The Craftmans Shop > New from Old
Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace
awemawson:
So today's task - get the Raydyne furnace body off the wobbly dolly and moved to the final resting place. Splits into several phases:
Phase 1 : clear a path from the tractor shed through the stable and round the corner to the foundry. Miscellaneous junk in the stable was easy to shift, but on the track to the foundry roller shutter were two boxes of fencing bits that could only go out back through the now cleared stable. The 90 degree bend from stable to foundry track can only JUST be navigated by the fork lift, and then only with the forks fully up to clear the bore hole pump brick enclosure - OK Phase 1 completed.
Phase 2: get fork lift in position over the furnace - avoid putting several tons of forklift on the roller door threshold strip and squashing it flat, and lifting too high and taking out the door mechanism or a purlin - to avoid these obstacles I had to roll the dolly / furnace closer to the door and resort to only using one tine to lift with - not good practice.
Phase 3: (the Egyptian Phase !!) lower furnace onto scaffold pole rollers now that the dolly has been removed - roll, skid and manhandle into position. Got it too close to the wall initially - the pipes rubbed the 'Big Six' wall cladding on the way down :bugeye: - OK moved
It was surprisingly easy to move - (remember single handed) and is now hopefully in its final resting place.
I'd just finished and was tidying up to receive a phone call from a friend telling me that he now has positively located the 4" asbestos cement downpipe that will let me make a better arrangement to keep those pesky pipe off the airline - so that's good :thumbup:
tom osselton:
That’s a nice looking unit
awemawson:
Thanks Tom, and the beauty is, it's molten metal at the push of a button. The ingot I cast yesterday was ten minutes from starting up the generator to switching it off again.
OK it was only aluminium and only just over a kilogram but so much less hassle than oil or propane.
I still need to organise the ergonomics of pouring . . but getting there!
awemawson:
I had a sudden brain wave - could I manage to sort out the cable movement when tilting using a 'tool balancer' ?
This would relieve the weight of the pipes / cables (never quite sure to know what to call them as they are both pipes and cables !) and I had a vague recollection that I had one tucked away in the welding shop.
Sure enough there it was slowly corroding away on a damp shelf - oh there are TWO ! Both rated at 4.5 kGs but no idea what sort of weight I'm dealing with. Slipping an old set of bathroom scales under a loop of the cables gave me a 4.9 kg measurement but of course as the cable is raised you take more of the weight. But at least in the right order of magnitude. So worth setting up an experiment.
First a 'high point' from a length of 50 mm box section clamped to the structure of the foundry, then suspend a balancer from it with a big Ty-wrap. No not enough lift. OK double up and try both. Yes we are in the ball park and it looks promising - a bit more lift and a better way of adjusting the suspension.
So the hunt is on for a 15 kg balancer (they seem to be adjustable downwards from their rating) - I can fabricate a suitable suspension bracket and will need a nice soft sling to cradle the pipe and I think we may had a solution.
awemawson:
The anti-frost trace heating got a mild test this morning, which I'm glad to say it passed :thumbup:
Air temp was -2C as was the metalwork in the foundry. The exposed handle bit of the ball cock that burst was at +3C and the upper fittings on the heat exchanger were at +5.
OK only a mild frost but so far so good.
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