I would like to do some backyard steel castings.
Is there FAQ or site that can start me out?
Thanks
I would like to do some backyard steel castings.
Is there FAQ or site that can start me out?
Thanks
You're going to be hard pressed to melt steel without an induction or arc furnace. Would you mind sharing with me the heat source you'd like to use? Sorry, can't lend anything to a source you requested.
Harold
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Do you mean steel, or cast iron? There are numerous web pages by folks who do cast iron (I won't comment on their sanity), but I haven't seen anyone who does steel casting.
Steel melts at a significantly higher temperature than cast iron, enough so that it's much harder to deal with. You can probably find a chart of carbon content vs. melting temperature if you search for "iron" and "eutectic" on the web, and see for yourself.
With this sole exception:
Yes, your basic choices are arc, induction or thermite... you can try propane as above but it's right up near the flame temperature so it'll take an hour or maybe longer to get all that melted, and all that refractory will get pretty expensive.
Tim
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Oxy-propane? I have played with electric augmented propane. Take an electric paintstripper, and use to to feed a burner. This only works up to some 10Kw or so, as much higher and you don't get any flow. I could imagine a stainless pipe in the exhaust with a shop-vac blowing air through it.
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