Making a Graphite Crucible

after make a graphite crucible we're this is for how to set up a form what we'll be using is a steel tube very similar to this one with a flange we're going to use that flange to give a lip on the crucible which is better for grip and every sitting on cinder blocks and we'll be compressing plenty in it the most important thing I'm a crucible is a center core we're going to be packing the clay around this core and it's very important that we be able to remove this while the clay is still wet if we don't remove it a lot of clays with the clay will shrink and it will crack pretty well rendering it useless this core that I've made here has a HC little plastic freezer bag that's and precisely seemed to fit around the sections in four sections of PVC and it has a support base which is to keep everything in place while they're pressing them you'll notice it has a dowel in the center this is a wax coded dowel it's as I did when this dowel is extracted the four sections will come together and remove while the clay as wet the freezer bag of course will keep it from the clay from sticking fiercely to the PVC and it can be simply peeled away in order to wrap this thing in there I have a steel tube with a washer on one end and they still round on the other we will be packing the clay using the washer in any 12 ton hydraulic bottle jack until we get to the top of the core at which point we will pack another solid 1 inch of clay forming the bottoms crucible remove the stops and then force the entire clay crucible out while it is still wet here are three components will be you we actually have a pipe it's a little taller than this you see these two are quite match up but it's so heavy I didn't really want to look it over here this is the core right here and as you can see this is the support base we've shown here and you can pretty well get an idea of how this is set up and of course both around it's pretty self-explanatory but you've got steel tube with the washer and flatten this is the formula for the the crucible will be trying with graphite we're using 64 ounces about 30 to 31 percent borosilicate glass 16 ounces 7 to 8 percent oh you're adding the borosilicate to keep the graphite from oxidizing even though it has a very high melting temperature it will tend to combine with oxygen and certain oxygen rich situations such as a profiling foundry so Town Car carbide 24 ounces around 11 to 12 percent and the fire clay well it's coming in with it will actually be a hundred twenty eight ounces but since this is based on dry weight it calculates out to about one hundred six ounces driveway which is 48 to 51 percent but this gives you a rough idea you can try bearing it as many by improvements and all for this one but we feel like this will work pretty well the graphite plate looks like once it's a business with all the ingredients I made this with a how many claimants or if it's really difficult to mix by hand and I've left it laid out drying all night to get some of the water out you have to have a bit more water than you would normally want to use for forecasting this but it's kind of a pretty evenly mix to have a slick fill on from the graphite and we'll adjust the water real soon and go ahead and make a crucible but for now what we're going to do is we're going to mix up some clay by hand is through kneading it and we'll be adding a pound of a half a pound of graphite one pound of clay three ounces of silicon carbide and two ounces of the bore silver one-pound form confession so we just start out just the clay comes in a real stiff form kind of like play-doh which it is dressed for modeling but won't do too well when it comes to mixing the graphite so we take the clay and we'll add just a little bit of water to it and we'll need it and kind of a message up and all the room try to get it a little bit softened up before we have the graphite and the other ingredients it takes a lot of work mixing it by hand but I made the mixer I hated it 15 pounds you this is extraction slide right out on this very gently pressed down oh and I'll try to hold it as it comes over through don't beat you too fast that graph has very slick even Steuben go pick it up city rush back their own fool straight-up looks not you you and but we are definitely run this is what the graphite crucible looks like after three pours if I caught with any provements I'll keep you posting also perhaps if you come up with improvements to the formula or the technique you know Sydney oh I'll be most interested in trying it out looks like this will last quite a while for me

Channel: rlbob1

Views: 555,976

Rating: 4.8515553 out of 5

Keywords: Graphite, foundry, clay, crucible, aluminum, gold, silver, refining, metal, Clay-graphite, Aluminum, Fire, melt, dishes, cast, metals, molds, Metal casting supplies, DIY crucible, ceramic crucible, Graphite crucible formula, Ceramic art, Clay art, high fire clay, pottery supplies, homemade crucible, clay-graphite crucible, proprietary crucible formulas, Trade secrets, melting gold, melting silver, casting bullion, gold bullion, silver bullion, making a crucible, crucible formula

Id: HuM4xSNX0no

Length: 14min 55sec (895 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 06 2012

Reddit Comments

[u/Bleakwerds]

I found this online and thought it was done very well and quite informative, maybe some of the diy people might enjoy this. It's interesting to see how viable it is to make your own crucible with enough time and effort. I did not see any updates how this cruicible aged with time. However enjoy

[u/3226]

As soon as you see that white on blue text you just know you're going to learn something. This guy's channel is great.

[u/Grunblau]

Check out Lmine.com for budget crucibles if you aren’t into the whole DIY thing...