My Second Melt.......

Since my first melt wasn't quite a success I wanted to try something different. I went and bought some briquettes and coal to see if I can make the furnace burn hotter. After I did all that I gathered up some things I wanted to melt, which different metals have different melting points.

In the picture above shows a few items I chose to melt which are a Copper ingot, 2 pieces of Platinum, 4 pieces of buffalo nickels, 1 regular Nickel and 2 Sterling Silver utensils.

I chose these items because Sterling Silver melts roughly at 1640'F, Nickel melts at 2651'F, Copper melts at 1985'F and Platinum melts at 3225'F. Why I did this is because I wanted to see what would melt and with that it would determine how hot my oven would get. The picture below shows the furnace just getting hot right after it fired up and so far it looks like it really getting hot inside of the oven. The flames were 3 times longer than the last run I did.

As you can see I let this oven run for at least 45 minutes this time thinking I needed to run the melt longer to melt the metals. What you see here above is the items in my crucible and what they look like after they were melted.

When I dumped them out you can see that not much changed except that the items were charred. I was definately disappointed to see that all my efforts here were not much of what happened the first time. The coal did burn much hotter but wasn't hot enough for what I was looking for.

The next question I ask is that I need to bring up the heat closer to the crucible that way the heat is "directly" on the cup. I believe that if the heat were on the cup you won't lose any precious heat that is crucial for melting the metals. Hope you all had a nice holiday and keep coming back for more stories.

My First Melt.....

Back in May of 2008, I started my first ever melting adventure. I have spent 6 months and a few hundred dollars to build this furnace which was inspired by a few websites and a goal to build a project I had in mind. As you can see I am using a copper pipe to push down the pop cans I was testing to melt. I don't remember how many I put in, but it was enough to form a good size ingot.

Here I am pouring my first ingot. You probably can't see it very good but it was nice and shiny and had a similar look as murcury before it solidified as a aluminum ingot.

This is what the furnace looked like after, I would dare say it got close to 1300 to 1500' F which aluminum melts to a liquid around 1100 to 1200' F. This was just wood and briquettes and it didn't get as hot as I wanted it to. In order to melt copper I would need it to reach 1800' F plus to do anything. So my next melt I'm going to use briquettes and coal.

Updates coming soon...

With all that is going on I have to say that it is time to include you in on my failures. I have done several melts with lots of disapointment except one. I was able to succeed on melting a batch of aluminum cans and pouring a small ingot. Then I upgraded to copper and wasn't able to get the furnace hot enough to melt it. I was probably 3-500 'F off because I managed to get the copper pipes to bend. What went wrong?? I think part of the reason I feel this oven won't get hot is that I have too much space in the oven itself. I can't contain the heat around the crucible because of too much dead space in the oven. I am going to try again only this time I have to bring up the heat closer to the crucible. We live near all kinds of lava fields so I picked up some big chunks of lava rocks to put in my oven hoping I won't melt them in the process of my melt. I am going to use a combination of briquettes, coal and wood and keep it burning hopefully for an hour. In the past I only done melts between 30 to 45 minutes and I think I may need to run it longer?? The piece of metal I want to melt is a combination of copper, gold, and possible some other metals which I don't know and it is all blended together. If you have any thoughts don't hesitate to fill in the blanks, I'm always open to other suggestions.

I'm back.....

I am finally back from the Grand Canyon, just in time for the big dinner next week. The weather was cold but it was really nice for this time of year. I did'nt get to enjoy the view because we went to work from sun-up to sun-down. Work has been really scarce these past few months, it's a pain just trying to round up work from week to week. I have'nt had time to do alot of experimenting since the summer even though my mind works around the clock just thinking of what to do next. I am getting close to try one more experiment with my furnace. I have'nt had much success with the last two melts, because of the way I built the furnace. Apparently it does'nt get hot enough around the ladle to actually melt the metal. I hope this next run will do something different. I also been learning how to pan for gold and read up on all the lost treasure stories out there. I have'nt had any luck finding anything but I tell ya, I sure had alot of fun trying. I bought a military generator about 2 years ago and for the last year had it repaired from a guy I new. I finally got it back and it runs like a champ!! It is big enough to power up a normal size house for times of need. Anyway this sums up what been going on with me lately, until next time.........