home made kiln idea

[corey012778]

I was researching kilns as I am planning on getting into swaging. I came across this link with video

http://www.homeschooling-ideas.com/make-a-kiln.html

what yall think about the set up?

[elk hunter]

If you need to make something extremely hot that should do it and is a lot cheaper than heat treating furnaces, but very difficult to control the exact heat. This is similar in design to several small aluminum smelters that you can buy plans for. The local builder of Sharps rifles uses a pottery kiln to color case harden his actions so they can be useful for things other than pottery.

[GerryM]

Couldn't we just Dry stack some Fire brick and make a temporary type kiln?.
lay some brick down and stack some up into a small box shape. Leave enough room on one course for entry of a propane blast type tourch and for the lid more bricks.
I'm sure that would work and would be pretty inexpensive to build.

[williamwaco]

What am I missing here ?

I have been swaging bullets since the "Swage-omatic" days. ( mid 1960's ).

I can honestly say that the thought of a kiln never crossed my mind.

What are you going to do with it?




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[DukeInFlorida]

Swageomatic's use copper half jackets and then just pound lead into them. I don't mean , "JUST", but you know what I mean. It's a much simpler operation than what these guys are striving for.

What these guys are doing is different than that. They;re taking cases from other calibers, and putting a core in, and making FULL JACKET bullets. Read some of the other sticky threads, and come back. Your answers will be clear.

You need to soften the brass cases up in order to do as much metal working as these guys are wanting to do.

Annealing (over 700 degrees) is the way to soften the brass. A kiln of sorts is a fast way to get there.

[williamwaco]

Swageomatic's use copper half jackets and then just pound lead into them. I don't mean , "JUST", but you know what I mean. It's a much simpler operation than what these guys are striving for.

What these guys are doing is different than that. They;re taking cases from other calibers, and putting a core in, and making FULL JACKET bullets. Read some of the other sticky threads, and come back. Your answers will be clear.

You need to soften the brass cases up in order to do as much metal working as these guys are wanting to do.

Annealing (over 700 degrees) is the way to soften the brass. A kiln of sorts is a fast way to get there.



Yikes.

[Reload3006]

for controlled atmosphere that was asked about can be done by making an envelope out of stainless sheet foil and putting a piece of paper in there. the heat will burn the paper and deplete the oxygen in the envelope and Viola you have controlled atmosphere. An old heat treaters trick.

[a.squibload]

I use a propane torch, set the cases open end down
in rows on an old cookie sheet. Each case in the row
gets preheated by the flame going around the previous
case. Heat case heads 'til they start to glow, rest of case
will get annealed. Goes pretty quickly.
Some guys here don't anneal 9mm cases for .40 boolits,
say they swage just fine.

[Salmon-boy]

Take a look at Mike Porter's Gas Burners for Forge, Furnace and Kilns - http://www.amazon.com/Gas-Burners-Forges-Furnaces-Kilns/dp/1879535203/

It's very informative for burner design and has plans for some very simple to build kilns.

[yruiz]

I am working on a heat treating kiln/oven based on some designs I have seen in knife making catalogs. If it works I'll put together some plans and get it started in a new thread.