Micro Foundry Progress – Crucibles

Casting Group Pic

I have been sporadically experimenting with my electric micro foundry setup for almost a year.  Recently I have been trying different crucibles.  My first crucible was a mini terracotta pot.  (I don’t know where the pot I used came from but I have not been able to find another one the same size without a drainage hole.)   I have also used a porcelain crucible (from Ax-Man) and a ceramic shot glass that I picked up in Las Vegas.  The terracotta pot has some significant cracks and chipping after a couple of furnace runs so it has been retired from use.  The porcelain crucible shows some chipping on the top edge.  Probably from being manhandled by a pair of pliers during the pour.  The ceramic shot glass seems to be holding up the best so far.  I don’t see any structural damage after a couple of runs in the furnace.  Before I used it I was a little concerned about the design on the side of the shot glass being a starting point for a crack but so far so good.

Casting small parts in sand is a little more sensitive that larger parts.  At least it seems that way since the small imperfections are a more significant portion of the end casting.  I tried the small toy airplane (red) in the picture above a couple of times.  both times the plane was only partially formed.  The tails were too short on one and the wingspan was too short on the other.  I will see if I can’t work out some of the bugs in the future.  Below are some pictures of my micro furnace in action and some in process pictures of a Yoda and toy plane.  I am using old aluminum nails, that I was given, for the raw material in my my micro foundry.  Most of my other scrap aluminum would need to be cut down significantly to fit.

Running Furnace Yoda in Sand Yoda W/Sprue

 

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