Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace

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awemawson:
Very informative and certainly food for thought Matthew - thanks for the link.

awemawson:
Time to tackle the 'Tilting' furnace body - if you remember I'd previously used domestic plumbing flexible hoses that had adversely reacted with the hydraulic oil in the 'air over oil' set up.

So first drain the remaining oil - most had already been squirted out when the hose fitting burst a month ago!

Then strip off the old fittings and pipes.

Then do a 'dry fit' of the stainless hydraulic fittings that I'd bought to check that I'd got the right quantities and genders.

. . . all a bit of a rush as I've got a chap due in 6 minutes to discuss (fencing of the agricultural type - not epees !)

Have a few pictures:

awemawson:
So it was an afternoon of crimping:

First dig out the Parker crimping machine with it's hydraulic hand pump and a set of crimping dies for the 1/4" hose that I'm using. This size is a rather an arbitrary choice - I hope that I will get sufficient flow remembering that although it's using hydraulic oil, the pressure is only 'airline pressure' at about 100 psi. But I already had the hose and fittings and only had to buy the fixed adapters so that swayed me. Time only will tell . . .

Now the sequence is:

a/ Measure the application and cut a length of hydraulic hose to suit.

b/ Fit a ferrule over each end ensuring that it's fully home by tapping with a mallet.

c/ Insert the appropriate barbed fitting (straight or 90 degrees in my case).

d/ Crimp one end

e/ In the case of two 90 degree fittings adjust angular alignment 'on the job' and mark up the hose, ferrule and fitting.

f/ Crimp the other end

All quite easy, but short hoses with both ends a 90 degree fitting need careful alignment as this hose doesn't rotate to accommodate errors!

The crimper consists of a hydraulic cylinder that, using a 'gathering plate' forces a set of dies down a tapered hole over a set of 'teeth' to close down round the ferrule and squash it firmly, uniformly, and permanently round the hose and barbed fitting.

awemawson:
Then it was a case of measuring up and assembling the various hoses on the machine, but in 'free space' as I've not yet decided how I'm going to clip them. I want to hold them as far from metal drips as possible, and maybe bend up 'drip shields' to go over them where possible.

However, until I can get it back into the 'able to tilt' state it's not easy to predict what will foul what as the crucible rises up - I may even have to adjust some hose lengths.

So now all the hoses are made and loose fitted and I'll wait until tomorrow to fill it up with oil as the adapter fittings have been 'Loctited' and that needs to go off

awemawson:
By this morning the Loctite pipe seal had had ages to 'go off' so I tightened all the cone seating pipe nuts and did a 'dry trial' ie no oil in the reservoir.

I'm pleased to be able to report that it worked splendidly - it sort of questions whether I need the 'air over oil' set up, but I expect with a full crucible I probably do - certainly that was my conclusion back in 2006 when I installed it.

So now I need to sort out pipe clips and some sort of sheet metal splash guards for the pipes. I'd rather assumed that the 'Munson Clips' that I'd previously used were a right off after bad handling in storage, but it turned out that only one 'foot' was broken, and amazingly I had one in my box of 'might be useful' bits (probably originating from the 2006 build!). I've temporarily put them back on, but they hold the pipes too far off the chassis and will be replaced, probably with rubber lined steel 'P clips'.

The arrangement of the Quick Disconnects is as a straight line of four QD's and foolishly I've never marked up what is what. However I dug out a photo of the inside when I commissioned it in 2006 which will let me work it out.

Among the pictures were a pair that reminded me of an issue that I'd had - the copper pipe was barely able to carry sufficient current even with water flowing though, and I'd had to parallel up 70 mm CSA welding cable to give it a hand with all those pesky electrons! There was also a picture showing where I'd managed to fuse some of that cable - I hate to think what current that was carrying,but I can't remember the circumstances that caused it. (well it IS 14 years ago!)

So I'm now off to order up a few pipe clips !

Have a video of it working:

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