Mini burnout oven

I met with a friend who was a equipment designer here in Virginia
that has made about anything you could think of in the metal forming
aspects He makes and repairs things for friends and metal smith
artist. I have taken my mini kiln apart, not much to it. It has soft
fire brick with a ceramic coil holder. The coil holder is the only
bump that I have right now. I wanted to keep my original tube style
element for an even burnout for the small flask. The one made for
the original idea is a split tube with two half round 2 1/4 inch tall
with the elements weaving in and out in a fed holder that keeps the
element from touching the flask. It works very well. The idea came up
after the makers of kilns stopped making because in that time span
lack of sales and people did not trust them, they burned out the
elements due to not knowing how to keep from “killing” the element.
I will make a booklet to explain proper use and maintaining the kiln.
If you want to email my info list, it will be kept at (carlsgems at
yahoo dot com). Here I will make a folder to keep the names and
emails when finished. I am making 10 on the first run and already
have 7 preorders. It is a niche market, basically metal smiths who
want the ability to do a one flask cast as needed. Thanks for your
input.

Carl

The coil holder is the only bump that I have right now. I wanted to
keep my original tube style element for an even burnout for the
small flask. The one made for the original idea is a split tube
with two half round 2 1/4 inch tall with the elements weaving in and
out in a fed holder that keeps the element from touching the flask. 

If I understand what you are looking for you may want to go to

http://www.thermcraftinc.com/high-temperature-heaters.html

they offer half cylindrical heater elements in the small diameter
and length you are looking at. It has a hard ceramic shell with
groves in it holding the heating coil elements. They also offer
similar units that have furnace cement covering the coils to reduce
the likelihood of contacting the coil while energized.

James Binnion
James Binnion Metal Arts

I am glad to hear from someone else who improvises functional
equipment. My large burnout oven (molds can weigh 125 lb.) is head
high and 3.5 feet across. It is made from a large metal culvert with
6 inches of ceramic fiber insulation around it and an outside
covering made from the steel sheeting from an above ground swimming
pool. The heat comes from cast iron burners from a gas cooking grill.
I wont go into the safety devices I installed or the homemade
thermocouples. The whole thing cost about $150.00 and works great.
Alll parts available in hardware store except the therm ocouple wire.
The culvert was from a salvage yard. Keep up the good work. Make
stuff. Don’t buy it unlelss you have to.

By the way, I sometimes take charcoal bricquettes, cut them into
halves on the band saw and use them for soldering blocks. I hold them
steady by abase of clay into which they are pressed. For small
pieces they work fine. The charcoal sawdust can also be used around
a piece being soldered to help keep a reducing atmosphere. A tool is
a Tool (admittedly, some work better than others).

I do not think the big pond will keep you from getting one. My
brother in law is in Switzerland and the kiln is less then 10 pounds
or maybe 5 kilos and will fit in a 12 x 12 box. I will work on the
conversion from 110 to 220. We sell adapters over here for travel and
the kiln runs the same power as a incandescence light bulb, 15 amps
and it is just a rheostat with no pyrometer needed. It will come with
melt tabs to get a fix on the temps you need for burn out and a wax
catcher for removing wax before the major part of the burnout,
keeping the element lifespan for years to come. Companies stopped
making them because of warranty abuse from people who did not
understand burnout principles and kiln care. It is not hard and will
be very simple to use.

Carl E. Burris
Master Goldsmith, Graduate Gemologist (GIA)

Carl

what ever happened to the mini burnout oven? I just started doing
some projects where a small but accurate kiln would work very well.
Let me know where you are at I could use a few of them.

Thanks
Thomas