Primitive Archer

Main Discussion Area => Flintknapping => Topic started by: mullet on January 29, 2012, 01:08:25 pm

Title: Flea Market
Post by: mullet on January 29, 2012, 01:08:25 pm
Whooohoo, look what I found at the Flea Market this morning. No more fire pit and charcoal :)
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: paulsemp on January 29, 2012, 01:11:18 pm
i have been looking for one for years. what temp does it go up to?? how much did you pay?
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: mullet on January 29, 2012, 01:16:54 pm
I don't know, it says low/high. I'll have to get a thermometer and thermostat from work. I paid $50 with extra elements and ceramic stands. ;D
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: Tower on January 29, 2012, 02:10:50 pm
$50? Can't beat that deal with a stick. Some guys are just lucky.
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: Lee Slikkers on January 29, 2012, 02:11:29 pm
you dirty dawg!  Congrats bud, I need to start going to those flea market type events more....
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: chief deer on January 29, 2012, 02:37:02 pm
What you have is the shell of a rock cooking kiln. In other words the controls will not work for rock. They heat way too fast and go way too high.  Hard to tell but it looks like about two bucket capacity. If you are lucky one switch and one coil will heat it but it may take two switchs and two coils. Most of my kilns have two switch two coil set up for 110. You can either buy or make new coils and the switchs are Robert Shaw5500-135. They run around 30 bucks each now. You can buy a coil for around 20. So for about another 100 you will be in rock cooking business. The coils in a ceramic kiln have been heated to very high temps and will be brittle. Even if  you are able to get them hooked up they will fail sooner or later. Better to do it right the first time and it is not a hard thing to do.  Mike Smyth
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: Jimbob on January 29, 2012, 03:11:55 pm
Great find Eddie!!  Sooooo................What ya gotta have for some cooked rock  ::) ::) ;D
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: mullet on January 29, 2012, 04:24:19 pm
Mike, it's a Paragon A66. It has a low, med, and high knob. Do you know what the temperature is with each setting? I couldn't help myself, I'm cooking coral on the low setting right now. I used a Buddies which was like this one and it cooked it pretty good on the low setting. It also says the Max temperature is 2300dgs.
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: FlintWalker on January 29, 2012, 05:44:46 pm
Dang Eddie!  I think you stole it.
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: Pat B on January 29, 2012, 05:59:43 pm
Eddie, Google Paragon A66 and set a set of plans with the specs.
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: mullet on January 29, 2012, 06:39:05 pm
Pat, I already have, thanks. It also came with a bunch of extra, new coils and the ones in it were just replaced. Seems to be working alright, haven't heard any blowing up yet. :)
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: Bevan R. on January 29, 2012, 06:44:13 pm
My question, You got a rock cooker on steroids and still put a wood burner in your shop? In Florida?
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: mullet on January 29, 2012, 06:50:02 pm
 :-[ :-\ Really, it's gonna get cold. Cold weather sucks! I hate working in Canada, too, except for the people. ;)
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: RickB on January 29, 2012, 08:43:01 pm
Great find at a fantastic price and already cooking rock. Rick B
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: chief deer on January 29, 2012, 10:32:19 pm
Don't know what they do.  Only way to know is put a thermometer on it and see how fast it ramps and how hot it gets. All except computer controlled that I know of usually raise too fast and get too hot.  You may get lucky but I doubt you will have a lot of control. Mike Smyth
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: criveraville on January 30, 2012, 01:25:01 am
Good buy Eddie ;)

Cipriano
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: Bone pile on January 30, 2012, 03:58:49 pm
I know were I can get cooked now 8)
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: mullet on January 30, 2012, 07:51:04 pm
I cooked a whole kiln full of Alifia coral (see bonepiles post) yesterday. I am going to have to change the switch or get used to cooking fast. After 3 hours on low I heard a piece pop.I unplugged it and let it cool down overnight. I lost two pieces of Perdnales but all the pieces of coral was still good except a big piece that just broke in half. And it all was treated pretty darn good. I could probably get used to heat treating coral in 3 hours, kinda like microwave cooking. ;D
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: chief deer on January 30, 2012, 09:09:42 pm
Eddie do have any idea how hot it got? You can use a regular cooking probe to monitor temps. Most of the long stemmed ones go to about 600.  That TX is picky about heat and I have never cooked Coral. One thing I have learned is that if you have a large load or large size pieces slow ramps and long holds on the low side of danger zone is what you want. If it is fresh dug is is also good to be able to hold it at around 200 to dry before you ramp up the temp. Happy cooking. Mike Smyth
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: mullet on January 30, 2012, 11:41:43 pm
Mike, I'm guessing it didn't get over 500-550. This kind of coral will blow to hell much hotter than that. I usually cook it all night at 500. I never ramp coral up when I've cooked it before. I've tried it a few times and never noticed a difference. i've got a but that is going to change the switch out so I can adjust the heat.
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: cowboy on February 01, 2012, 04:36:52 pm
Eddie, when you get that thing all figured out let me know. I've got two in the shop that have been sitting there for years waiting for me to do something, ha..
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: mullet on February 01, 2012, 09:39:38 pm
Wil do, stranger ;).
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: cowboy on February 02, 2012, 12:19:22 pm
 ::) :).
Title: Re: Flea Market
Post by: Parnell on February 02, 2012, 01:27:31 pm
Nice!