Hello everyone. I was sent here to thehomefoundry.org by a recommendation on hobby-machinist.com (my primary forum). I have a small metal bar element collection. Each is 1" x 2" x 6". So far, 8 metals--Aluminum, Titanium, Tungsten, Iron, Magnesium, Copper, Zinc, Lead. And I have Tin and Bismuth on the way (I can melt those (and the Lead and Zinc) myself). As a hobbyist I do not have the money to buy elements at commercial prices, so I have been scrounging remnants and succeeding at getting stuff at a reasonable cost. I have a hobby mill and machine larger pieces down to size as needed. Macro-sized pieces of material are really interesting. Copper, of course for its color. Also for its conductivity and resulting Faraday induction properties. Tungsten makes the lead feel light. Magnesium makes the Aluminum feel heavy. The Bismuth has sparkly crystals. Titanium feels warm due to its small coefficient of thermal conductivity. A nice mantel collection. Anyway, there are quite a number of further metals that are in principle affordable, but I find them in smaller form factors. In particular, I have come across an affordable source of 99% nickel. In small balls--like 1/4". I am looking for someone has can melt like 6-ish pounds of nickel balls down into a 1" x 2" x 6" bar for me (minus nothing, plus ok). What is this service called? How do I search for such? As my hobby is machining, not casting, I do not want to do this myself--would like to contract for it. If the nickel works out I have another few materials to follow up with similarly--like molybdenum and manganese. Thank you for any thoughts as to how to melt/cast the Nickel. Best, Bill
In small quantities, I am thinking an oxy-acetylene torch with a hearty little crucible. I think there are some here that do such things (not me). .
Silicon bronze only for me. Sorry. Might want to read this link. https://goldrefiningforum.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?t=703
Well Bill you are asking for the Impossible especially for Hobbiests, anyone that agrees to melt and cast for you will have a very large melt loss, AS LEAST 30 %, I fear for they Guy that tries, he will have to get your nickel up to the very top of the Cast Fe range, just to get it molten, and then throw in another 10% to get to pouring... your looking at 2850 F and I doubt anyone here has the proper degasser, though someone could try to inert it . V/r HT1
My experience with nickel bronzes makes me think oxidation would be a challenge in a fuel fired foundry. It is concievable you might find someonoe who could do it--just. Induction melted under argon would be the best bet. As for producing a molybdenum ingot, that's just barking at the moon.
Original poster here... Thank you for the thoughts and the 2007 thread pointer. Melting nickel is clearly not something I am going to do myself as a weekend project. I am interested in finding a service who can do this recasting of nickel. It may well be induction melting in argon. Maybe vacuum. Someone somewhere knows how to melt nickel. For that matter, someone knows how to melt molybdenum too. Yes, there is some waste. 30%? 50% plus two pounds? Whatever. Any thoughts as to how I find such service providers? What do I look up in the yellow pages for someone who runs induction melting in argon? I will send a small note to https://www.metalwerks.com/capabilities/rd-melting/ to see what their cost may be. As a small time hobby collector I sort of already know it will be well out of my league. Thanks. -Bill
There was a guy on youtube melting bronze with induction and was running a layer of argon. The trick is going to be finding that video in a sea of foam swords and other useless crap. If you see my comment on that video, you found the right one. I questioned the need for argon with bronze. There really wasn't a need, but I think it was because he had the equipment. AvE says, "Sometimes ya just gotta swing 'em around because you can!" Happy hunting!
So if you want a nickel ingot about that size my reccomendation would be to ask a few people who work in jet turbine maintenance in aerospace. Can get some end of life turbine blades that could have that size in them. You kinda have to know someone in the industry to get one as they are pretty tight on disposal of them once they have reached their service life but it is possible (a friend has one above his fireplace) Hopefully that helps may not be super pure but if you can live with more than 95% its a possibility
Here is where I slip out the side door. Even when we have a turbine that's done, they often times carry 10k+ core charges on them. If all he needs is one blade, I might be able to source one. I'll see what my guys have floating around the shop.
