| The Shop > Metal Stuff |
| Furnace Clearance |
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| tekfab:
To those of you who have built and are using their own furnaces is there an optimum clearance size between the crucible and the inner furnace lining ? Mike Young |
| doubleboost:
Hi Mine has about 1 inch at the widest point John |
| vtsteam:
I'd recommend an inner diameter 75-100 mm larger than the outer diameter of the crucible. Any narrower and you can't drop charcoal briquets (If you use them) down around both sides of the crucible -- and also proper lift out tongs are sometimes pretty thick, and hardly fit around the crucible on both sides before they are clamped down. Particularly if the crucible tilts against a wall -- as my last pour demonstrated. Also you may at some point want to go to a larger crucible. I just built my last furnace 7" dia, and I wish it had been 8" (200mm) as my first furnace had been, for all of the above reasons. I think 200-225 mm bore is a good diameter for small furnaces in general. The only problem with that might be whether you have enough room for refractory with whatever metal shell you are using. I used 4" (200 mm) of refractory for an iron melting furnace using traditional materials (clay sand brick). My first aluminum furnace had a shell of only 1.25" (32mm) (clay/sand) and it was perfectly fine for aluminum, and could handle an occasional brass melt. |
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