Heat treating oven question!

[D. Tiller]

I was thinking of taking an old toaster oven and insulating it with refractory material on the outside. Would this work or would I just melt down the whole oven?

[Pat B]

David, I wouldn't use inside the house!   A toaster over isn't set up for high temps much less for long periods of time. This is just a guess on my part.     Pat

[cowboy]

Dunno, give it a shot outside somewhere away from your staves and arrow shafting materials or anything else combustible . If you burn up the oven - no big loss, never know though it just might work ?

[ricktrojanowski]

In a different posting.  Eddie (Mullet) wrote about using a toaster oven with a broiler to heat treat.  He said it holds 500 degrees with no mods.  I havn't tried it myself but probably will soon.  OUTSIDE of course.

[Hillbilly]

Yeah, Eddie heats rock in a toaster all the time, as does Brian Melton, too I believe. I don't think I'd wrap anything around it though, sounds like a recipe for disaster. I think Eddie puts his out in the middle of his concrete driveway or patio or something.

[leapingbare]

hell ya video tape it and send it into country fryed viedos or something lol.

[D. Tiller]

Yep! Jesse's working on becoming a comedian. He's giving me a run for my money!!! 

I will try it sometime! Paul, how hot do I have to heat that stuff ya sent me a while back?

[cowboy]

From what I've gleaned - six to seven hundred degrees and soak time (like all night) is a factor. Course it's all mixed up with some of it being a lot better quality than others and that matters also. The slick stuff you can knap raw, the grainy stuff has to be cooked.

[D. Tiller]

Looks like I will have to go with the fire pit method with that stuff then!

[Otoe Bow]

I had pretty good success with my smoker/grill method.  I put the spalls in sand in roaster pans.  Started them off in the smoker side for a few hours to get them up to about 250 degrees, them put the pans directly over the coals for several hours with fire, then let it go out and  leave it over night with the lid closed. 

I only had one blow up.  The rest seemed to treat pretty good.

Mike

[Stringman]

I guess a guy could dig a pit and fill the bottom with hedge coals and then put a layer of sand with rocks mixed in then a lot more coals on top?!? Is this gonna get hot enough for long enough? What will happen if it doesn't? Never done it before, but wanting to try.

d:^)
Scott

[cowboy]

Scott: Go to the howto's section and drill down to page 5. I posted direction's for heat treating rock (the old fashion way) the way I do it - and it works great btw .

[D. Tiller]

Think this will get hot enough to heat treat agate?

[mullet]

  I tried all that "soak" time stuff with the toaster oven. I never noticed a difference. Now, all I do is put the spalls in the little tray and lay the other tray on top and crank that baby to 450,500 dgs and let it go all night. I unplug it when I go to work in the morning and take the rock out when I get home in the PM. Usually it is still warm. I've been using those little flea market, Salvation Army, $5 Black and Decker ovens for about 12 years. I wouldn't wrap them, I've seen mine gloe red at nite. I don't know why the plastic knobs don't melt.

[cowboy]

Hmm, dunno D. Agate that I've seen is pretty slick already - may get too hot.