bswartzwelder said:
THAT PICTURE IS A REAL TEASER. At first sight, the green box like thingy appeared to be a pump. After looking at it again, I recognized it as a gear reduction unit that I have had years of experience with. Although it could be used for a very slow rotation, the green box (with the shaft running through a pillow block and into the unit) would seem to be turning something. Could you give us a little more information? If anyone buys one of these and wants to set up their own business, let me know. It may be one of the best alternatives for dealing with scrap e-waste.
Before you make such a decision, you'd be well served to discover the frequency at which the power supply operates. Induction furnaces rely heavily on being the proper frequency, which is determined by the tyoe of material to be melted, and the size of the furnace. If it's large enough, line frequency works, but that would be
far beyond the size that a home shop could justify. I would suggest that a furnace of the size shown would require no less than 10,000 Hz., and that most likely would not be high enough to melt boards.
You can circumvent that to some degree by starting with a large mass, but that may not be desirable, as you now have more base metal to eliminate. Most likely would work just fine if the resulting metals were intended for shipment to a copper refinery, however.
After some more study, I saw the chrome plated hand wheel and the fact that the shaft is actually bolted to the side of the furnace with the flange. Now some things are making perfect sense. The ENTIRE furnace rotates.
Yes, that's correct, but this guy needs to go back to the books. Tilting furnaces should rotate about the spout, so it discharges in the same location, regardless of the attitude of the box. With his rotating near the center-point of the box, that won't be true. If you were trying to hit a small target, you'd have to keep moving the receiver, which isn't a good idea.
My tilting reverb. furnace tilted near center, but I poured to large cone molds, so that wasn't a problem. I chose that design as it requires considerably less effort to pour. The typical small sized induction furnace box has hydraulic cylinders to assist in pouring, or a chain fall is used to tilt the box. Because of the pivot point being located at the tip of the pouring spout, they are extremely difficult to tip, as you pick up the entire box.
If I am correct, the unit probably weighs a hundred pounds or possibly much more.
I would suggest a lot more. I have a 100 pound furnace, and while I haven't weighed the box, there is little doubt in my mind that it runs closer to 500 pounds. Refractory can be very heavy, especially if the furnace is built such that the charge is in direct contact with the refractory, as many of the induction furnaces are built. Small units are often built around commercial crucibles, but that is not true of larger furnaces.
Harold
