Simple Rod Oven

[stever]

Isn't Kaowool and Inswool, ceramic wools, easily inhaled and dangerous? The small fibers are easy to become airborne and small enough to enter the lungs. Most ceramic wools are used with breathing protection and are sealed when used in a gas forge. ITC 100, Satanite, or something comparable is usually painted on the exposed surface of the wool to seal it. The sealer reflects heat back into the gas forge to increase and hold the heat, but it also seals the small particles and hopefully stops the inhalation. Simply touching or moving ceramic wool puts particles in the air. I've only hit the top layer of the safety concerns and I'm not qualified to say all of this is fact or not. I am repeating the warnings from people at Anvilfire and Keenjunk. Both of these blacksmith related forums talk frequently about this hazard. Until proven wrong I suggest caution.

I have a forge with the Kaowool. I took every precaution when building the forge by wearing long sleeved shirt, gloves, and breathing filter, the same as when installing the pink fiber glass insulation. Problem is this stuff is more hazardous than the pink stuff, as I understand it.

[MIDWEST]

Silly question, but what is the Hot Box used for?

[Farmer]

Longer Lasting Bulb

I have an old bar fridge that i use to store my electrodes and mig wire. Had a problem with the bulbs burning in about a months time. I now have 2 - 40 watt rough service bulbs wired in parallel . The bulbs only light up half as bright but last forever. The box will heat up to 110 to 130 degrees in a 60 degree shop.

[Dman033189]

I was wondering how the rod oven is working for you? I am thinking about making one myself.

Here's a chord chart. It eliminates the need for a compass or trammels to lay out polygons. It is very accurate...taken from Machinery's Handbook. The label says 'spaces' but it means sides or chords.

Enjoy, and be safe out there...thought I'd say that, since ROCK isn't around right now.

[cope]

layout

Dan, I can do the hexagon, but my high school geometry has failed me on the others. Would like to see.

[Mowjunk]

Surely I'm interested. I'd like to see how it's done.

[Dan]

If you guys are nice to me , maybe on Friday or Saturday I ll post how to layout an octagon with a compass, or trammel points. And if your real nice I might even show you how to layout a hexagon too. Also, if time allows I might even show you a pentagon. Anyone interested in seeing these?

[lerdman]

RockyD
You are correct with the term "Hot Box" which is a better word than oven. As far as the octagon, I just used a ruler and started finding centers and drawing angles. A formula or a chart would make things easier. That would be a good post.

Originally posted by lerdman
This is a almost finished product setting on my workbench waiting for it's first batch of rods. The only thing left is to finish the top. The reason I used square ends was so that I could build a box on top of the oven for unopened boxes of electrodes or etc.... This will probably get finished when the weather gets a little warmer.

Lamar

Nice hot box, Lamar, I especially like the foil wrap job. I use Kaowool, in my shop for wrapping cast iron parts after welding. Too bad it is so crumbly.

did you layout the octogon with a compass or use a formula? I have (somewhere) a formula and chart for laying out chords of circles...I have to find it and post it..it's a good tool.

[Mowjunk]

Lamar, that's a really nice and useful project. Thanks for the pictures and the idea. Good job!

[lerdman]

This is a almost finished product setting on my workbench waiting for it's first batch of rods. The only thing left is to finish the top. The reason I used square ends was so that I could build a box on top of the oven for unopened boxes of electrodes or etc.... This will probably get finished when the weather gets a little warmer.

Lamar

[lerdman]

This is the outside of the oven after it was insulated and covered with aluminum sheeting. To answer Mojunk, the insulation is 1 inch Kaowool. This is a high temp insulation (2400 F). Kaowool is the original asbestos replacement material invented by Bab**** and Wilcox. Inswool is a similar competing product. In blanket form Kaowool is comonly used to insulate high temperature furnaces, and to build forges and kilns.

http://www.anvilfire.com/sales/k_index.htm

High temperature insulation should be available from an insulation contractor or boiler installer. If all of the insulation is kept on the outside of the oven, pratically any insulation will work. Auto firewall insulation should work.

The heating source is a 60 watt light installed in the rear of the oven. This keeps the oven at 90 degree F with the outside temperature at 20 degree F. I also tried a 100 watt strip heater in the bottom of the oven and that gave me an inside temperature of 140 degree F. I was going to use a light dimmer switch with the heater strip but decided on the 60 watt bulb since I have been using mostly 7014 and 6010 rod. My understanding is that this rod should be stored at 90 F to 115 F with low humidity. This makes the 60 watt bulb just perfect for this application(summer and winter). I will also drill a small hole in the door and glue a piece of plexiglass to the inside. This indicator will let me know if the bulb is burned out. I was also planning on putting some desiccant bags under the bottom shelf. This should collect some of the humidity if the bulb burns out for a few days before I change it.

In the future if I need to store low hydrogen electrodes I will build another oven with a larger heating source.

Lamar

If your building on cheap get thermostat and insulation (rock wool) from old oven. Use ceramic light bulb socket that can take high heat so it can be upgraded to screw in heating element.

[Al T.]

I wonder if automobile firewall insulation would work in this project? Just a thought.