Well whilst I was not feeling the best I could I wanted to get out and test the furnace. I had a couple of jobs to do on it first before I could start the fun part.
I had done quite a bit a couple of days ago but simply had to give up, but it just left the touch up jobs before I got out the angle grinder and changed the disc to a thin metal cutting one. The first item I want to convert to ingots is the bell housing for my Mk2 Jaguars gearbox rebuild. So three pieces were cut off for the test.
With a little trepidation (in case the lining just fell apart!) I set the burner going and covered the top with some vermiculite panels I use when silver soldering. It would be useful to get an idea on length of time to melt various quantities so a note of the time started and when the melt was seen were recorded. No doubt with experience this will tail off but with my present level of experience all information helps.
After 15 minutes the pieces of aluminum had melted and the small crucible was only a third full so I cut off a further piece of the bell housing and added it to the crucible. When that piece had melted I added a small amount of salt and stirred that in. It was really exciting to see the change in the surface of the molten metal as it went very shiny. My understanding is this drives off the hydrogen (source myfordboy) and then added some soda crystals wrapped in aluminum foil) before stirring all in.
A quick visit indoors to see SWMBO and creep to get a spoon I could 'borrow' (permanently!) resulted in a quick modification before removing the amount of crud produced and then the crucible was removed before pouring the molten metal into the angle iron ingot moulds welded up some months ago.
Lessons learned after this impromptu first melt were :-
1. Better organisation and a walk through of the whole process before even lighting the burner would have sorted out many inefficiencies!
2. Cut up sufficient material to melt before starting. Better to have to much than cut more whilst you are melting one load.
3. The amount in solid is always less than that seen when molten so fill the crucible up above the top.
In general however the session was extremely successful since the furnace suffered no major damage and I had my first melt. Sorted!!!!
Now I need to focus on the whole purpose of building the furnace, that of making patterns for my own engines. I also have a few other ideas for items to be made in aluminum so we move on from the building to using stage.
Want to know more (including a video) then go to my main
website. In the meantime here is my wonderful ingot (don't laugh!)
First aluminium ingot made during the test burn of my new made gas fired furnace.
About Mike Freeman
Hello, my name is Mike Freeman and I am a retired Chief Fire Officer from the United Kingdom with a keen interest in model engineering, silver caddy spoons and sea fishing. I live in the pretty fishing port of Brixham, South Devon, in the United Kingdom.
I am a sufferer of degenerative osteoarthritis, which impacts on the amount of time I can spend in the workshop, and is the reason why you will see seats and a stool in some of the photo's. I have only recently added the above sentence after a discussion with one of my Doctor's from the excellent pain clinic, based in Torbay. This does affect concentration one of the reasons why I double then re-double my measurements and set ups.
Before completing nearly 30 years of public service I and my wife Sandy, owned and ran, a small restaurant in Okehampton Devon. Prior to marriage I worked for my father in his various businesses, in the early days these were garages, which he bought in a run down state, then built them up before moving on, to start again.
I took every opportunity in those early days, to work in his workshop's
learning 'on the job' rather than as an apprentice. This, I suspect, is the reason why my building various model's in the early days, turned into model engineering, when funds allowed the required equipment to be bought.
My workshop comprises one half of a detached double garage. It has a
stud wall separating the two halves and unusually perhaps, its own
shower/toilet/washbasin compartment! (the true reason for buying the
bungalow - don't tell the wife!!!)
It is fully insulated with a ceiling and fluorescent lighting supplementing the one window. Several double electrical sockets are dotted around in
relevant positions.
Equipment consists of 2 lathes (1 Myford ML 10 and 1 Chinese variable
speed motor with etched glass DRO's), 1 milling machine (RF25 far East) floor standing pillar drill, Proxxon bandsaw, Warco bandsaw, 6" wire brush and polishing mop motor, 6" coarse and fine grinder, Proxxon mini drill, various benches and an engineers vice. I have just acquired a third lathe, a Myford ML7 which I am at present evaluating so I can decide which of the Myford's I will keep.
I have only just bought the Chinese lathe and had it fitted with DRO's prior to delivery. And what a bonus they are! So good in fact that I decided to buy another set for the Milling machine. Whilst my engineering experience can only be described as limited, I find the use of DRO's has affected my accuracy levels which have improved tremendously (although that's not saying much!) and would recommend their fitting to any model engineer.
Prior to retirement I built for my son's 17th birthday a Locost car. This
was a tremendous project and a great feeling when it passed its test. The book it was based on suggests it can be built for £250. Ours was nothing special in the sense of all new parts but still cost about £900 to build!
