Hello, how are you all? It’s that time of year when I’ve been meaning to get back to work with metal.
So I ordered a new crucible on Amazon
but obviously I chose the wrong because this thing is really huge and way too big for my small smelter.
I saw this as an opportunity to create a larger metal smelting furnace with a large metal bucket
and some decent refractory material so that it lasts longer.
Of course you can buy a big bag of cement and refractory molding, just as we did last time with a mixture of sand and plaster,
but this time I want to try kaowol.
This stuff is a very flexible ceramic mat, and although it looks very fragile as it flies easily in fire
it is extremely temperature resistant.
Indeed, it is so well insulated that when my gas burner a right turn
I can hold the other side without any heat there to feel through it.
So this is what we do today: We take this metal bucket, we cover it with wool,
There drill some holes in the gas burners, so that pretty fit,
and finally cover the lid with the insulation so that it can cover the bucket.
The purpose of the experiment today is speed, convenience and a new furnace
that can handle extremely high temperatures and thermal shocks. Let’s start!
Actually, I would do for a face to wear, but I’m going to take risks by cutting very slowly and carefully.
If you work with Kaowol there are a few things you should know. Firstly, this stuff is very fibrous, so if you’re cutting it fills the entire space itself with kaowolstof, and that is very bad for your lungs.
As you can see I used scissors to cut a circle of kaowol with about five centimeters larger diameter than the cover itself.
The bedoelin this is that it gives us a little extra room to cram into the lid so that it better stays.
We’ll see if it works.
Hmm, it seems to work too!
Haha!
I’m now a little more pressing in place
and we are ready to me.
There, the lid has now been completed
So let’s start with the bucket itself.
So this is what we have done in so far:
we covered the lid with Kaowool,
We have aligned the bottom and sides of our steel bucket
and we have some more wool to form cut and stuffed into the bucket, which will serve as the basis for our crucible.
Right now we just need to drill some holes.
So let’s do that.
There!
Okay everyone, our furnace is now ready for use!
We have two holes in the sides to make our gas burners.
As you can see I made two small containers of two boards with a groove in the middle
to keep the gas burners in place.
If you look in the bucket you see that the two burners are not right on the wall
but at an angle so that when we burn them, they create a tornado-like flame that will make this thing extremely hot.
Right now we are almost ready to melt some metals,
but there is one thing we need to do first and that is the hardening of our melting pot.
Let’s summarize what we have done today:
First, we have found that you can take any steel bucket can coat the inside with Kaowol
and can make a furnace for high temperatures in your backyard.
We also saw to cut this stuff easy to form and is extremely light,
because this whole setup weighs less than four and a half kilos.
We also learned that Kaowol is toxic by inhalation
so it is wise to wear a dust mask if you ever have to work with.
Moreover itches terribly when it comes into contact with the skin, so I would wear long sleeves if I were you.
That’s about it for this project,
I wonder how well this thing is going to work in future experiments with liquid metals.
So I ordered a new crucible on Amazon
but obviously I chose the wrong because this thing is really huge and way too big for my small smelter.
I saw this as an opportunity to create a larger metal smelting furnace with a large metal bucket
and some decent refractory material so that it lasts longer.
Of course you can buy a big bag of cement and refractory molding, just as we did last time with a mixture of sand and plaster,
but this time I want to try kaowol.
This stuff is a very flexible ceramic mat, and although it looks very fragile as it flies easily in fire
it is extremely temperature resistant.
Indeed, it is so well insulated that when my gas burner a right turn
I can hold the other side without any heat there to feel through it.
So this is what we do today: We take this metal bucket, we cover it with wool,
There drill some holes in the gas burners, so that pretty fit,
and finally cover the lid with the insulation so that it can cover the bucket.
The purpose of the experiment today is speed, convenience and a new furnace
that can handle extremely high temperatures and thermal shocks. Let’s start!
Actually, I would do for a face to wear, but I’m going to take risks by cutting very slowly and carefully.
If you work with Kaowol there are a few things you should know. Firstly, this stuff is very fibrous, so if you’re cutting it fills the entire space itself with kaowolstof, and that is very bad for your lungs.
As you can see I used scissors to cut a circle of kaowol with about five centimeters larger diameter than the cover itself.
The bedoelin this is that it gives us a little extra room to cram into the lid so that it better stays.
We’ll see if it works.
Hmm, it seems to work too!
Haha!
I’m now a little more pressing in place
and we are ready to me.
There, the lid has now been completed
So let’s start with the bucket itself.
So this is what we have done in so far:
we covered the lid with Kaowool,
We have aligned the bottom and sides of our steel bucket
and we have some more wool to form cut and stuffed into the bucket, which will serve as the basis for our crucible.
Right now we just need to drill some holes.
So let’s do that.
There!
Okay everyone, our furnace is now ready for use!
We have two holes in the sides to make our gas burners.
As you can see I made two small containers of two boards with a groove in the middle
to keep the gas burners in place.
If you look in the bucket you see that the two burners are not right on the wall
but at an angle so that when we burn them, they create a tornado-like flame that will make this thing extremely hot.
Right now we are almost ready to melt some metals,
but there is one thing we need to do first and that is the hardening of our melting pot.
Let’s summarize what we have done today:
First, we have found that you can take any steel bucket can coat the inside with Kaowol
and can make a furnace for high temperatures in your backyard.
We also saw to cut this stuff easy to form and is extremely light,
because this whole setup weighs less than four and a half kilos.
We also learned that Kaowol is toxic by inhalation
so it is wise to wear a dust mask if you ever have to work with.
Moreover itches terribly when it comes into contact with the skin, so I would wear long sleeves if I were you.
That’s about it for this project,
I wonder how well this thing is going to work in future experiments with liquid metals.
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