freak out. You know how wives are when they worry the whole drive to wherever..."did I leave the oven on??" imagine she finds out its been running almost 24 hours :P
 
nateman_doo said:
Have you heard the expression.... Not all hero's wear capes? Thats you.
So is this thing going to shut down when it hits 1000° and just slowly cool to ambient?

I started this last night and when I came downstairs in the morning, the alarm was beeping. I was worried it would wake the whole house. Thankfully it didn't If it goes off while my wife is nearby, she is going to freak out. You know how wives are when they worry the whole drive to wherever..."did I leave the oven on??" imagine she finds out its been running almost 24 hours :p
Click to expand...

That's my big complaint about the rampmaster... that stupid alarm. In theory if you set alarm to 9999 it shouldn't beep at you, but it doesn't work for me.

To answer your question, after the program is over it will cool to ambient but with the door closed it will take a few hours.

My wife accepts my crazy knife making hobby, but I'm sure she would draw the line at the oven alarm going off for hours :confused:

Glad it worked out for you.
 
Yup, mine beeps at the wrong time all the time. I just listen for it and hit enter. Otherwise no complaints with the kiln’s performance.
 
Crucible says max 25° drop per HR which is 24hr just to cool to 1000° from 1600°. Thy also say just heat to 1600° and hold for 2hr.
This is one thing I like about the tap controller, it asks you if you want to set alarms after each step and if you want a finish alarm.
 
the program worked. The steel was soft enough to drill. I am heartbroken that I dorked up by running the wrong cycle, so I wasted a san mai D2 billet I had a LOT of work invested in. Always small stupid mistake. At least now if anyone has the rampmaster and they need to figure out how to program D2 annealing, they can do so.
 
I meant to take a picture of my program. But to late now lol. My D2 comes out butter soft and drills and taps/threads super easy.
 
I just tried it without the slow heat and yes, it was annealed plenty. I dont think the term "butter soft" ever applies to D2 ;)

More info I found at McMaster:
Annealing: To minimize surface decarburization, use a controlled atmosphere furnace or pack harden in inert material in a sealed container. Heat slowly and uniformly to approximately 1650° F, and hold for about 11/2 hours for each inch of greatest thickness. Cool at a rate of 20° to 25° F per hour to 1000° F. Allow to cool in the furnace. Material can also be annealed without slow-cooling in the furnace if it has reached about 1200° F, it is reheated to 1425° F, and it is held at that temperature for 5 hours followed by air cooling

So I can heat to 1200, soak for (??) and keep it at 1425°F for 5 hours and air cooled. Seems to me that would save a TON on the electric bill.

I think we should sticky a thread with everyone's Rampmaster programs for various steels.
 
My controller tracks cost and the last time I anealed D2 I did a big batch and it cost me like $1.50 I think. And my D2 is really soft after my process. All the drills go right through it easy as well as taps and dies cut threads really easy.
 
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