Well its time to finally start up the mini furnace.
This was a collaborative project between Frankie Flood, Chad Bridgewater, and myself to recreate a mini furnace that one of us saw on youtube. We analyzed the video, collected the supplies, and met just about every Saturday morning to work on them.
I took some of the chips that I created on the lathe and loaded up a mini crucible.
It took some careful balancing but I let the propane begin heating up the chamber.
You can see the warm red glow.
And another view.
I waited and waited and waited some more without the aluminum melting. For those of you that don't know, aluminum melts at roughly 1200 degrees. I know I was getting close, because the aluminum congealed into a clump that looked fluid on the inside but still had a hard outside layer, but just couldn't get quite hot enough.
So I immediately considered the loss of heat through the second burner hole and massive top vent that we created.
The brick and plugging the second burner hole definitely helped, as the crucible was red hot, but I just could not achieve the temperature needed for the aluminum to melt into a liquid.
After about a half hour or so of trying with a propane torch I decided to get out the smith torch.
I removed the propane torch and put it back on the shelf keeping it away from the much hotter acetylene torch.
I started up the furnace again and quickly got it hot enough to get to the approximate same temperature as the propane. I got it again just before melting but stopped it prematurely because Chad had actually melted a portion of his crucible with acetylene. So i know this stuff is no joke.
In conclusion, what did I learn? I learned that we either need more insulation in our mini furnaces, or better air circulation. But why more air circulation? Oxygen (O2) fuels the fire and creates more heat. I also have a larger furnace that I am able to melt down a lot more metal that I had no problem getting to the liquid state and the only difference between what I did this time and before? I had two pancake fans running blowing fresh air into the chamber in a spiraling fashion. I also was running 30-40 psi of propane which helps.
I have no doubt that the Oxy/Acetylene torch would have gotten me to 1200 degrees, but according to the youtube videos the guy was only using propane, so there in lies the challenge.
And I love a good challenge.
Stay tuned!
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