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Electric foundry for small bronze casting


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Hi,

I'm looking to make a small foundry for melting tin bronze. I'm considering using soft fire brick and the insulator and nichrome coil connected to a 240v 10amp socket and a heat source. I would not expect to do more than 200g of bronze at any one time and will mostly do lost wax casting. 

 

I'm trying to establish whether nichrome can handle bronze melting temperatures. 

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Personally, I'd go for Kanthal A1 or equivalent, rather than Nichrome, though that is primarily because it's what I've used in the past for Heat Treat ovens/furnaces and a couple of little crucible furnaces. There are several grades/compositions of Nichrome with differing maximum temperature ratings. I seem to recall the rating for Kanthal A1 being higher than for any of the available Nichrome alloys when I last looked.

It's not simply a case of being able to take Bronze melting temperatures. The element will need to take Bronze pouring temperature (around 1150 degC, 2100 degF? but very dependent on which Bronxe alloy, alloy, thickness of casting and many other variables) plus whatever additional element temperature (delta T) is necessary to drive the heat output into the surroundings while those surroundings are at that pouring temperature.

 

 

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