The Craftmans Shop > New from Old

Resurrection of a CFEI 100 KVA Induction Furnace

<< < (167/171) > >>

Pete.:
How about a length of decent bungy? I might have some that could be suitable.

awemawson:
Pete it might well, thanks for the sugestion.

I've just won a used 9-15 kg adjustable balancer on eBay - if that doesn't work out I'll be in touch  :thumbup:

awemawson:
Just a tiny bit of progress today.

The Munson Ring pipe clamps that I ordered have arrived so I've managed to fit the length of 3" non-inflammable down pipe across the rear chassis member to prevent the high frequency cables coupling with the braiding of the air hoses. Pretty simple except the air pipes had to come off to tap the holes and I cut the pipe too long first time so it rubbed on the air hoses as the furnace was raised. Trimmed an inch off and re-fitted - seems to work OK now :thumbup:

Although the more powerful 'Tool Balancer' has arrived I ran out of  enthusiasm so it's not yet fitted. I need to create a more permanent suspension point for it.

awemawson:
This morning I found a suitable offcut of 3"x3" angle iron, drilled a few holes and bolted it to the foundry structure as a support for the 15 kg balancer. A bit crude as it's not triangulated and only held in place by a single M12 bolt but I think it's adequate.

Seems to work OK

awemawson:
This wasn't meant to happen

Feeling a bit low, so this morning to cheer myself up I'd intended to do a quick melt reducing some scrap aluminium to ingots - all going well, generator purring away, furnace beginning to melt the aluminium (running @ 30 kW) - then I noticed water - heck turn off quick  :bang:

Obviously the coolant water that goes through the coils of the induction furnace was pouring onto the floor from the bottom of the 'furnace body'

Thankfully I've erred on the safety side of things, every thing bonded together electrically, and there were no dramas but it was a bit of a worry.

So, furnace driver shut off, generator stopped, bore hole water pump stopped and I can start to sweep the large volume of water off the floor and to outside. It's circulated at 50 psi so a lot comes out in a short time.

Looking at the case of the furnace body water level in the asbestos cement box has risen to the level of one of the vent holes so it must be an internal failure rather than the outside driver pipe/cables. Internally there are short lengths of flexible pipe insulating and coupling the plumbing - hopefully it's one of those that has failed rather than the embedded coil itself. I'll investigate later when things are a bit drier.

. . so why was I feeling a bit low? Yesterday I very sadly had to put Hugo, one of my dogs to sleep. He had developed a tumour close to his heart and really it was the kindest thing to do. But I feel I've lost much more than just a pet - he was a good friend. Those of you who've been here will know he was very posesive of me, grumbled if anyone else sat on the sofa next to me and was very perceptive of what I was thinknig and doing.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page

[*] Previous page