Casting large volume

[Nick martin]

Hello all,

Seen a few videos online lately while looking at lost wax casting and prototyping, and have noticed that lots of these home setups are using really quite large crucibles to melt the metal in prior to casting.

They tend to be casting machine parts more so than jewellery to be honest.

They are handling them with large iron tongs and the metal is molten right up until the moment of casting but they dont have a direct flame on the crucible. Best way I can describe it I suppose is that it looks like something that you would man-handle in a foundry, yet these are 'at home' setups.

Question is are these systems available to buy commercially, and how are they powered in order to cast such large volumes?

Cheers,

Nick

[Goldsmith]

For that type of work Nick, you would need a crucible furnace, like these;http://www.ebay.co.uk/bhp/melting-furnace

James

[Nick martin]

Cheers James and that's the type of thing I meant. Wasn't aware they were know as furnaces and quite surprised at how cheap they are too.

Nick

[ps_bond]

Be aware that the electric ones can struggle a bit to hit higher temperatures - I know of a few people who aren't happy with their behaviour while making copper alloys, for example.

A couple of DIY ones:
http://www.artmetal.com/project/TOC/proces/cast/ag_cast.html
http://www.artmetal.com/files/imported/project/TOC/proces/cast/furnace.html

As for gas burners - this is a good resource; you'll need to convert a lot of things to what's available in the UK (pipe fittings differ somewhat): http://www.amazon.co.uk/Gas-Burners-Forges-Furnaces-Kilns-x/dp/1879535203

[enigma]

I have one , works great for silver and 9ct yellow, red and white gold but I wouldn't think it would do copper, top temp is 1100 C