The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace
awemawson:
Matthew yes some of my previous ones were made from flat bar of about 1" x 1/8" and bent on a taper which is easy to form if you have a forge and a big enough blacksmiths cone. My cone would 'just' be big enough for that particular crucible but useless for the big ones I used in my pit furnace.
John, the ceramic forge IS an ex school single burner one. It along with my coke forge were of course buried deep in a corner of the tractor shed and I'd thought it was going to be a major pain extracting it, but in practice I just had to move two tractors and I was able to move it to a more accessible place where I can get the forklift at it. Not doing it today as (naturally!) it's pouring down and has been all morning and there's no point in soaking it (or me!)
Let's hope that it still works. It's gas regulation is odd in that it uses a strange 'zero demand' or maybe 'zero pressure' valve - I don't remember which but I know that it gave issues 15 years ago and I had to replace it as it had jammed from lack of use sitting idle for too long.
Anyway the new Reciprocating Saw is due for delivery in the next hour, so I have a date with some alloy wheels !
awemawson:
The rain slackened just before lunch so I decided to fire up the fork lift and shift the DS130 ceramic chip forge at least into the stable, and if possible as far as the foundry (fork lift won't do the 90 degree bend up to the foundry so the last leg is 'push power')
Well with the very high humidity the propane engine of the forklift was extremely reluctant to start. I did eventually get it firing on two cylinders so putting a bit of heat into it and after about ten minutes off we went.
Having just got it running reasonably the delivery of the Bosch Reciprocating Saw arrived so a quick trot across the farm yard with the DS130 loaded up, and I popped it down at the far end of the stable. By this time the rain was back :bang:
Never mind, the show has to go on. Quickly returning the fork lift to the Tractor Shed and locking up it was a case of man handling the DS130 up the slope and over the threshold strip of the foundry where it now sits. I did manage to prove that the blower fan still works and the pair of solenoid vales at least click when powered so there is the possibility that it works !
After a quick lunch (Welsh Rarebit) I was back out to try the new toy. I have to say that it performed very well. It came with a nice 'progressive' coarse metal cutting blade (S123XF must order some more!) that slices nicely through the rims though it does take kindly to a squirt of WD40 as a lubricant going through the thicker bits.
It's definitely the way to go (Thanks Steve for jogging me!) and far less mess than the plasma cutter or bonfires etc. It also allows me to store the alloy as rims and cut off what's needed for a particular job.
Time to put the old dead Power Devil one in the bin !
vtsteam:
Great to hear about the forge and rim cut successes, Andrew. :beer:
--- Quote ---Two thirds up the crucible, with the ring near the beginning of the bulge. Cheers, Matthew
--- End quote ---
Unfortunately, Mathew that's the fit I had during a few crucible drop outs, at least with a round sectioned ring.
The problem seemed to be that, as I turned the ring past vertical the crucible was able to pivot within the ring, due to the taper, and then slip out. So there were two movements. First a pivot in the ring, and second a slip out of it. I'm now wondering if maybe it was a result of different shaped crucibles that I tried. The bilge was not always as pronounced, nor was the taper the same on all I tried. That was pouring iron, btw.
Hmmmm, I might have to do some experiments and revisit using ring shanks. I'll stop cluttering up your thread here Andrew and open up a new one if I do.
Pete.:
This guy carries and pours his crucibles with a claw-type effort that grips the rim of the crucible. Around 17 minutes in.
awemawson:
That's a dangerous way to carry a crucible. A friend (George) of mine and myself were casting bronze years back, and with an 'unconventional' way of carrying the crucible we did something similar with tongs. A big chunk came out of the wall of the crucible, we dropped the lot and the bronze went everywhere :bugeye:
By one of those co-incidences a huge amount of it flowed round and under that very same ceramic chip forge - very fluid stuff bronze - and I had the devil of a job extricating the base of the forge from it when it had cooled.
Fortunately we both had heavy leather boots on at the time and no one was hurt, but not an experience I'd want to repeat.
(I know Iron Man says crucibles are very tough - I'm sure some are - then there's the others !))
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