General Categories > Non Gun Stuff

Electric Shop Furnace Build (melting aluminum)

<< < (2/3) > >>

unfy:
Charcoal furnace is like $50 and an hour of your time.

Gas furnace is like $100 and 90min of your time.

Electric furnace is around $150-$200 and a weekend of your time in actual labor.


That said, element and range control arrived.  Element can do 2100F sustained without degrading itself.

Aluminum: 1221F
Brass: 1700-1900F
Gold: 1945F
Copper: 1983F
Silver: 1600-1800F

There's not a lot of other 'common' metals that are in this range sadly.  Ductile Iron is 2100F, and most irons are under 3000F - but these elements and construction materials can't safely hit those temperatures.  I dunno if there's an air breathing element that can hit 3200F (let alone what the cost of it would be).  I imagine a tungsten element could. The refactory / furnace walls would be a concern then as well.


I dunno if I've ever mentioned plans on what I'll be casting / making.  I honestly don't have any specific "right now" ideas LOL. 

Eventually I'd like to make some reloading press add on parts (case feeder for example). 

Being able to cast my own gears would be handy (use wood to make pattern then cast'em).

But basically... it's neat, I wanna do it, and it is a bit of a trade skill to learn heh.  I'm sure there's miscellaneous things that would be handy to cast.

bkoenig:
Some 0% lowers would be neat....

unfy:
Looks like for an air breathing element that can do iron you'd prolly want Zirocthal for 2200C (4000f).  I don't see pricing anywhere.

Graphite stuff appears to have an oxidation problem above 600C or so.  They do make coated graphite elements though.  Not sure on costs.  But graphite can hit 3000C allegedly....

Anyhoo, all of that is well beyond anything I'd have a desire to touch (at the moment at least).  While iron melting sounds really really really handy - it begs questions such as 'what would you make your tongs out of?'.  While i'm sure handling the crucible is short duration and stuff, but it still seems like a possibly valid question.

unfy:

--- Quote from: bkoenig on January 30, 2014, 11:39:43 AM ---Some 0% lowers would be neat....

--- End quote ---

My initial casting will be based off of greensand flasks etc.

So it'd need to have a design where I can split it in half - put it in a box with a bunch of sand around it - then remove the mold.  There are some shapes that make the whole 'remove from sand' rather impossible :D

There's lost wax casting (a 1 time thing due to shattering the clay after the fact), or possibly if ya felt like milling stuff out of a higher melting point metal, etc.

Phantom:
Unfy 
What are you doing for Air filtering or Venting in case of toxic or dangerous off gassing ?

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page