DIY Electric Foundry Upgrades - 1200°C - Melting Copper
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- In this video I am upgrading my Electric Foundry after over a year of heavy use. The first half of this video is quite dull in my opinion but the 2nd half is really exciting and contains lots of new stuff for me so check out 11:00 if you're impatient.
This video has been in the making for over half a year now so I really hope you can appreciate the amount of work that I've put into it!
Please consider supporting me on Patreon for early access to videos and to help keep quality content like this coming: www.patreon.co...
Check out my instagram for more updates: / theartofweapons
All music was used with permission from the creator and is royalty free.
This video has been in the making for over half a year now so I really hope you can appreciate the amount of work that I've put into it! The first half of this video is quite dull in my opinion but the 2nd half is really exciting and contains lots of new stuff for me so check out 11:00 if you're impatient.
TAOW yay your back its been almost a year since you uploaded
TAOW by the way instead of using fire brick replace it with kale wool its far more heat resistant and it will never break
dat boy orly kaowool
dat boy orly Bad spelling makes it very hard to find things online. I didn't insult you, I simply informed you and anyone else who might have been interested what the actual term was. Grow up.
you speed it up tooooo fast that itøs hurting my freaking eyes mate
Good to see an update to this project and glad to know it holds up with time. Also good to know the steel crucible does well
NightHawkInLight I really like your channel and I found this channel through your shout out. You seem like a chill guy
Just remember, "A grinder and paint, makes me the welder I ain't!"
Ryan Burdick ol bumblefuck
Ryan Burdick aye, shoulda used some if the blocks of the water from kunickystan to cool that copper
Love it
Last night I saw this video and today went out and made something entirely based on your idea. I had 4 of those bricks already here from my waste oil furnace build and just cut them in half, used a straight cut router bit in the drill press to cut the chanels very quickly, ran a one meter length of 5000w wire stretched out a bit into the chanels, connected mains cable and melted 1kg of Ali in exactly 4 minutes. I actually couldnt believe my eyes having been used to spending ages using my other furnaces that use waste oils. I'm so gobsmacked that Ived ordered another coil and I'll get some full size bricks in, having said that I have half a roll of ceramic blanket in the loft that might try out as an alternative or even consiver making a coil for a my existing furnace. The problems thus far is A: I keep blowing 13amp fuses. B: The mains AC wires are getting way to hot and the plastic sheild is starting to melt. But, what with knocking up a complete running furnace in an hour ( I used normal welding wire wrapped around bricks for temp test ) I am as stated amazed at the speed. Ive just ordered a temp PID thing and a probe from Amazon and another coil. I did put an SCR inline to control the inbound AC but unfortunalty blew it up later this evening in another experiment. Might get another dimmer control. For small 1kg jobs its an amazing tool. Having watched you spend 3 hours doing copper I think maybe a syphon nozzle will stay my prefered route for that as its still much faster than the electric. But hey, hats off to you! Really impressed with the sheer speed, the joy of no flames, no messing around, switch on and go. Really enjoyed today. Thank you.
I work at a copper foundry in Belgium and seeing you granulate the copper in a plastic pitcher did raise my eyebrow :D when we are 'tapping' from the foundry we granulate some liquified copper in a steel cannister with water and newbies tend to pour a bit too quickly, causing tiny steam explosions, launching the cannister straight up into the air, much to our amusement ofc. Great work nonetheless, you are a very knowledgeable and inventive guy.
I love your DIY Electric Foundry, I watched all the videos five times!!
You're the most legit foundry channel on youtube. Seriously. Thank you for all the information you put in your vids. I'm getting close to being able to build my own foundry setup. And thank you for not succumbing to posting memes for views. Keep it classy!
This couldn't have come at a better time. Me and dad are making our own copy of your foundry. We've just finished the hexagonal frames to hold the interior bricks together and we were pondering the best way to make a base and lid, so we can incorporate these upgrades into our project from the beginning. Perfect timing!
I want to ask a question.With this system, for the fusion of copper.How long does the thread in kanthal 0.8 mm ??
I plan on going to welding school and starting to forge metal at home once I have my foundry set up, it's people like you that inspire me.
honestly, don't fret about the welds being ugly. to quote AvE: "Grinder and Paint make me the welder I ain't"
JJXB2004 What kind of paint are you going to use on a crucible? 😂
I like to call it 'TH-cam spraypaint'
just spray it on for the video and let it burn off
+Jon Miller automotive header paint should work
i think he does it on purpose to solve the issue of metal expansion from heat. (he has severals angels in a row which would bend out of shape he welded normally)
JJXB2004
Like I always say, "with only a little practice(with emphasis on the words "only" and "a little"), there's a half-assed welder inside each and all of us"!
The phrase "half-assed" is descriptive of the last DIY foundry video I watched before I found this one. That one was also electric, but man did it look sketchy in every possible way! Whereas this^ foundry looks much safer and more reliable. This guy put a lot of thought, time and effort into this. Nice job, and btw, the weld was fine.
your first video on this kilm inspired me to build my own oven. i actually wrote my own arduino temperature controller and stuff. the first 3 heating wires i bought were no good and melted within the first few minutes of turning the thing on. but kanthal type D seems to work fine. i calibrated the heating wires to draw 3KW of power, so it's a bit more powerful than yours. the main purpos is heat treating knives, therefor the chamber is very long, thin and flat to accomodate long knives(up to 45 cm). i will post the arduino code somewhere if anyone is intersted, but all the controlles are german and the codequality is extreamly bad, so don't get your hopes up. we also came up with wire staple independently, since i had the same problem of my heating elements falling out of their slots.
Cool stuff! I even used mine the other day for annealing a 3D printed plastic part at just 100C or so. It's so much more accurate and stable than a traditional oven.
Copper is fun to pour from a few feet above the water. Pour slowly so it's just a trickle of metal and you end up with what look like copper Corn Flakes. :)
Cheers Chris,
Yeah the PID circuits are great for fine temperature control, and thanks I'll try out that copper technique that you suggested!
You are not going to have any problem getting into uni, you are very intelligent and mature for your age, keep it up lad and your going to go far
You could squish the copper tube in the vise to flatten it. This way it is easy to bend back and forth and break off. Faster than a hacksaw and no copper loss as saw dust.
And i thought it couldn't get any better
Congratulations you have entered...
THE BRONZE ERA!
I love your videos and I was inspired to build one myself. I used a paint can instead with plaster and sand. I finished it last night and I've been messing with it all day. Thanks for the great videos!
Good project; very clearly explained. To help you understand why your nichrome element burned out, here's a useful calculation. I'll make some estimates: let's suppose your coil was 500mm long before you stretched it, and the coil diameter is around 6 to 7mm. Each coil is then about 20mm, so the total length of wire, were it straight, would be about 10000mm. What is the total surface area of the wire? If it is 0.8mm wire then the total surface area is about 24000 square mm, or 240 square cm. Now divide 1800 watts by 240 square cm to get 7.5 W/sq cm. That's too high; the wire should be emitting around 3 or 4 watts per square centimeter if you want it to last a long time at aluminium melting temperatures. Your kanthal solution will likely have both a longer wire and a larger circumference, so it will last longer.
Quality over quantity, no matter how often you upload the videos are always awesome and very interesting to watch. I'm only a bit concerned with the clearance of the coils to the crucible but in your first foundry video you mentioned you turn it off every time you take the crucible out so i hope that'll be fine.
Also i can't wait for that lathe video, just seeing from the little preview, stuff like bokeh from metal shavings and seeing a smudge of copper get turned into a shiny machined piece right infront of you is amazing.
nice video man :) would be a nice project for me aswell, ive build myself a propane foundry but net yet an electric one! keep up the great vids
hey i know you haha i am subbed
you can weld stainless with steel rods or mig wire, the welds can rust but Ive made furniture and machine parts that are still as strong as ever and havent rusted.
Thanks for the pointers. Here's some ideas I have. 1. I don't like the way the elements are wired. Theyre too close to the metal frame and could bump and short there causing an electrocution off the frame. The proper way I think is an insulating porcelain plug the wire passes through to insulate the metal frame from the element. Think mushroom shape with a hole down the center of the cap and stem. 2. If you want readings over the max out temp. a harbor freight 11 function multimeter will display "a" temp. It's not rated in the manual to display a temp. over a certain temp. but it will display a temp. I haven't double checked it using a control meter like a pyrometric cone to gauge accuracy above its stated temp. but it looked pretty accurate where I topped out at 2193F. The actual probe the meter comes with would need a ceramic insulator or would need to be replaced with a probe that has ceramic insulators. Just cut back the insulation to expose enough of the probes wire. then replace with a few links of ceramic tubing. 3. having the busted firebricks laying around. I would have casted those into the lid and floor to create porosity. Better yet I would have added a burn out material such as styrofoam granule(3.7% by weight) or blendered leaves(44% by weight, I achieved 28% ). I have tested both and they seem to burn out at camp fire level temps and have created porosity similar to the firebrick with no discernible preference over either burnout material. I have not tried this with plaster as the ceramic tho. But assume it would work, just a poor quality ceramic choice for a temp. shock resistant material. A better recipe would be 50% clay and 50% coal ash. The coal ash quality im not sure about. It seems to be determined by eye for acceptable unacceptable based on the coal source and thus ash produced. Here's a primer on my hypothesis on that material selection recipe, this may be more cost efficient than the recipe I am currently using:
www.researchgate.net/publication/316192663_Research_into_Coal-Clay_Composite_Ceramics_of_Sichuan_Province_China
also kiln repair cement is not that costly for repairing cracked bricks
I FINALLY FOUND UR CHANNEL AGIAN IVE LOST IT 1.5 YEARS AGO YES FINALLY
for a different cooling liquid use what blademakers use...
peanut oil or transmission fluid for the copper cooling. you can probably even use used fluid OK. i remember seeing your vids years ago and you've matured into some great interests and useful manskills. keep it up!
I've been working on my own 120v version for a few weeks, I love seeing that you've added a new video to the series
Dude you make awesome content, I always love the videos you put out regardless of the irregularity! I'm slowly making my way into metal casting/working and your ideas and designs have been incredibly helpful for me, keep up the good work!
The iron in the steel and the carbon will leach into your molten Al a little bit. This will change the properties of the final castings and could make them brittle. Add a little copper in each batch and it will change the alloy to a stronger type. Do the reverse, add a little Al, when doing copper, bronze, or brasses.
If you melt brass, you might want to consider a respirator do to zinc oxide fumes that boil off of the brass.
graphite crucibles have the highest operating temperature, but they are intended for use in inert atmospheres
great job awesome foundry cant wait to see what is possible with this foundry and what items you can cast with it just be careful pouring molten metal in water because it can cause a steam explosion
He must be talking about Kanthal wire. If you have trouble finding it, it's basically a trademark FeCrAl (Iron-Chromium-Aluminium) alloy. So you can search for that instead if you have trouble finding anything. Be aware that Kanthal is well known for being the highest quality FeCrAl alloy out there, so alloys not branded Kanthal might not reach the same temperatures or last as long.
They'll be significantly better than NiCr wire though.
Thank you for your videos, I am working on my own build video and have so many projects that I want to do next! You have definitely helped me to finalise my design with your updated videos cheers
holy crap your a great engineer
Milo you're*
fantastic project. I will be making a similar one in the future for my own projects. Thanks for the video and all the hard work.
Lots of great info. Thanks for sharing. And yeah....I’m sure there’s a lot of effort involved with everything you posted. Thanks again.
It's been a joy to watch your videos over the years and I'm glad you're finished with your exams. Have a great holiday and can't wait to see what you've got planned for when you return!
can also use 316L stainless steel wire as a heating element as it has a high melting point and resistance to corrosion.
Great video! Kanthal. BTW
One smart lad 👍👌
Your voice has changed! My how the time flys! Good job mate. Keep creating and learning.
Really good job with these kiln vids - thanks for all the work that went into them.
That last Aluminum pour you could call that London during rush hour
when it comes to graphite crucibles u need to run them through a min of 2 heating and cooling cycals be for using for melting to fully cure the graphite and close any pors in the material same gose for ceramic
Awesome!
You can melt copper now!
I get copper pretty easily here.
America is fulla scrap metal. lol
This is one of the best projects I’ve seen from you so far. Amazing effort in this video. Thanks I’ll be thinking about this method for my own project!
great video.
have been watching your foundry videos as a guide to making my own, have been so informative.
your water cast art pieces look amazing.
You really should have a cool down set up or you will keep damaging your bricks. You should slowly bring the temperature down to allow the bricks time to shrink. Blacksmiths use mild steel for our tools because it can heat up and cool down almost unlimited with out any problems. So yes it will work perfectly for casting crucible.
Awesome video!
The best one of all foundry.
You should probably use some welder glasses because all of the IR and light.
well done yet again hope you have good results in uni!
your a funny boy. really good pace chock full of info. really good job there
Feel like you've been away for ages... Great vid. I enjoy watching you learning.
well done mate you put a lot of time and effort into it and I t works great
great video, the thing that worries me with an electric kiln is touching the coils with the crucible.
Great work, keep up the fantastic films.
Dang I have been watching your videos (Just started a couple days ago) but it is insane to see your welding improve so much.
+TAOW
How is "karafnol" written propperly? cant find it anywere?
GermanMythbuster Yeah, it's definitely Kanthal wire. Is used for many different heating elements and is even used commonly nowadays for all of the Vapes that people use instead of smoking. Isn't very expensive either...
You may also look into induction heating as the circuits are ridiculously low priced.
Nice, you could use for the isolation ceramic wool 🤔
Hey, could you make a quick video about the tools you have in your workshop ? There's a lot to learn for a newbie like me ! Congrats for your job!
It's a cool upgrade, how do you minimise risk of electric shock with the larger crucible? One thing you could try is making a head cast, have you thought about using a welding mask for the brightness, or yoj could hand make a leather one and use two camera filters, either variable neutral density filters where you could adjust the brightness exposure, or using infrared filters, maybe a low rating of 720nm
wow good work love the vid, i always love checking this channel to see if there's a new upload
lol, keep in mind many of those 1000 degree dorks were from the states. So they'd be measuring in F, not C. I don't know why we haven't switched because it would be so much easier than clarifying and translating
Excellent video Artof... I'm still impressed with these things you do and how you happily jump from one tool or machine to another. It's pleasing to see how your welding skills are growing too. However, I think I spotted a redundant Earth wire in your mains lead, which suggests that you haven't earthed the metal work... Might be a good idea to rig something up - just in case. Where will your ideas take you next?
Good job!
another very interesting and informative video. You are one very talented young man .
Re- a stainless crucible... Look up what happens to stainless steel when it's welded (heated to melting or near melting temps) without an inert gas shielding. And you won't want to be using stainless any more.
Plaster of Paris is not heat resistant. It hardens by forming a hydrate, which is dehydrated at moderate temperatures. IIRC, around 300 deg C. At that point it becomes a crumbly powder.
I wonder if wrapping koawool on outside of the fire brick cage would help with reducing the thermal leakage, to speeds up the preheating and reducing the exposure of rapid temperature changes to extend the life of the fire bricks. Just a thought to share.
Fantastic
Can you try to make Aoricalcum in you new forge? 70% copper 20% nickel 5% zinc 5% silver. Love to see what it looks like .It's the ancient precious metal of Atlantis. Good video Henry it was worth the wait. Congrats on your O levels
right, this thing. i bought a few meters of heating coil when i saw the first one of these videos, but never actually built one myself. i just couldn't find any heat resistant material to make it out of. but i do have a big bag of plaster, maybe that'd work mixed with some sand?
Super inspired by your handy-work! How many feet of the 16g Kanthal wire did you use in this build?
I've been watching your videos for so long and love your stuff. I say that so you don't think I'm just trying to be mean or troll you just suggest some stuff.
1. In the timelapse sections that have long periods of not talking you should throw in some music. TH-cam has a music section with royalty free stuff you can download and put in your videos.
2. There is a ground hum on your mic up until about the 6:30 mark. In your country that's a 50Hz tone. I'm guessing something electrical was happening while you were recording the voice over for those parts. Experiment a little and figure out what it is so it doesn't get into the videos.
Thanks again and I hope you took this as a helpful suggestion and not me complaining. Keep it up, you're doing great!
Those 1000 degree knife videos were probably measuring using Fahrenheit.
nice one fella! a good format of video, the right pace and good information. clay graphite would be my choice for the crucible as they are very high temperature and very durable. as you have a lathe why not cast cylindrical ingots in a bean tin full of sand packed around a wooden former as ready made lathe billets? nothing so much fun as pouring metal! good work
Great video, this must have taken you so long. I wish I could support you on Patreon you deserve so many more views and Subscribers. Congrats on 200k
The hot knife videos were in Fahrenheit, the incandescence temperature of any material is around 1000 degrees Fahrenheit.
You are awesome. Thanks for a great video.
just use a piece of ceramic fibre blanket on top of the foundry for a lid. I use that and it works fine
You could also use tungsten wires in three phase. They're expensive though.
Have you thought about running Argon (or even Nitrogen) into your furnace to prevent or reduce oxidation? Obviously it isn't airtight, but you could reduce the free oxgen fairly easily. GREAT job on the project BTW - I've enjoyed it and may build one for heat treating metal.
i love you're calm voice xD in all of you're videos
and awesome video taow :D
Steel crucible would be better than graphite in the long run as when you heat up graphite, it reacts with oxygen forming CO2 and eventually will get so thin it will break
ur vidios are the best
I like this project what i need tools for do it in my country very hard buy it and expensive
the best source of copper is malachite and other ore as it is free and easy to smelt
Ooooh, I didn't knew this was your new video!!!
So kids, lesson learned. Electricity can be deadly, and he proved that. Rest in peace TAOW, we will miss you
Did he really die
wonder if a hybrid foundry with coals and air along with electricity would get it up to steel melting temps
Didn't you mean kanthal not Karanthal?
no he means normal Anal
nice video buddy
if you wanna go all out, look for kanthal A1, it can go 50°c higher, than the usual kanthal D.
You shouldn't cool down welds with water. It can cause stress in the metal and break the weld. It won't be a huge problem if it doesn't break because all it will be doing is pretty much just getting annealed a lot of times. You also shouldn't use steel because it can combine with the aluminum and form thermite.
"shouldn't use steel because it can combine with the aluminum and form thermite" - lol??? You know what thermite is?!
Love your videos man 💯💯
Can you spell that element type out ? Thanks.
maybe you could take the scrap copper and some scrap tin to make your own bronze in the foundry.
Nice video bro
Would you consider doing a materials list with links to the materials you used? I know some of the other Makers do that and get a small cut of the proceeds. That way I know that I'm getting exactly what you used and you're getting paid for your time.
omg new video finally :)
Interesting design and great workmanship! Thanks for sharing your work.
Would be curious to see a thermal image of the kiln in action. Where does most of the heat escape from etc.
How about running costs? Lets say to melt aluminium, 1kg or so...
How many watt/kilowatt Hours for example?
How would the design need to change to allow 'duel fuel' electric/gas firing? Very surprised the welds on the steel crucible holding under high temperature(suppose I just did not know its temperature tolerant enough)