On May 5, 10:26*am, "Existential Angst"
wrote:
"Snag" wrote in message

...





Existential Angst wrote:
"Snag" wrote in message
...
Existential Angst wrote:
"Winston" wrote in message
...
On 5/4/2010 6:52 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
Today I decided I needed a short piece of aluminum tube to modify
a prototype... I didn't have any so I made a piece. Geez.

Watch the criticism Bob.
We'll have you in the back yard digging for bauxite.

My junk-collecting dumpster-diving buddy wants me to hook up a
smelter in my shop.... *goodgawd.....
--
EA

*I've got a foundry furnace built in a 5 gallon steel bucket .
Wheels , radiators , extruded stock , cylinder heads , nothing is
safe from melting but cans . Too much work for too little material .

What do you then do with your melted/smelted stuff??? *Forge it?? *

*Well , some of it becomes tooling , like the adapter for my chucks to
mount onto the rotary table . Some becomes flask parts for sand molds .
Some will become decorative trays if I ever get the venting right .

And, couldn't you just crush the cans first (in an automated
hydraulic 80 ton press, of course), and drop them in with the heavier
stuff?

*Problem is the coatings and contaminants also contribute to the dross .
Not very good stock for machining either , it's almost pure and is very
gummy to cut .

What happens if you melt, say, alum, brass, and steel together?

*Aluminum and brass will melt together , forms an alloy (depending on the
base stock) that can be impossible to machine with the tooling I have .
Ain't gonna try to get to steel/iron heat until/unless I get a real
crucible .

Sound really neat. *Mebbe I WILL get a little foundry thing going!!!

--
EA
*I've got around a hundred bucks into the equipment . I've already
recouped that investment from stuff I've cast . The bucket furnace is a
modified Gingery design , the burner I'm using is a naturally aspirated
Reil type with minor mods for better gas flow . Biggest expense is an
adjustable regulator , I was lucky enough to receive one as a gift .
*Good sand (crushed olivine , for example) is a little pricey , but
playground sand that's been sieved to get the bigger chunks out works
fairly well to get started .

When I took mickey-mouse metalworking shop eons ago, they had a little
18"x18"x18" bricklined gas-fired furnace, I think for heat treating or
sumpn.
It used a blower, which was deafening, even tho it wasn't that big -- mebbe
a 4-6" diam blower (tops) -- musta had hellified cfm's. * With natural gas.

I seem to recall the instructor talking about how the air/gas mixture made
this thing blisteringly hot, much hotter than a regular gas oven.

How much hotter, I wonder?
Do you use a setup like this?

Would an oxyacetylene setup make sense, be at all economical for run of the
mill smelting? *Or good only for special projects?
--
EA





--
Snag
"90 FLHTCU "Strider"
'39 WLDD "PopCycle"
BS 132/SENS/DOF- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You'd burn through a lot of gas without a lot to show for it.
Acetylene burns HOT, but doesn't have a whole lot of heat per unit
volume. Air/natural gas or air/propane will do the job a lot cheaper,
or you can go with a blower and the Gingery route and use charcoal in
a modified bucket. Insulation has changed a lot in the last decade or
two, you no longer need buckets of bricks to line a forge or furnace
and it's a lot more efficient. Space shuttle technology at work.

Stan