Learn how to make a heat treating oven with this guide

Why not make it on your own instead of buying one.

If the video player is not working, you can watch the video from this alternative link.

Do you need a heat-treating oven for your workshop? Why buy one when you can make it on your own?

Find out how.

As you can imagine, you’ll need some tools and materials before you get started.

The first step is to take your fire bricks and fire high-temperature cement. Apply a layer of cement to one side of each brick. Spread out the cement thinly and evenly over the surface and cement the bricks together in a line, long-side adjacent.

With that done, sand down all exposed surfaces of the bricks once the cement is cured. This is to remove any excess fire cement. Rinse and repeat to make three four-brick lengths of bricks.

Once done, assemble the brick lengths to make the main body of the oven.

With that done, chisel out the wall layers of bricks to make a looped channel for the heating coil. Do the same for the rear “wall” of the oven.

Next, take your aluminum resistance wire and coil it into a large spring as shown in the video. This can be done using a pipe and power drill.

With that done, take the carved brick lengths and assemble them together to make the main oven structure.

Ensure the heating coil channels are pointing towards the inside of the oven,

Enclose the bricks in another layer of cinder blocks or fire bricks as shown in the video.

Next, take your L-profile metal and cut it down to shape to make a pair of metal squared arches. These will form the main elements of the external frame for the oven.

Weld the parts together as needed. Weld some more lengths of L-profile metal to another set of fire bricks to make the main oven door.

Spray paint the metal to the desired color too. For the door set of bricks, carve a channel around their inner circumference and cement into place a length of fireproof rope to create a heatproof seal.

Next, install the spring/coil you made earlier and install it within the oven in one continuous length within the cut channel.

With that done, install the metal frame parts you made earlier to the outside of the oven. Add some sheets of metal gauze between the frames for aesthetic purposes.

Drill into place as needed.

Secure into place a pair of heavy-duty hinges to the front of the oven and to the main access door of the oven too. Mount the door into place as needed.

Add a handle to the door too. With that done, make a hollow metal boxing for the main electronics as shown in the video too.

Next, drill a hole through the top of the oven towards the rear and then install the heat probe to the top. With that done, connect the two ends of the heating coil at the rear of the oven with a ceramic connector.

Secure the connector into place on the rear of the oven. Next, take your limit switch and wire it up as needed.

With that done, take your solid-state relay and heat sink and mount them into place within the main electronics boxing. Add wire penetrations, an on-off switch, and the PID controller to the endplates of the boxing as shown in the video.

Mount the electronics boxing to the side of the oven as needed. With that done, wire up all the electronics as needed. Watch the video for details on this part.

Finally, wire up the main power input cable and your DIY treating oven is now complete.

Now all you need to do is find somewhere to place your oven and get to using it! Well done you.

If you enjoyed this build, you might enjoy making some other DIY workshop tools, like a wire stripping machine for example?