I have used my electric melting furnace 3 times now to melt silver and I noticed after this most recent pour that the crucible is becoming very porous. It worries me because surely it must be having an effect on the structural integrity of the crucible. I fear that soon it will come apart mid pour or that the bottom may fall out i the furnace and break my furnace. When i first got my crucible it looked so nice, like a flawless solid object, now it looks like a kitchen sponge, any idea whats going on?
Some stuff that may be relevant: I have been using borax instead of boratic acid. I am told it does the same thing and is cheaper. Also during my first pour i noticed that the borax will not coat the areas near the bottom of the crucible because its just so hot down there that it turns the borax into a pure liquid that just floats on top of my molten silver and since the areas above that line where it is just too hot still have a thorough coating i only used borax in the first pour and not the 2 after that.
Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give, and if im not on the right forum for this question, perhaps you might be so kind as to point me in the direction of the right forum.
Some stuff that may be relevant: I have been using borax instead of boratic acid. I am told it does the same thing and is cheaper. Also during my first pour i noticed that the borax will not coat the areas near the bottom of the crucible because its just so hot down there that it turns the borax into a pure liquid that just floats on top of my molten silver and since the areas above that line where it is just too hot still have a thorough coating i only used borax in the first pour and not the 2 after that.
Thanks in advance for any help you guys can give, and if im not on the right forum for this question, perhaps you might be so kind as to point me in the direction of the right forum.