On Mon, 12 Mar 2012 20:17:03 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

On Mar 12, 1:00*pm, Ed Huntress wrote:


And it made me wonder -- do any of these _efficient_ methods apply to the
small-scale workshop (i.e., one or two people, or at most a dozen)

No. They involve working with large amounts of molten steel and
forcing air, oxygen-rich iron ore, or pure oxygen into them to burn
out the excess carbon, while fluxing the whole mess to remove unwanted
elements.


Ed Huntress


The number of people involved is not a good way to define small scale.
I toured the Nucor steel mill in West Seattle and there were only
about a dozen people working per shift.

For a highly automated, multi-million-dollar industrial plant. It
appears that Tim is asking about a hobby-scale operation.

As someone pointed out, the fuel consumption, alone, is incredible in
small-scale steel production. There is no way I've ever heard of to
make an "efficient" setup on that scale.

--
Ed Huntress



Dan