Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace

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awemawson:
Phil, let it not be said that you are without influence - you've got me shifting the furniture AGAIN :bugeye:

By spinning the Kiln 90 degrees it only protrudes 32 inches when on the end of the second foundry bench and you can still just get at the rear door. The socket problem is overcomable, as although it backs (sides actually!) onto the sliding door, there is an RSJ above that I should be able to fix a socket to. Trailing cables aren't possible as it's between two doorways)

I'll sleep on it, but probably this is a better layout so thank you for prompting me to get the pallet truck out yet again :thumbup:

awemawson:
Time to think about making a door for the 'pump house'. Needs to be something a bit more durable than B&Q pine but I'm clean out of recycled oak or any other hardwoods. No, hang on, there's an old ledged and braced plank door in the stable keeping the rain off the straw pile that we replaced when we did a refurbish on the house some years ago - will it dismantle and provide stock ?

(Picture of it in situ before we virtually demolished the house in 2012 !)

Turns out that it was entirely screwed together making dismantling relatively easy - planks are about eight inches wide but have 1/2" grooves with inserted tongues to hold them together so you lose an inch.

Bottom edge of the door was rather water damaged from neglect but it has provided enough stock to make the new and much smaller door. I also found some chunky window sill material of odd tropical hardwood that was probably removed at the same time from which I milled a pair of 3" x 2" door jambs.

I milled the planks down to five inches so five planks for an approximately 25 inch wide door. I should have passed them through the planer thicknesser at this stage, but it didn't occur to me until I'd cut them to approximate lengths. Never mind - two passes to remove the varnish and glue. Pity it doesn't remove the screw holes as well!

So far I've got the timber and the idea but not yet fixed them together as other things crop up to distract me.

I'm thinking not to hinge this door but to make it a removable panel - possibly retained by rare earth magnets but not decided yet.

awemawson:
This morning I cut the pump house door jambs and temporarily mounted them to allow me to measure the door's final size. They will come off for varnishing in due course.

Now having the door final size I trimmed the planks to give me about 1/4" to plane to final size, glued and mounted them up in a pair of sash cramps and fitted the ledges to hold them flat.

I'll give the glue over night to set before any more work on them.

Meanwhile the 16 amp 3 phase sockets have arrived so I suppose that that's work for this afternoon sorted !

awemawson:
I decided to give the door jambs a coat of varnish so that it can dry over night and be re-fitted in the morning. I was just starting when a desperate neighbour arrived needing his 'digging spoons' welded as one spade had completely broken off.

This delayed starting the wiring but I did get the 16 amp 3 phase socket for the water chiller fixed, wired in and tested - one more to do for the kiln.

awemawson:
Today's job : Mount the 16 amp 3 phase socket for the burn out kiln. To mount it on the RSJ above called for a back plate and angle, with holes drilled up into the RSJ to bolt it to.

Simple drawing in Autocad incorporating the 5 degree slope of the RSJ to keep the socket level. However when I imported it into Sheetcam I found that I had no tools defined :bang:

Yesterday, fed up with Microsoft falsely accusing me of running a hooky operating system, I had changed over to a standby PC that I had previously loaded with all the legacy software that I need to run as 32 bit Win 7 but had obviously forgotten to bring Sheetcam's tool set over. This system I had managed to turn off automatic Windows updates BEFORE Microsoft 'upgraded' to their spoiler version that is determined to stop you using Windows 7. (I have to).

I eventually resorted to bringing up the old system and exporting the tool file but a pain - thanks Microsoft :(

So at last I managed to plasma cut the backing plate, cut and drill a suitable bit of 50 mm heavy angle iron, clean them up and spray them. This time I remembered to spray the manhole cover lifting keys that I made - they will be living in the 'pump house' so I wanted to at least make a token gesture to keeping them free of rust! I've intended to spray them for weeks and each time the gun has been full I've forgotten. Holes drilled and a pair of 4" No 12 screws put in the back wall to keep them safe :thumbup:

While I was doing this Clive (our 1/2 a day a week gardener) made a splendid job of back filling the shallow trench and seeding the nice tilth that he produced. The pipes were separated, fine earth put between them and about 2" over, followed by continuous roofing tiles to guard against spades and forks, topped with a yellow 'cables below' hazard tape, and earth to surface level.

By this time my paint had dried enough for the backing plate, angle and socket to be mounted - but this time I pre-wired the socket as the last one was a neck cricking nightmare! SWA cable clipped to the RSJ and run to the sub-main distribution box, wired in and tested - All OK and the kiln got a brief warming for the first time in months

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