Oven Repair

I spent the better part of the day making repairs and improvements to our double wall oven whose doors have not worked properly for years now. Fortunately, I was able to locate the perfectly sized platform I built when I installed the ovens some 15 years ago which made extraction from the wall relatively straightforward. When I took the oven apart, I found all four hinge/spring mechanisms had been mechanically deformed due to excessive weight having been placed on the open doors. I was able to look up the replacement part number only to find that the $200 apiece components are no longer available anywhere. This left me no choice but to repair the mechanisms which was no picnic as each contained four high force springs and a mechanical linkage that could easily amputate a finger if not handled carefully. It took me two hours to come up with a safe procedure and make the repair to the first one. I completed the remaining three in less than an hour. This improved the door closure but it was still not perfect. The problem now was that the gaskets surrounding the opening to the oven had hardened over time. A thorough cleaning helped to soften them slightly but still no joy on total door closure. I finally solved the problem with four very powerful rare earth magnets strategically placed to make a magnetic closure (similar to a refrigerator door). The doors now work better than they did when the oven was new.