Decision dilemma

[Mitchell H.]

I posted this in heat treat and metallurgy too but thought maybe it was a more general question as well so if you want to remove or move it that's cool......I have come across about $500.00+ disposable income and am torn between two purchase ideas. One, I can have my very capable father in law use his huge welding and fabrication shop to make me a nice forge to heat treat and in the future truly forge and weld for I imagine with no labor cost under $200.00 and spend the rest on steel and maybe some camel bone or MOP or something to make a real; nice handle out of........or I could get that bottom end manual control heat treat oven from koval knives for $495.00+ shipping and barely fit a 12" knife in it diagonally but could then treat at home all kinds of stainless instead of being bound to only carbon steel.......any suggestions from those a little more experienced would be appreciated......oh, yeah, I also could probably afford a small bandsaw if I get the forge made for me.

[Andries Olivier]

Tricky situation. I'd go for the forge and bandsaw. You can always have the stainless heat treated at another facility for now and get a better than bottom end furnace later. I have found bottom end equipment and cheap tools to be totally inadequite especially if your serious about knifemaking.

[sleepy]

You could build a nice 28" deep digital control heat treat oven for less than $200 if you have your father in law make the box for you. I had mine made by a metal shop for $100 and my total cost was about $300-325.

[tmiller5087]

There was a thread a couple three months ago one of the guys on here made a heat treat oven and then showed how he did it, looked pretty nice to me. so i would ask the father in law to make the forge and the heat treat and get the band saw....I would also ask if i could hang around the fab shop. makin stuff is fun. specaily if you have access to the right tools.

[Mitchell H.]

Originally Posted by tmiller5087

There was a thread a couple three months ago one of the guys on here made a heat treat oven and then showed how he did it, looked pretty nice to me. so i would ask the father in law to make the forge and the heat treat and get the band saw....I would also ask if i could hang around the fab shop. makin stuff is fun. specaily if you have access to the right tools.

Unfortunately, he lives in Arizona and I live in Tennessee or I would be there alll the time, hell, I can weld and wouldn't mind at all...8o

[McAhron]

I would go to a scrap yard and buy the steel for the forge(15 bucks).My burners cost me 8 bucks in materiels to build( a modified ron reil design)a regulator(dial type) 30 bucks.I got my kawool and satanite for under fifty so total cost for a forge is around 90 bucks so you would still have enough left over for a kiln if you build it yourself.The tutorial mentioned earlier is quite thourogh and complete and even provides links to suppliers for the parts.good luck

[Mitchell H.]

Most likely. I will wind up paying next to nothing for the forge as he has a fabrication shop and probably will use scrap steel for forge body @ $00.00 to me anyhow. I may attempt the furnace project myself, but am a bit scary as it involves electricity

[Andrew Garrett]

I'd make the forge and the oven. Then buy a good control set-up for the oven from whoever you get the elements from. This takes all the guesswork out of the wiring!

I bought a bandsaw and have yet to cut anything I couldn't have cut with my cheapo Dremel scroll saw. Cut-off wheels on a drill press works nicely too! I do most of my cuts with a mini cut-off wheel on my Dremel rotary tool. Handle material grinds away quickly on the disc sander that came with my cheapo 1"x30". Heck... where do you live? I'll sell ya' my band saw! I could use the room!

Seriously. Do both brother. Then the possibilities are endless!

Andy

[tmiller5087]

Here you go.....HEY wait a minute I live in oHIo i should buy it lol. Only bout 7 -8 hr drive

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...527469604&rd=1



Oh yeah....bout the Tenn and arizona thing.....head west young man head west