The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace
hermetic:
I cannot claim any experience in this area, but would it not be possible to weld a flat bar with a small turn on the end to the outside of the ring, in such a way that the ring could be sat at a slight angle, the crucible placed in it, and then the shank lifted at an angle until far enough up the crucible for the turn to slip over the top of the crucible as the shank came to its stopping point on the crucibles taper. Am I explaining that well enough to get the idea across?
awemawson:
A hook loosely pivoted on the ring outer diameter and lifted over the edge of the crucible once it's in the ring works well to stop the accident that Steve had. But in my experience fiddly things like that are bound to go wrong 'in the heat of the moment' when you've just lifted the crucible and are manipulating things without help. Different matter if there are two of you and you rehearse things properly before you start.
vtsteam:
Agreed Andrew, I'd not like to flip a hook on an iron melt -- there's time pressure as well when doing relatively small home shop iron melts (A6 size in my case) because cooling is rapid. Also you're trying to slag it then, and I can imagine tangling up with a hook, or getting slag all over the mechanism while doing that.
I just think that this should be a simple matter of figuring the ring problem out for myself -- rings work for others, there was obviously a slight difference for my setup at the few times it happened for me. I just have to figure out what the actual cause was. Again, also, it happened maybe 3 times total, and only during Iron melts -- I don't use a ring shank otherwise.
I do think just trying it with a cold crucible over a cushion, and/or with sand in the crucible will reveal the cause and probably a solution.
hermetic:
yes, I have seen the hinged version, and various other methods of retaining the crucible, all looked time consuming and dangerous to me. what I am suggesting is a fixed hook, welded to the outside of the shank ring, so that the crucible does not touch it when the shank is at an angle, but the hook naturally falls onto the top of the crucible as the shank gets to the stopping point. If I had a crucible I would make one! I could do with one anyway to reduce my alloy collection to usefull ingot size in the forge. Maybe I should order one?
Phil
vtsteam:
Opening a separate topic re. ring shanks in "Metal Stuff" section of the forum.
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