Very dangerous melting furnace

[justinhcase]

Just thought I should put up a little post about a firm in the U.K. that I have found extremely unexceptable.
In May I had not gotten around to buying a set of tanks and Oxy set up so bought a small electric furnace.
The company seemed reputable and had no bad feed back so I spent £120 on a small unit.
What a wast of time it took twice the listed time to heat up material .
The carbon crucible burnt out after only five uses even with the protective paint before it became unsafe and very lightly to leek.
It's high center of gravity means it is very lightly to tip over if caught even lightly,and only lasted for eight melts total before the hole element burnt out.
And I will not even start pointing out how dangerous the crucible tongs they are supplying are, I had to buy a set almost as expensive as the unit in order to use it at all.
I would not normally ask for a refund on a tool I had used but in this case the item in question was so holey inadequate and was not fit for the purpose it was sold for.I tried to return it.The company strung me along just long enough for the buyer protection to run out on eBay and then claimed they had never heard of me and had not received any unit.
If you are in the U.K. and want the buy a melting furnace Please what ever you do do not buy one of these.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/7-Oz-210-G-PURE-GOLD-ELECTRICAL-MELTING-KILN-FURNACE-1120C-FOR-GOLD-SILVER-/191339143681?

 

[goldenchild]

I'd say the life you got out of that crucible is just about right. Those types always deteriorate very quickly. As an experiment you can take a graphite mold and heat it with a torch. See what happens.

 

[justinhcase]

I only heat up my mold's when I am about to pour.
I give the metal and melting dish a head start before heating the mold at the same time until it is nice and red.
As long as you have the metal molten ready for when it get's to that point the loss of carbon is minimal,and as it is set in a nice large block all that happens is your bar's will gradually increase in dimension as the carbon ware's away.
There crucible is made of a very light compacted carbon that is not as dense as the graphite mold's are in the first place.
They then heat up the outside of the crucible for an extended time as the element they use is such a poor quality.
I was very careful to treat my crucible before use ,but some one who did not might find they have a very hot mess in as little as two run's I would say.
I wish I had seen Harold's post's on electric furnaces before I had bought it and his would have been of a good quality.