I accidentally Left bronze age , and went to iron age Soo , I was trying to melt Iron in copper , and Add Aluminum and nickel Basically to make C95500 Seems to me the strongest copper alloy directly after cast , without any special treatments https://alloys.copper.org/alloy/C95500 (didn't want to get into in beryllium or manganese ) Anyway , I think I did succeed ,,, but my burner didn't like it To do this alloy , I went up to 1400 Celsius (2550F) The tip of my burner melted ,,, And dripped into my kiln I should Have looked into before ,, didn't knew Iron melting temp wass so close Any way to avoid this ? Any better burner geometry ? Would only get the tip of the burner less deep in the kiln would help ?
Hello Tijeff, What are you using for fuel and air (natural or boosted with a blower)? What design is the burner most like for comparison?
Sorry , My question was indeed not very clear My burner is a Pretty typical 3/4 in - 18in steel pipe with a 3/4 to 1 inches adapter on the tip Using a 0-40 psi propane regulator, and a mig nozzle as "propane jet " I've use it more thant 20 times with naturally aspirated air, up to ~ 1000-1100C (1800-2000F) . But to reach over 1200 oC (2200oF) I've added air from my air compressor and a tiny nosel It doesn't need that much to make a big difference. But going over 1400C(2550F) , Ive melted the tip I've been thinking about trying cast iron ,,,,, This prove me that with Propane with forced air seems to be technically possible. But not if the burner melt !
I'd say either the burner protrudes too far into the furnace or the flame front is burning within the "adapter", which we would typically call a "flare". The increase in diameter of the adpater/flare will reduce the velocity and if it drops below the flame propogation speed of propane, then the flame will receed into the burner. With only a 3/4" pipe, and the heat you are producing, seems the exit velocity would be fairly high. Normally you don't need an adapter/flare for use in the furnace, just in free air. Did you extract it or leave it in place after the melt? Best, Kelly
The more I think about it ,,,,and looking at the location of the steel slag It must have been simply to far into the furnace I've notice the tip was melted the day after ,, So yes , it was left in place to cool down I did had a doubt when it melted ,,, because of the flying sparks ________ By the way I did Try DIY aluminum Bronze (90cu-10al) Scrap brass Belmont Silicon Bronze Everdur C87300 Belmont Silicon Brass C87500 And nothing beats C95520 I've made with this melt 745g Scrap Cooper 48.8g Small nails (FE) 105g Extruded Aluminium 49g Pure nickel I vacum cast some small mechanical intricate parts . and the stiffness of this beats all other aloy I've try But I would advise to buy 30% Ferro-Copper from belmont to anybody that want to try this aloy Melt Nail in copper is really long and hard on crucible. The nickel also take a high temp
I use propane with forced air as well and sometimes the mild steel tip of the burner melts as well when it is protruded too much into the furnace. So withdrawing a bit fixes this, so no big deal. The 1400 C mark is easily reached, even with a natural gas / forced air burner. The thermocouple is placed on the level of the top of the crucible.
Another phenomenon at work is not so much melting the steel as "burning" the steel which can start at lower furnace temperatures than the steel melts at. The extra energy of the burning metal in an oxidizing environment lets it get hotter than the furnace can actually achieve. It's characterized by having no actual melted metal left behind just crunchy black oxides. I tried an experimental part in my furnace made from 4mm sheet steel and it did not melt, just got thinner and coated the furnace bore in black oxides like iron II,III oxide which in theory melts at 1597 degrees C with the extra heat provided by all that sparkly hot steel burning off the surface. The furnace wasn't that hot but the burning steel was hotter.
