Anyone have an idea about this beast? Waiting to hear back from seller... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Induction-...-Investment-Lost-Wax-/323678052615?nav=SEARCH
As it states, made for casting rings, and capacity is 5 oz, which isn't much but ok for rings. Why not just make a spinning arm with crucible, and melt the metal with an oxy-acetylene torch like most people seem to do? That is a big piece of equipment for 5 oz castings. Just my 2 cents. .
They were used by dental labs to make gold crowns for dentists, there should be a few unit in every large city. Most of the work is outsourced overseas these days. Edit: if you look at the photo with the crucible, you can see the induction coil that drops down at the press of a button to allow the centrifuge to spin the metal into the investment.
Where did you come up with the 5 oz. Castings from?? Its 150 cc crucible capacity. That's damn near 3 lbs ss. Trying to get more information, looks like a pretty old machine. Parts could be difficult to aquire...
Also a vacuum induction system in his other auctions if you can get through all the lizard and snake skins. Both made in Italy so if not domestically supported factor that into parts availability too. Best, Kelly
It's really tempting... fair price and not too far away so i could pick it up... Pretty certain it would pay for itself pretty quickly too.
You might be right...But being able to make stainless emblems would be a big hit. Maybe I should just order that sla 3d printer ive been wanting for the past year?
I must have overlooked it....what is required power supply----220, 440, 3 PHASE???? Larger units that I have dreamed about take industrial strength power supplies. Denis
Yeah, stainless would be bad ass I agree. Our jewelry shop sends stainless and platinum work out. Even though the guys are printing and casting their own stuff, when a problem child comes up, it's just too damn easy to email the file and pay the money. Let them deal with the nonsense, it's almost hard to compete with them. Good point Denis....
Ahh.. I C where your at.... 150 cc = 9.15 ci, stainless steel = .29 lbs ci 9.15 x .29 = 2.65 lbs I know that 2.65 lbs doesnt seem like much when compared to a #20 crucible but.... "STAINLESS"
Saw another one of these machines on FB marketplace for 800. Said it was 4 ph motor on it?? News to me Think I'll just keep saving up a few more $$ and get something more like this... https://www.ebay.com/i/253612074116...3%26rvr_ts%3D3279275016a0a99c22d1bbc1ffce738a
Betcha one will show up for a lot less money if you start looking. 8 KW 220 3-phase is not the daunting. I have made a 5 kw rotary phase converter for shop use to supply 3-phase to a lathe. You just need a used 8 or 10 KW 3-phase electric motor and some capacitors. Big old motors like that are often available for not much money. (Typos corrected) Denis
I often see auction flyers with equipment like this, especially the really large stuff. A lot of it is older vacuum tube equipment or early semiconductor equipment: the vacuum tube units are surprisingly rugged but the early semiconductor furnaces can be a bit of a gamble. Induction furnace design is a bit of a black art with different principles in play depending on whether you're melting ferrous or non-ferrous metals so the newer induction furnace designs are going to be better and more reliable. There's been a lot of improvements made in power semiconductors in recent times.
This unit would probably do the same thing or more, for almost the same price, and in a fraction of the footprint space. http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?threads/15-kw-induction-melter.753/
