Thanks folks,
This topic is is not in the “smelting, melting, foundry, and casting” section?!?! I specifically tried to start it there, for obvious reasons… I I can move it if possible, or any mod feel free to do so if it is easier… I don’t want to be a guy posting a Ford question in the Chevy section…
…and after reading though quite a few posts… I’ll take that Frosty response to a new beginner post any day! Whew…
I design and build pools, so the slow season has started and I have time to venture out and do some side projects… which is where I’m getting my copper actually. I have read copper wire is terrible to try to melt, but I have 15lbs of it and counting soooo… lol
Frosty, I did not butter my blanket, oops… but I did saturate it pretty well during the spraying… I guess it’s like laying bricks, butter first. You can tell in the picture I did a pretty thorough job getting every possible exposed part. That is the exact kind of feedback I was hoping for, point out the stuff I did wrong and pointers for the next step, thanks.
—> my next task will be to low fire my new silica rigidizer a couple times, which will be the first firing of this new furnace. Followed by buttering the blanket and spreading on about a 1/4-1/2” layer of the refractory coating listed in post #1. (If it is a poor coating choice, let me know before I do it… ). There seems to be differing opinions about layer thickness, now many layers to add, etc…. The crucible is a pretty tight fit in there (#5 that came with it) so I don’t think I can make it all that thick without compressing the blanket to compensate. My plan was to cover up all the visible blue blanket, even around the exhaust hole on the lid and the nozzle hole down low, without effecting the opening size… unless there is an objection from the experts. I read some post touching on that, but I think it was a black smith forge and didn’t really apply for my little furnace.
I noticed the way more expensive Devil forges had a blanket covered in hard refractory and the cheaper ones had just the blanket… seemed like a pretty cheap and easy upgrade to do before ever actually starting, so that’s where I’m going with it. It also seems way more durable and logical seeing that I’ll be bumping into the walls quite a bit trying to get the red hot crucible in and out. Some of those YouTube furnaces look like crap-o-la with bashed up and charred blankets.
Thanks fellas, I look forward to progressing past the set-up phase, and on to the actual melting phase one of these days…