Can I use a TIG welder to melt metal in small crucibles?
 

I would have thought that would work fine providing you can put in
sufficient heat to melt the volume contained in the crucible. At higher
temps you would probably wants to insulate the crucible to reduce the
heat loss and power consumed. I may try this for melting pewter
(britannia metal), it TIG welds beautifully but when casting and heating
with propane some dross in produced. Even trying an argon shield might
be worth my while trying.

Ignoramus29878 wrote:

The subject says it all. I wonder if I can use a tig torch to melt
metal in little (or not so little) crucibles. With at least 5kW at the
arc, I could melt pretty big stuff.

i

Can I use a TIG welder to melt metal in small crucibles?
 

It sounds like it could work. One possible problem I can foresee is this:
The arc will generate heat at the top of the metal, and melting down into
the crucible will be sort of equivalent to "penetration." There is a
likelihood that before you get all the metal heated up and melted, you will
overheat the electrode and damage it.