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Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Wed Jun 20, 2012 7:14 am
by Jammer
I'm glad he posted his trials with beach sand. Keeps the rest of us from making the same mistake. The white "sugar" sand seems to work the best, it mixed in pretty quickly and I hope it keeps details for me, I'll find out next week.

Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Sat Jun 30, 2012 8:49 pm
by Harry
Furnace looks great Jammer, I would like to set up an electric some day but just dont have the room in the current foundry. Do you have any temp controls on it?

Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 6:29 am
by Jammer
I'm working on a variac to control the temp. I kept it from an old lead casting machine. I found it to be a little lite, it's only rated for 7 amps but the furnace pulls 14 amps. I'm going to look for a little bigger one. This one works great, but I'm sure it would give out soon.

Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Mon Jul 02, 2012 10:58 am
by Harry
Always wanted some of those variacs, would be great fun for loads of stuff.

Should be able to make yourself a chart for voltage settings once you have some time with it then just be able to use the dial to set the furnace wherever you want it. Crank it full on when firing up then set it on 1350 and mold and pour all day long.

Thats what I like about it. My oil/propane is nearly that but it does take a little more than plugging it in which is what I love about the electrics. If I ever get to building one I will be picking your brains on where to buy what and how to wire it up.

Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Mon Jul 16, 2012 6:33 pm
by Jammer
Fired up the Electric again today. Wanted to melt about 3 Kilos of Yellow Brass, 65% Copper, 30% Zinc, 5% Lead. I put in 1 Kilo and started it up, I put a tablespoon of Charcoal on top. It melted in about 40 minutes, maybe sooner. I got distracted be an Airplane flying at my house. I put the other 2 Kilos in and a little more charcoal. It all melted in les than and hour. I sure didn't expect it to melt that fast. The charcoal worked too well, I was only getting a couple zinc flares, then as I started to pour, the zinc lit up and smoked like crazy. Internal temp of the furnace was about 1850F.
Oh, I took off the Powerstat, it is too small. I didn't want to burn it up. I tried a BIG Reostat...it worked for a while and then burst into flames. :o
I took this picture right outside my back door. He's a local crop duster doing the feild behind my house.
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I was running as I took this!
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Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 4:23 am
by bunyip
Hey, Jammer, was the plane there to put you'r fire out?

Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Tue Jul 17, 2012 6:42 am
by Jammer
I didn't really have a fire, it was the brass flaring up as I poured. I was running from the fumes. Happy to say, I didn't get sick. I was concerned because I got a couple good blasts of zinc fumes. It just seemed to follow me around. Next time I'll have the fan running.

Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Sat Oct 27, 2012 1:17 pm
by Jammer
I tried a melt yesterday in the electric furnace. I was going to melt a bell bronze alloy like some cymbals are made of, 92% copper, 8% tin with a little Cooper/phos rod for gas. The temp was too high for the furnace and the elements broke. I'll have to rewire it. After this, I'll use the electric for Aluminum
and burnouts only. I figure out a limit control for 1500F. I've got a temp controller but I need a relay to turn the power on and off. Here's what a guy on another form told me to try but I'm not sure how it would work.

"You could always pick up a light dimmer and open it up and replace the Triac from the DigiKey link.
Put the Triac on a good heatsink, only take a couple of $$ to try it, if you don't feel like building from scratch.
With the higher triac, it should still be ok on 240, there is a Pot,Triac,resistor and capacitor, thats it.
Al."

Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Mon Oct 29, 2012 8:55 pm
by latzanimal
Wow, I'm flattered you're thinking of me... :oops: :lol:

If you'd like, I can send you a cymbal to cut up and melt/play with. The good thing about cymbals and drummers is that us drummers seem to always break them eventually... :o

Re: New Electric Furnace

Posted: Tue Oct 30, 2012 7:41 am
by Jammer
I have a couple cymbals from our church drummer. From what I was able to find the 92/8% alloy is what they are. I haven't figured out the best way to cut them up. I was setting up to do a water casting of the alloy to send to another guy who wants to make a Tsuba or a hilt for a Japanese style sword.

No, I mean, of course I was thinking of you. :D