Subject: Forge as a melting furnace?

From: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 10:50:27 -0400

Just had a thought & wondered if any of you have 
tried this...

It seems to me that I should be able to use my 
forge & one of those metal ladles that always show 
up at antique stores (although now that I want one, 
I'll probably never see one again) to melt brass or 
bronze to produce small castings. Hmmm...

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 07:51:35 -0400

BrnzCaster wrote:

> Do NOT use an iron pot to melt brass or bronze ... it'll eat right through

Y'know, it's amazing what one can forget as the 
decades since undergrad foundry classes roll by...

Thanks for this reminder & the first-hand 
experience with melting in a forge!

Brian

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From: [email-masked] (BrnzCaster)
Date: 25 Jul 1996 12:30:16 -0400

Do NOT use an iron pot to melt brass or bronze ... it'll eat right through
the iron when it becomes molten.
Back last September, I gave a casting demo for the local BAM group. As
part of the demo, a #2 clay-graphite crucible was used to melt about 4
pounds of silicon bronze in a coke fired forge ... ready to pour in about
25 minutes. Use a lid on the pot and keep the coke stoked heavy around the
pot during the melt, with a good air blast.
Power Model Supply (in FAQ) has small crucibles and covers.
Winston
--
Winston W. Harness
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/brnzcaster/
--

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From: [email-masked] (darylb)
Date: 25 Jul 1996 19:38:24 GMT

> Do NOT use an iron pot to melt brass or bronze ... it'll eat right through
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> Power Model Supply (in FAQ) has small crucibles and covers.

How about a stainless cup?

Daryl

-- 
Clouds are high flying fogs.

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From: C++ Freak <[email-masked]>
Date: 29 Jul 1996 06:52:43 GMT

>How about a stainless cup?

Even worse ! I tried it once for melting copper and brass and after one
use it leaked, as the copper dissolves thn nickel part easier than the
iron part.
Graphite crucibles are the best and not expensive. For $20 one can get a
500 cc (about 3 kg / 7 lbs of copper) crucible at a foundry supply store.
And they last long (> 20 times) and are virtually insensitive to rapid
temperature changes.

Klaas

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From: [email-masked] (BrnzCaster)
Date: 28 Jul 1996 00:43:08 -0400

>How about a stainless cup?

Iron is iron.
To melt copper alloys, you need to use a ceramic refractory (graphite,
clay-graphite, silicon carbide, etc.) crucibles.

Years ago, I used to line cast iron pots with a heavy phos-bonded alumina
refractory to melt brasses. It ain't worth it ... one little pinhole in
the refractory and the molten brass would come right through 3/16" iron
and there goes another furnace reline job.
Refractory crucibles aren't that expensive and are readily available
(Power Model Supply, Pyramid Products, Swest, ...), so why bother with any
make-do methods.

You can use cast iron or steel pots for backyard foundry crucibles when
melting aluminum ... there will be slight dissolution of the pot by the
molten aluminum but it will be minimal, though it is enough to give an
iron contaminant to the cast aluminum.

Winston