Requirements and equipment when working with furnace

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saadat68

Well-known member
Joined
Aug 7, 2016
Messages
482
Hi
In this forum all of users talk about chemical safety. But we work with furnace and heat too :?
I need some advise when I work with furnace.
What equipment I need ?

I need something for protecting my face. A plastic shield or welding shield is OK ?
102001_Primary_Image_1.jpg

Or must buy an aluminized hood?
https://www.google.com/search?q=alu...AKHTFXBVQQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=aluminized+hood

Is aluminized apron and gloves enough or complete suit? :shock:
https://www.google.com/search?q=alu...AKHTFXBVQQ_AUIBigB#tbm=isch&q=aluminized+suit
 
Can someone help me ?
A plastic shield and aluminized apron and gloves are enough for melting for example 1 kg silver ?

 
What kind of furnace are you planing on working on??
I have seen the full aluminized heat shielding and Gold layered visors.
They tend to be used in the very large steel mill's.
May be if you where working with P.G.M.'s getting close to 2000c you might need them.
I just use straight Leather smithing apron and gloves and a safety face shield,if you are close enough to melt the plastic you are too close.
I find them fine for all torch work and my small furnace.
 
If your just going to melt with a torch, you won't need all that just proper gloves and safety glasses. If your going to use a furnace that produces a lot of heat then you WILL need better gear. I use a furnace often and wear a welding coat, clear face shield, aluminized Kevlar gloves and work boots. It's also a good idea if your working with a lot of volume and doing many melts, to work over or in a metal catch pan in case of a crucible failure. The catch pan will keep molten metal from spreading all over the place. If it's just precious metals you won't want the PM's coming in contact with any other metal ever so try to not have an accident.
 
Ok
I want to work with small furnace for PMs. So I will buy a shield and glove and apron

Thank you
 
Smack said:
What temp. will your furnace get to? Hopefully hot enough to melt Platinum.

I don't mean to side track this thread, but would you be able to melt platinum with coal in a fire-brick kiln, using a hair dryer for added airflow, or would I need something more powerful like a leaf blower? I haven't gotten around to making a mini forge yet.
 
When ever I use a torch (propane and oxygen) or other fuels, I always make sure I wear the appropriate eye protection. This eye protection is for shielding my eyes from not only molten metal, but also from harmful ultraviolet and infrared radiation that can be produced by the torch flame acting on the metal or other substances. It is not a bad idea to use the shield even for furnace melts, since I can see better detail verses having only clear eye protection on.
 
Grelko said:
Smack said:
What temp. will your furnace get to? Hopefully hot enough to melt Platinum.

I don't mean to side track this thread, but would you be able to melt platinum with coal in a fire-brick kiln, using a hair dryer for added airflow, or would I need something more powerful like a leaf blower? I haven't gotten around to making a mini forge yet.

I don't have a clue on that one, I've never tried it. That would be test run after test run I think. Getting it up to temp is one thing, maintaining a temp to melt Pt. is another.
 
I wanted to ask a follow up question to the discussion above.

I am doing small fire assays on a small muffle furnace. I am using a 25-40 mL graphite crucible that contains about 10-20 g of material (flux + analyte) which I then take out of the furnace using extra long tongs and pour into a beaker for acid/water leeching. This is all done in a laboratory setting, not a production floor. The muffle furnace is too small to handle any more than 1 crucible of this size. I typically am operating at 800-1000 C. The safety equipment I have been using is:

- Fire proof lab coat
- Extra long metal tongs (so my hands/body arent getting super close to the open furnace/hot crucible)
- Face shield attached to a hard hat with goggles on underneath
- Work boots
[Edit]: Gloves. Because of the extra long tongs, I dont wear super bulky gloves, but do still have oven gloves on.

While I am experienced and trained chemist, fire assaying and working with molten material is brand new to me. Someone at work thought it might be necessary to wear special aluminized lab coat and "spats" or "chaps" that cover your shins and top of your foot kinda like a baseball catchers leg padding. I fear that this added equipment would be too bulky, and unnecessary. Looking at video demonstrations on youtube I see a ton of bad safety habbits, so I can't really go off of that. I'd also like some expert opinions to show my boss encase this comes up in the future.
 
I prefer insulated welding gloves, shade 5 and clear safety glasses, clear face shield, fire retardant long sleeve green welding jacket, long pants, closed toe leather foot covering.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Hard hat isn't a bad idea either. I cast a copper anode without one into a cast iron mold I didn't preheat. I had a small steam explosion when the copper hit the cast iron and wore a lot of molten copper. Gobs of hair were coming off my head. It was like I was taking the first shower after my 35th birthday all over again.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
chemtag said:
I wanted to ask a follow up question to the discussion above.

I am doing small fire assays on a small muffle furnace. I am using a 25-40 mL graphite crucible that contains about 10-20 g of material (flux + analyte) which I then take out of the furnace using extra long tongs and pour into a beaker for acid/water leeching. This is all done in a laboratory setting, not a production floor. The muffle furnace is too small to handle any more than 1 crucible of this size. I typically am operating at 800-1000 C. The safety equipment I have been using is:

- Fire proof lab coat
- Extra long metal tongs (so my hands/body arent getting super close to the open furnace/hot crucible)
- Face shield attached to a hard hat with goggles on underneath
- Work boots

While I am experienced and trained chemist, fire assaying and working with molten material is brand new to me. Someone at work thought it might be necessary to wear special aluminized lab coat and "spats" or "chaps" that cover your shins and top of your foot kinda like a baseball catchers leg padding. I fear that this added equipment would be too bulky, and unnecessary. Looking at video demonstrations on youtube I see a ton of bad safety habbits, so I can't really go off of that. I'd also like some expert opinions to show my boss encase this comes up in the future.

You don't mention gloves. So, I am assuming that your tongs are long enough to keep you away from the radiant heat of the open furnace as you extract your sample. Personally, I believe that firm control of your sample is extremely important. I would rather use shorter tongs for control and wear some Kevlar heat-resistant gloves that provide better dexterity than gloves designed for welding.

Also, whenever I am handling anything hot or molten, I stop for a minute before executing my procedure and visualize it step-by-step before I take any action.

James
 
cosmetal said:
You don't mention gloves. So, I am assuming that your tongs are long enough to keep you away from the radiant heat of the open furnace as you extract your sample. Personally, I believe that firm control of your sample is extremely important. I would rather use shorter tongs for control and wear some Kevlar heat-resistant gloves that provide better dexterity than gloves designed for welding.

Also, whenever I am handling anything hot or molten, I stop for a minute before executing my procedure and visualize it step-by-step before I take any action.

James

Sorry, forgot to mention gloves! I don't wear our biggest gloves as the super long tongs allow me to be not feel the heat. All the same, I do wear our "normal" oven gloves, just in case.
 
I always wear just enough to be barely comfortable, with no extra. With a #20 gas fired crucible furnace, I usually used a plastic face shield like in the 1st photo but, a few times, it got hot enough to wrinkle. I always used heavy furnace gloves, mittens usually - they last longer than the finger type. Maybe 5 or 10% of the time, when the furnace and crucible were really hot and the crucible was pretty full, I used a hot sweaty aluminized jacket. It was needed, but I hated every minute when I had it on.

I only used charging tongs to load, unload, and to pour the crucibles. I melted daily for several years with this furnace and 3 or 4 times I grabbed the side of the crucible and, when I started to lift it, I tore a big chunk out of the top side of the crucible. This happened a couple of times with brand new crucibles - the hot crucibles felt spongy when I gripped them with the tongs. Could have been a storage problem. The other 2 times, the crucibles were too thin, but I tried to squeeze just 1 more melt out of them.

The worst furnace I've ever owned was an electric muffle furnace I bought for fire assaying. What I hated about it was that the door opened to the side. When you opened it, you got the full brunt of the inside of the yellow hot door plus the blast from the open furnace itself. It was impossible to open the door without singing some hair. I finally learned to open the door a crack, just wide enough to sneak the tongs in. If I every buy another assay furnace, it will be one with a counterweight, where the door moves up and down and you never see the inside of the door. I've had several of that type made by Cress and they are great. I also had a Johnson 142. They are great but you need to buy a muffle to go with it. I'm thinking the 2 huge DFC gas fired furnaces I started with had up and down doors were the best I've ever used

I've always felt that wearing too much safety equipment is just as dangerous as not wearing enough. When you're over encumbered with safety equipment, you're more likely to screw up, in my experience. Same when dealing with chemicals. The only time I remember dropping a beaker was when I was wearing wet gloves. I have never worn a respirator. I did wear a SCBA once when an earthquake in LA knocked about 1000 bottles of chemicals off the shelves of a lab and into the aisles. Everything broken, all mixed together, and some areas were smoking a little . The Scott Airpak was needed.
 
Wearing "too much" and therefore causing a safety issue was my chief concern. However, I ran another fusion with the full gear:

fire-proof lab coat with aluminized jacket over top
goggles with hard hat + fash shield
Work boots with aluminized spats over top
Extra long tongs with oven mits on

It wasn't that bad, to be honest. If I had to walk around in the gear, or even wear it for long periods of time, I could see it becoming a problem. Since I only run fire assays very rarely, and I only feel its necessary to wear this whole gear for the actual molten manipulations (i.e. when pouring the molten sample into a beaker for digestion) I only have to suffer this gear for about 2-3 minutes. In the end, I think this "over kill" gear might be the best as I am very green with this type of work, and I dont have anyone experienced on hand to guide me.

Better safe than sorry!
 
I am currently using graphite crucicles though the wear and tear on them are to high.

I am wanting to purchase some resistant crucible.

What are the best types?

Ceramic, clay graphite, clay?

I had a look at the pt ones but they are so expensive.

Many thanks,
Jordan
 
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