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Square lil bertha

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shipto:
FAIL! or should I say using a old elements is a fail, if a new only shaped once element was used then maybe it would do better. I allowed it to heat up to various settings and as the pics above show I was able to melt aluminium in fact I was close when it failed the aluminium had started to soften at the bottom of the pot.
Anyway the element had burnt out or something, no obvious signs of the break but its not connected any more.
fortunatly this experiment has cost me nothing but lost time and a bit of electric as I will just proceed now with the origional plan I am however going to remake it more in line with the gingery design where instead of bricks the refractory is set into forms.
Time to go shopping  :coffee:

shipto:
So as I said I did order some new nichrome wire and I got it coiled, pictured is 12 metres of brand new 1.2mm diameter coiled tight and then stretched to give me a 2.1 metre element which if I worked it out correctly will give me close to 5kw.

Went on the scrounge at work and got a bit of 200mm plastic tube for the inner form which I wound some old gas pipe around and screwed onto the side which will sit inside the outer form which is cut down bit of a space heater again scrounged from work.
I worked out this is going to need 16 litres of refractory mix and am wondering if I could crush up some of the fire bricks I have to add to the mix to save some of the cost of the brought ingredients.

shipto:
Bit more progress, figured out a way to get the connections from the elements to the outside I am going to use tig gas nozzles they have a m10 thread molded inside.
In the lil bertha book the ceramic is put in after the refractory is cast but I am going to try casting them into it so have used a bit of modelling clay to seal them off.
Also I read on a blog that the person had trouble getting the rubber tube out of his and destroyed the channels so I have moved the screws to the inside so I can remove the inner form and then use a knife to cut the rubber tube in half to get it out.

Manxmodder:
 I'm still watching with interest here. Just wondering if a smear of Vaseline on the tube would help with releasing it from the lining.....OZ.

shipto:
I am going to give it a spray with oil on the off chance that it will slide right out but I doubt it will, had to burn the one out my coal burning furnace but that wasnt like this it had the bottom molded in one go.
however if it doesnt come out I will just cut it out with my skilsaw.
Just remembered actually I will have to take a pic of the simple jig I used to coil the element may come in useful for someone in the future, will post that tomorrow.

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