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I Forge Iron

JWR Electric

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  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    State College, PA
  • Interests
    Welding, Metalworking, prototyping and experimentation

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  1. This is very true. Maybe I should instead invest in sourcing premade plates instead. Then all I would have to worry about is cell assembly. That said, shipping costs would probably be high since I'd have to source from a factory or supplier. I'd probably have to buy in huge bulks too. Designing and manufacturing my own battery was a nice pipe dream, but I may just have to stick to reviving dead batteries. It sure would be a lot of fun to build a prototype though! Maybe one day.
  2. Also here's a video of how a battery is made by hand: Commercial You Tube video removed per TOS.
  3. A wooden mold is an interesting idea, but I'm pretty garbage at hand carving and the plates have to be perfectly flat. And I don't have the money to buy a router unfortunately. Also yea I get what you mean about lead poisoning. I got a nasty case of that back in the day when I used to use leaded solder. Yea I was thinking the exact same thing with the design of the mold array. However I put a lot of thought into the material that the molds should be made of and I don't really like the idea of aluminium because of how thermally conductive it is. However if there's some kind of mold coating that is thermally resistive and doesn't stick to lead, that may solve my problem with that. I saw a video of a dude from India that used a steel mold that hinges open and closed. He just holds the mold closed, pours the lead in, waits a few seconds, and then opens the mold again and pulls the plate out. I couldn't get the video link by itself, but you can find the video on this page: https://m.made-in-china.com/product/mold-for-hand-lead-plate-One-out-1913356952.html That said, I do really appreciate the advice and will continue to figure this stuff out.
  4. This is a battery plate grid. They come in different grid shapes depending on the manufacturer, but just a standard vertical-horizontal grid works just fine. The grid size is generally 5.75x5.25" and about 1/16" thick. This is what connects an array of plates. each array forms the positive/negative halves of a cell. This is what it looks like inside a lead acid battery. The plates are arranged negative to positive with 10 positive and 11 negative plates per cell. Each Positive plates is always encased in a porous separator pouch to prevent the positive and negative plates from touching and shorting out.
  5. Hi I currently own a battery Restoration business named JWR Battery Restoration that specializes in reviving sulfated lead acid batteries. However, I'd like to expand into rebuilding depleted batteries as well as constructing my own brand of see through AGM batteries using acrylic as the body. The purpose of making these batteries translucent is so my customers can easily monitor the health of their batteries and be more informed about how lead acid batteries work. In doing this, I'm hoping to arm my customers with the knowledge they need to properly maintain their batteries. I was inspired by this idea because most of the customers that come by to get their batteries fixed end up handing me fairly young batteries that have severely low electrolyte levels, rotted internal posts, bloated and/or cracked casings, severe sulfation, all things that can be avoided if they could just keep their batteries maintained properly. I can source all of the materials I need, however the one thing that escapes me are the dies needed to cast all of the lead components. I need dies to cast the battery grids, internal posts that connect the grids, and external posts. Does anyone know where I can find these dies? I'd make them myself, but I don't have a CNC machine and the dies have to be made of steel so they can be reused and also so the lead doesn't stick. If possible, for the grid dies, I would like to have a bunch in an array that bolt together with long bolts so I can cast a bunch at the same time.
  6. I tried to melt about 4 pounds of steel, but that's a significantly longer amount of time than I expected. I'm a welder, so I'm used to steel melting instantly when I'm running beads and fusing joints. Its starting to sound like an arc furnace really isn't worth it with the amount of power available to me considering I don't have to finances to afford fancy electronics to control the rod automatically. And no way xx xxxx am I gong to sit there for an hour manually moving an electrode up and down. I think I'll just have to stick with using my propane furnace. 0_o So that being the case, I'm just going to fall back on my backup plan and create a new thread with ideas on improving propane furnaces, since that seems much more accessible to me currently. Thanks everyone for the help! That said however, I'll still try to figure out if its possible to develop this hybrid electrode. It seems promising so far.
  7. Thank you for the info. However, I already know about the properties of tungsten and tungsten carbide. What I don't know however is whether adding a small amount of tungsten carbide to the electrode mixture will have any noticeable increase on initial conductivity. I would imagine it does since the tungsten carbide essentially meshes with the graphite and forms a matrix of sorts. However, Im going to do a quick test to see if my logic holds true.
  8. Yea I power my furnace with my 240v 47A welder. The problem is my electrodes get eaten up rapidly both in DCEN and DCEP, even with CO2 or Argon atmospheres, which leads me to believe the metal pool is breaking down and absorbing my electrodes. Also, I make large electrodes by packing 7 of them tightly into a hexagonal pattern, filling the gaps with bonded graphite, and coating the outside with bonded zirconium silicate. Also Im flat broke so Im left with only a few electrodes, but I have a LOT of silicon carbide and veegum, as well as some tungsten and zirconium silicate.
  9. My next experiment will be to create an electrode from a 50/50 ratio of ultra fine silicon carbide and pure graphite powder bonded with veegum and a pinch of zirconium silicate to increase strength and decrease shrinkage. My theory is that said electrode will still have enough electrical conductivity to strike an arc and get the tip of said electrode hot enough during the initial few seconds to electrically activate the silicon carbide. And since silicon carbide has a massively high thermal breakdown temperature (about 2700 celsius compared to 800 celsius for grapite), theoretically this should result in an electrode that lasts a lot longer and doesn't get the metal melt nearly as contaminated with carbon as with a pure carbon electrode. Actually, I might start with a graphite electrode and then surround it with said new SiC/C mixture. I will have to see how conductive said mixture is initially. I also have a couple more theories. First, what if I replace the silicon carbide with a 40/60 mixture of zirconium silicate and graphite? will the intense heat cause the two components to fuse and create the super refractory zirconium carbide? It seems I found my answer in this article: https://www.osti.gov/biblio/4569725-carbonization-zirconium-silicate-plasma-arcs Second, what if I introduce some tungsten carbide powder into the carbide/carbon mixture? Will this massively increase the conductivity of the electrode? My only worry is that the tungsten carbide could rapidly transfer into the metal melt. However, I suppose trickling some argon into the furnace will fix that.
  10. I know this thread is old, but I really wanted to chime in real quick and also propose an idea or two since I am also designing an arc furnace of my own. I am a certified welder, so I would like to confirm that the info about welding in this thread is correct as far as I understand. Also, I was impressed when I read about the idea of coating your electrodes in copper. This is exactly how the carbon arc electrodes I've used in the field are constructed. So hats off for coming up with such a smart idea. Also, if you want a idea on how to get your electrodes coated in copper easily, roll the electrode up tight in some copper foil and spot weld it along the seam. However, instead of using copper, What I do is coat my electrodes in veegum bonded silicon carbide with a pinch of zirconium silicate. The reason I do this is because silicon carbide has an insanely high breakdown temperature and is very refractory, as well as becomes conductive at high temperatures. This means that the electrode is consumed somewhat less since the carbon is being coated with refractory material and some of the burden from the arc is being transferred to the silicon carbide. My next experiment will be to create an electrode from ultra fine silicon carbide and pure, unbonded graphite in a 50/50 ratio bonded with some veegum and a pinch of zirconium silicate. My theory is that said electrode will have enough conductivity to get the tip of said electrode hot enough during the initial few seconds after striking an arc to electrically activate the silicon carbide. And since silicon carbide has a massively high thermal breakdown temperature, theoretically this should result in an electrode that lasts a lot longer and doesn't get the metal melt nearly as contaminated with carbon as with a pure carbon electrode. I'll be making a new thread that goes into more detail later on in the experimentation process after I have made my first successful prototype.
  11. Thanks everyone for the excellent advice and warm welcomes! The new test piece just finished curing and being fired and seems to be a bit stronger, however it still snaps in half with minimal effort. What I used for a mold was one of those disposable foam square plates that have the plastic coating on them, so no water was siphoned from the test piece. You're probably right about that. 1/4" seems WAY too thin for this refractory in particular. My ultimate goal is to line the rigidized kaowool in my drum barrel forge with the stuff, however it seems I may need to rethink how thick I need to make said lining. Yea I noticed when I tried to get some of my new batch of kast-o-lite to stick to a small test piece of DRY rigidized kaowool, It wouldn't stick. It just kinda.. fell off. Well now I know that the contact surface has to be wet. Thanks! First off, huge fan of your work an experimentation with zircopax and veegum. It's what inspired me to make my own furnace as well as experiment with my own mixtures! Also, thanks for the info on adding my general location. Ill do that once I figure out how. Second, I had no idea that I had to actually compact the stuff so aggressively! I have just been pressing it with my fingers a bit. Sounds like that might be partially contributing to my test piece's weakness. I greatly appreciate all your advice!
  12. Ah okay. Ill try to mix it with less water this time and let you know how that goes when it cures tomorrow. Thanks!
  13. Hi! I've been lurking around these forums for a while now but just decided today to create an account so I can be involved more in the blacksmithing community. Anyways, I have a question about kast-o-lite 30 LI. Just yesterday, I mixed some up with just enough water for the refractory to hold its own shape without slumping over. However, after I let it cure for 24 hours, with a damp towel over it, fire cured it, then tested its bending strength, it just broke in half with little effort. It felt soft like a fresh baked sugar cookie that sat out for about half a day. Is that normal? The refractory was molded into a 6x6" 1/4" thick wafer when I tested it. Also, the refractory itself arrived at my house about 4 days ago and Ive been keeping it in my garage. If it is normal, should I mix in some Veegum T or Bentonite to add strength?
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