Looking for material to replace oven door handle

[Bob Unitt 1Participant @bobunitt1]

I have a Stanley oven with a broken handle. It looks like it's a plastic moulding of some kind, or possibly bakelite. Having discovered that replacement handles cost in excess of £50 (!) I'd like to make my own. The shape looks fairly straightforward to reproduce. The material needs to be heatproof and to be a good heat insulator, and workable with either woodworking or metalworking tools – any suggestions ?

 

Edited By Bob Unitt 1 on 25/01/2023 12:42:33

[Bob Unitt 1Participant @bobunitt1]

[Tony Pratt 1Participant @tonypratt1]

Tufnol would do.

Tony

[Mike PooleParticipant @mikepoole82104]

Peek seems to have good high temperature properties but seems to be mostly available in rod section.

Mike

[John HinkleyParticipant @johnhinkley26699]

How about an off-cut of Corian as used for worktops etc? That's supposed to be able to withstand hot saucepans and the like placed on it. You might get a piece from your local kitchen fitter or there's adverts for offcuts on the bay of e.

John

[Neil AParticipant @neila]

Tufnol would be my first choice, my father used it years ago to replace the knob on a saucepan lid. They use Tufnol for some handles on steam valves.

Second choice would be one of the many hardwoods available now, the more dense the better, provided it's not exposed to direct flame.

Neil

[Nigel Graham 2Participant @nigelgraham2]

"Tufnol" brand fine, but bear in mind it is the genus name of a wide range of synthetic-resin bonded paper and fabric material species. I would think the fabric grades the more suitable as they are easier to machine and less prone to chipped edges. Anyway I think the paper ones are in sheet, not bar form.

Look on the company's web-site to select the most appropriate.

"Bakelite" is a plastic, a thermosetting one, and a forerunner of the many synthetic-resin types now available, but it was invented for moulding not machining, to component form.

[Speedy Builder5Participant @speedybuilder5]

Look in charity shops for a saucepan lid handle ?

[MacolmParticipant @macolm]

What about hardwood?

[An OtherParticipant @another21905]

+1 for Macolms suggestion. We have a wood-burning heating system, made of steel, with two opening doors, and both doors have hardwood handles. The metal parts of the handles are much too hot to touch normally, but the handles have survived for at least 5 years now, in regular use.

I would also have thought a saucepan handle would work,as per SB5 – but my wife says no – she has some saucepans where the plastic? handles have burned quite badly – she want sme to make new hardwood handles for them

[Bob Unitt 1Participant @bobunitt1]

These handles are stressed across their width, so I wouldn't be happy using a grainy wood. I think I'll try the Teflon.

Thanks for all the ideas, folks.

[bernard towersParticipant @bernardtowers37738]

Pay the £50 quid and get on with something interesting.

[David NobleParticipant @davidnoble71990]

Posted by bernard towers on 26/01/2023 16:12:16:

Pay the £50 quid and get on with something interesting.

That was very funny 😁

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

When this happened to my son and daughter-in-law's oven, he bought a sort of black steel towel rail, but it was too short to bridge the space between the bracket-holes in the oven door.

We didn't wanna drill new ones, so I lengthened the steel tubing of the rail with some bits of delrin with spigots turned to a tight fit on the I/D, and tapped to suit the screws to the brackets. I put titanium washers on the screws securing the brackets to the door in the hope of slowing down heat transfer.

I could probably have done without them because there was no trouble with either the delrin or the rail heating up even on big roasts.

But if you can get a new one for 50 squids, Bernard above could be right, depending on how tight money is. So far as I could tell, the pukka item for my son's oven was unobtainable, so making or adapting something was the only choice short of a new cooker.

[Ady1Participant @ady1]

A nice bit of whalebone or elephant tusk would do the job

[Leonard BrandonParticipant @leonardbrandon95197]

If you do decide to go down the "make your own" route and wanted to try Tufnol, I have lots of thick sheet offcuts and some thick rod which I am happy to let you have FOC.

It is difficult to say for certain, not knowing the size/shape of you handle.

Message me if interested.

[Engine Doctor ( Phil )Participant @enginedoctorphil]

Posted by Ady1 on 26/01/2023 20:01:58:

A nice bit of whalebone or elephant tusk would do the job

Providing its pre 1947 tusk ?

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

£50 squids! That's a whole day at minimum wage. Would you pay someone for a whole day to make you a little handle? Yes it might take me a day, allowing for coffee breaks etc, but I certainly don't have that kind of spare cash. It is also 50 slices of cake at the local 'warm space', or 50 hours of running the lathe to warm up the workshop,

[John HaineParticipant @johnhaine32865]

Teflon not a good idea. It gives off fluorine if it gets too hot I believe.

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

I for one have no idea what a handle off a Stanley oven looks like, so can't advise what to make it out of. Picture would have been good

[Nicholas FarrParticipant @nicholasfarr14254]

Posted by Bazyle on 27/01/2023 14:27:32:

£50 squids! That's a whole day at minimum wage. Would you pay someone for a whole day to make you a little handle? Yes it might take me a day, allowing for coffee breaks etc, but I certainly don't have that kind of spare cash. It is also 50 slices of cake at the local 'warm space', or 50 hours of running the lathe to warm up the workshop,

Hi Bazyle, about 22 years ago, I went into Commets to buy my teenage son a microwave as he didn't have anything to cook hot meals with in the flat where he was. The microwave cost about £55.00 and the shop assistant said I could get extra cover beyond the guarantee, which would have cost around £30.00, which I didn't think was very good value, so I said no, and went on to say, I'll just get another new one if it goes wrong after the guarantee has run, after all it's only half a days pay. Well he gasped with a bit of horror and said he wished he even got £50.00 in a day. I though, oops, said the wrong thing there.

Regards Nick.

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