The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace
awemawson:
I fear that you are right Pete, but those that I've seen on Youtube being butchered open have oil in that is basically clear with a light grey tinge to it so I can't be certain.
John Rudd:
If the price of a drop in replacement is prohibitive, could you graft in a stand alone chiller unit?
mc:
--- Quote from: Pete. on April 04, 2020, 06:35:25 AM ---I must say it looks like a tide mark to me Andrew.
--- End quote ---
I'd agree.
I'd say the light silver mark around the lower edge of the glass is the machined lip the glass sits against, and you'd normally expect to see oil between the glass and metal.
awemawson:
--- Quote from: John Rudd on April 04, 2020, 09:14:22 AM ---If the price of a drop in replacement is prohibitive, could you graft in a stand alone chiller unit?
--- End quote ---
John, the Flowcool IC120 chiller in which this compressor is housed IS a separate stand alone unit from the actual Furnace Driver itself - it's a darn great big box!
It draws 11 kW according to the specification, and provides 39 kW of cooling to the water so is quite a beast.Chillers like this are used in several industries - (injection moulding is one) and I suspect that sourcing a complete working second hand chiller of similar specification would be a better option than replacing the compressor if there is doubt about the integrity of the immersed plumbing.
The late and much lamented Mark McGrath spotted this one for me in an auction in South Wales back in 2006 - an auction that I won of course as I now have the beast. So if any of you know where I can lay my hands on another powerful chiller of similar specification don't be shy, shout out !
awemawson:
So logically if I am to take this project any further I need to gain some confidence in the big blue box -the actual Furnace Driver that takes 415 volt at an unhealthy number of amps, and oscillates away driving coils round the crucible at several thousand amps :bugeye:
To get it to 'ping' and establish the resonant frequency, which can be done without too much power I need to locate the four 'driver hoses' that connect the blue box to the crucible unit. They are not just hoses, they have very heavy bare fine strand copper wire threaded up them, and the chilled water is pumped down the hose to stop them melting. At least if I can get the 'ping' working it'll show if the electronics is at least still alive.
Now all the furnace ancillaries were carefully set on a pallet and plastic wrapped about 13 years ago and the pallet placed between my CH oil tank and my Red Diesel Bowser, and I've been dreading pulling bits off it :bugeye:
Sure enough massive deterioration - pallet totally rotted away, plastic wrap eaten by vermin and quite a bit of rust in places - but today I pulled it all out and placed it on my loading dock for examination.
Some things are definitely beyond hope -
a/ A big low speed chest drill I used for mixing sand - too rusty to both with
b/ The water pipes from the Chiller to the Furnace driver - at least one eaten by vermin
c/ A asbestos cement mounting panel that adapted the driver hoses through 90 degrees - totally crumbled away
None of these are show stoppers - I have a second four way 90 degree hose panel that seems to be OK, the drill is no big issue and the water hose is just standard large bore reinforced hose and can be replaced
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