I am not having much luck finding a reasonable(to me) price on a heat treating oven large enough to suit my needs. I am finding kilns that stack to become large enough for your project. Would it be feasible to build and add a nice thermostat and control to the kiln set up to control the whole heat treating and cooling? Something you can program with your desired process? I'm out of my league wiring much past household wiring and a bit of three phase, so I thought I would ask those more qualified to satisfy my curiosity. Thanks, and if there is a more suitable place for this thread, feel free to put it there.
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Adding a brain to a Kiln.
- Thread starter LEEQ
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This should work for what you want.
Controller
http://www.automationdirect.com/adc...ers/1-z-32_DIN_Size_(SL4824_Series)/SL4824-RR
Thermocouple
http://www.automationdirect.com/adc...nsors/Probes_(with_Hex_Nipple)/THMK-H12L01-03
Power Relay
http://www.automationdirect.com/adc...n-Style,_40A_(AD-PR40_Series)/AD-PR40-1C-240A
Controller
http://www.automationdirect.com/adc...ers/1-z-32_DIN_Size_(SL4824_Series)/SL4824-RR
Thermocouple
http://www.automationdirect.com/adc...nsors/Probes_(with_Hex_Nipple)/THMK-H12L01-03
Power Relay
http://www.automationdirect.com/adc...n-Style,_40A_(AD-PR40_Series)/AD-PR40-1C-240A
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What that means is that you could have 64 segments in the profile, mostly that is advertising hype. I can't imagine a use for that many steps in the profile at least in a home shop. I suppose that there may be some use for that in some kind of very special heat treating or other manufacturing process. Normally you would bring the piece up to some intermediate temperature, let it soak there for some time then take it on up to hardening temperature and let it soak there of some time period. Normally two or 3 steps would be the max used.
My first heat treating need would be high temp stress relieving of cast iron. I believe it goes up to temp for a soak and is cooled slowly in steps. I don't think it's more than a twelve step program
) ( couldn't find a tongue in cheek smiley) Does the "dual output" mean I can hook it up to two heating elements? The kilns I'm looking at plug into each other for use under one controller. I'm hoping to do something similar rather than build up one very large permanent set up. The 3' straight edge will probably be by far the largest project for it for some time. After which I would want to set it up to run a single king that is big enough for most everything else.
) ( couldn't find a tongue in cheek smiley) Does the "dual output" mean I can hook it up to two heating elements? The kilns I'm looking at plug into each other for use under one controller. I'm hoping to do something similar rather than build up one very large permanent set up. The 3' straight edge will probably be by far the largest project for it for some time. After which I would want to set it up to run a single king that is big enough for most everything else.
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True for the hobby machinist. Some years ago though,while the manager of R&D of a large sign company (rough & dumb in this case), I used a ramp & soak controller to control a glass fusing kiln. The controller had a 12 step capability. We needed 24 steps over a 24 hour period so we had 2 programs & after 12 hours we switched to the second profile. It had heating & cooling outputs & used shop air to control the cooling. It worked great for flat-glass neon research. We were able to hold the temp of the glass within 2 degrees F over a 24 inch long area.
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I think the output relays can be individually programmed, so I think it would do what you want. There is a lot of flexibility in those controllers. I have a couple of them sitting here on the bench, and have used them for a couple of projects, but I have never gotten too deep into the capabilities. With two relays, you could run two separate heating elements.
I was using the analog output function on mine, so I never used the relay (I think mine only have one relay). You might take a look at the other controllers in that series, I just chose one at random for illustration purposes. I don't think the one I linked to has the analog out function. If I ever build a heat treat oven, I'll be using one of them.
I was using the analog output function on mine, so I never used the relay (I think mine only have one relay). You might take a look at the other controllers in that series, I just chose one at random for illustration purposes. I don't think the one I linked to has the analog out function. If I ever build a heat treat oven, I'll be using one of them.
I'm not sure what the analog out function would do. I assumed the output would be the current going to the heating elements. Do I have that much right?
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You're correct, I have slightly different controllers than what I linked to. The analog function would be about useless in a kiln application unless you have a phase angle or PWM power controller on it. What you would use is the relay out function that would drive the heavy power relay that would actually switch the power to the heating elements.