Heat Treat Oven - Build or Buy?

Hawk45

Hawk45

Joined
Jan 28, 2005
Messages
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This looks like the next best tool to get for my hobby knife shop. The EvenHeat & Paragon's look to be about the same price and quality at $1500. I've seen some HT oven build threads where guys can get them built for about $500 US. I'm fairly handy as long as I can figure out the wiring parts.

What would you guys recommend? Splurge for the company built ovens or do a DIY? For those that have used both, any recommendations?

Thanks,
Hawk.
 
How is your electrical and building skills. If I had the option it would be hands down paragon. I don’t really care for tgg HT e even heat stuff. The nice thing about buying an oven is you will be able to buy replacement parts.
 
I am a hobbyist as well, so this is play time and supposed to be fun. If building an oven is not fun to you, I would not recommend it. Unless you already know what you are doing, you are probably going to spend more than 100 hours researching what to do, getting the parts and figuring out how to put them together and building the oven. That amount of hobby time has a lot of value and you have to decide if it is worth the savings compared to a commercial unit.

That being said, I built my own oven and would highly recommend it! I really enjoyed building it. The next oven I build (or buy) will be a bit bigger.
 
As mentioned I'm fairly handy. That being said I know it won't be a fast thing and probably be a start/stop project. I would save me enough to cover all the HT accessories (5gal Parks, tank, tongs, gloves etc) and some more belts.

Buying would be the easy option for sure.
 
They are fairly easy to build. I built mine and love it...I spent around 800ish if I recall. The next time though I think I will simply purchase one as the new controllers they have now are very nice and WIFI friendly.

If you do build one, I highly suggest making it a 220v unit (it will heat up so much faster) and adding a door shut off switch for safety)
 
If I could make the time, or have the energy and motivation to build one, I would build two at the same time, one for tempering

I would also investigate a two zone capability.

I favor used industrial furnaces myself but otherwise would go for the paragon
 
What is the benefit of multi-zone ovens? This go around I'm just going to stick with a standard oven made for blades, but knowledge is power.
 
I’m a hobbyist also. I took the time to spec out the design in early summer. But then again, I have not yet gotten around to building it! :-)
 
Cushing H. said:
I’m a hobbyist also. I took the time to spec out the design in early summer. But then again, I have not yet gotten around to building it! :)
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This is my fear if I go this route too. I've done all the leg work getting specs, got a list of parts and links and watched about 10 videos. But pulling the trigger on starting and them actually completing the build would be my worry. I should see if I have an "gift" credits with the wife over the years I can cash in. Ha!
 
Hawk45 said:
What is the benefit of multi-zone ovens? This go around I'm just going to stick with a standard oven made for blades, but knowledge is power.
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More even heating across the length of the blade and over different thicknesses across the blade. As in the tip gets to hot if there’s less mass and thickness

Jerid Johnson did a complete build and write up here a few years ago along with a full parts list
 
One other question.. If I do build or buy, I want to get one at least one of the 22" - 24" ovens, maybe even a 27". If I'm doing smaller knives, can I put a few fire bricks inside at the back of the oven to take up space and make the oven more efficient?
 
Hawk45 said:
One other question.. If I do build or buy, I want to get one at least one of the 22" - 24" ovens, maybe even a 27". If I'm doing smaller knives, can I put a few fire bricks inside at the back of the oven to take up space and make the oven more efficient?
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More thermal mass to heat up (slower response) and if you block an element you could shorten its life. My uneducated guess is ... don’t do it
 
The decision to build, (and it is a fairly easy build assuming you have some electrical design and wiring experience), should be based on how much you enjoy that sort of thing. For me, a big part of my enjoyment is designing and building something that I've never done before.

That said, the heating elements I got were only good to something under 2000F, so the first time I tried to drive it over 2000F, the element burned out at about 2100F. Fortunately, I designed my over so that it is easy to get into it to replace the elements. I'll be working on doing the replacement later today.

I got a similar set of elements to the first ones with 2 day delivery from Amazon and will play with them some. I've also ordered an element from Duralite that looks like it will be more powerful. 220VAC at 3000 to 4000watts. I talked to KAnthal.com, but they have a minimum order of $600.

Researching, learning, building, making mistakes, and doing something new is very enjoyable for me. If you don't like to do that sort of thing, and only want to get to heat treating your knives, by all means, buy a ready-made. I can predict that your first attempt will have problems and you will need to redesign and/or repair. There's a pretty good chance that you won't save much money either!
 
DIY knife maker central has a great tutorial on making an oven. I followed that and built my own. If youre handy its quite easy to build an oven. I started a thread here that has grown quite a bit and has some great info.
 
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