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6th January 2010 14:39
Ted,
Yes, I am in AU.
I didn't have much clue about furnaces either. Some research and a bit of scale experimentation showed it isn't very critical stuff - especially for Aluminium where the temperatures aren't very extreme. Gold would require better equipment than I have, but small-scale crucibles and furnaces are available online.
Doing it efficiently is obviously a much more involved affair, but a furnace at its most primitive is just an insulated box of reasonable geometry and mechanical properties. The burners/elements are probably the most challenging parts, and you can buy them off the shelf if you want to avoid building them.
Good crucibles are probably best bought, and are fairly cheap. For very high temperatures you might have to build your own. For Aluminium scrap melting the reverb furnace avoids that, it is basically just a big crucible itself.
Regards,
Alan
3rd January 2010 12:56
Hi Alan,
Are you located in Australia?
I am wanting to make myself a furnace to melt aluminium and some gold scrap and saw your website and was interested in what you did.
I was wondering if you could help me in trying to construct the furnace as I have no previous experience or knowledge in this area.
I would appreciate any help you can give me.
Thank you,
Ted
27th January 2010 17:30
Chuck wrote...