Tapping the Furnace

Last tap at The Performance Iron Guild's first pour. A lot of slag was pulled from the surface but it still looks very cool.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• Performance
• Iron
• Guild
• ironpour
• fire
• hot
• flame
• Florida
• American
• Bronze
• Foundry

[rinalouise]

super sport!

[GrotesqueMACHINERY]

As a steelworker for 23 years, I can tell you it's impossible to melt any kind of steel with jet fuels, whether refined or crude, whether synthetic or petroleum-based.

Steel isn't melted using fuel, its a complicated process that requires highly specialized foundry processes to turn steel into pliable molten metal.

Anyone with a crude understanding of metallurgy would tell you the same.

LOL!! If jet fuel could melt metal, we'd have airplane engines melting out of their fuselages during takeoff!

[strobx1]

@strobx1 . Those temps with super heat was about 5000F. The titanium was poured into a ceramic "lost wax" mold. These were heated into an oven until the mold was yellow hot. This would bake the mold solid melt the wax & prevent the mold from breaking if poured into a cold mold spilling the 5000F titanium on the floor. This was done in a Vacuum Casting Electric Arc Furnace. I used to heat up my TV dinners on a hot casting. Worked great. Why use a microwave when the heat's there to be used?

[strobx1]

@strobx1 This was to make sure the metal didn't start to solidify when it came in contact with the cold sand mold and create what is known as a "cold pour". When that happens the metal will layer on top of each other and make a weak casting. Also we put in vent holes to let the gases escape or else you'd get pockets in the casting which would weak. My other experience comes from Alcoa/Misco/ Howmet Corp where we cast titanium,(Continued)

[strobx1]

@sammyboi1453 All I can say is "Better late than never". My knowledge of foundry/Steel Mill operations comes from a "Metals 10" foundry class I took in High School. We melted aluminum in a crucible furnace then used "smelling salts" to draw out the slag which we did with a huge spoon. The salts would flame up with a acrid smelling smoke. We heated the molten aluminum to about 1800F which is a "super heat" above the melting point. , Continued next

[sammyboi1453]

@strobx1 i asked that two years ago, but if you told me that a day earlier i might have got a few more marks on the mechanical engineering exam i had today haha!

[strobx1]

@sammyboi1453 Slag is the melted impurities when metal is melted. Since it is lighter that the metal, it floats to the surface and must be skimmed off. In iron & steel production it is the melted limestone which acts as a flux combining with iron ore now depleted of the Iron. That is run off through a hole on the Blast Furnace called a "Cinder Tap", put into special railcars and disposed of off site. It is reused in cement etc. The slag will make a casting weak & is why it's removed.

[BadCivilServant]

What is the temperature around you? Do you feel the heat in your suit? Also, are you still in this line of work?

I admire anyone who can work in a place like that.

[sammyboi1453]

what is slag?

[kdjfnvjvd]

All caster operators fuck up! I once had a breakout due to "SLAG IN MOLD". That sux!