Where to find good/cheap crucibles for melting PMs and other

[Chumbawamba]

I'd like to start experimenting with forging and casting and would like to find some nice, largish ceramic or whatnot crucibles that are good and cheap, or some combo thereof. Does anyone know a good supplier? Or better yet, any ideas for finding some locally (I'm in California) that are used?

Thanks!

 

[goldsilverpro]

A Foundry Supply is the best place to start. The clay-graphite ones work well, but I prefer the silicon carbide bilge shape as in this photo.
http://www.budgetcastingsupply.com/Crucibles.php

What is your definition of "largish". Look at the charts in the link above

I don't know if there is a "cheap" melting crucible. You get what you pay for. In my experience, the prices are very similar, no matter where you buy them. There used to be some that were made somewhere in Asia that were cheaper. They stood up OK, but I didn't like the weird shapes.

I don't think that buying used crucibles is a good idea, at all. They are considered an expendable item. When used, they'll never be clean and you could easily contaminate what you are melting. If they were stored outside, they pick up water and will, at the least, break when you fire them. You can't tell the difference by looking at them.

 

[Chumbawamba]

Thanks, GSP. It's this kind of experience that I know I can rely on when I ask dumb questions like that.

I guess I'll just find somewhere localish where I can buy from. The ones in the photo you linked to are about what I was looking for.

Here's another dumb related question. The electrical contractor in my complex threw out a bunch of old graphite molds for welding wires together. I don't know if you or anyone else is familair with these (I certainly wasn't when I found them) but they are molds that you press around two wires that you want to weld together. You then pour molten lead or whatever metal into the form and it permanently connects the wires. So I dug them out of the dumpster thinking they might be useful for something somewhere down the line.

So the dumb question is, can the graphite be recycled? I can probbly hollow out some of the larger blocks to make my own molds, but as for the rest of the stuff, can it be broken down and then reconstituted into something else...like a cricuble?

A quick google search tells me that graphite is recyclable, but to what extent I'm not sure. Anyone have any experience with this?

I guess worst case I could use them as fire bricks for a furnace or something.

Thanks!