31 May
2007
31 May
'07
9:24 a.m.
--- der Mouse <mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA> wrote:
Right, but I'm not so sure they're commonly
available. If you go into one of these places that
sell supplies for ceramics and whatnot, they should be
able to order you a kanthal wire element probably for
$15-20. You can build a table top brass melting
furnace with one, but most casters don't like
electric. I slopped together a unit a number of years
ago, did absolutely no calculations, made the cavity
too big (used a 5 gallon can for the body!), and the
only brass I was able to *melt* was a 1/8" diameter
brass rod. Melted a curve into it was about all.
Anyway, if you want to mess with gold salvaging, I
suggest gas. If that's even the right way to do it.
Couldn't hurt to try if you have a bunch of scrap
laying around. I hate gas (am skeered of it, less
though then when I was younger), but it's clean,
quick, hot, and thereby alleviates a number of the
*problems* that go with using a resistance element furnace.
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I'm not
aware of a resistance element that'll go
any higher then
~2300 degrees, that being enough to melt brass or
prolly even pure
copper.
Tungsten in a sufficiently inert atmosphere will get
white-hot without
problem - that's how incandescent light bulbs work.
The melting point of tungsten, according to what
information I can
find, is somewhwere around 3400?-3425?, and assorted
resources claim
it's the highest melting point of any metal (and
second-highest
element, after carbon). They don't mention whether
there are alloys
with higher melting points.