I've got one of those convection ovens at home where you rotate the dial to set the temperature. Well, the dial has become loose and the markings are fading away. I could easily buy a replacement dial (or ... a whole new oven for that matter) and not have all my cakes come out as charcoal

But why take the easy route when I can design a digital thermometer, right? I was thinking of using a k-type thermocouple, an amplifier IC, a PIC and a 3-digit 7-segment LED module. I need to measure upto 450F. I can easily find the last two components, but searching for a low-noise amplifier (since the k-type's temp coefficient is only about 41 uV/ deg. C) and an inexpensive k-type thermocouple has not proven fruitful so far. I don't want to use those expensive ICs specially built for the k-type thermocouples (where's the fun in that?).

Any idea which low-noise voltage amplifier ICs I can look at and more importantly, any idea where I can buy those k-type thermocouples for less than $10 (if at all possible)? Thanks in advance for any help.