On Mon, 17 Sep 2018 23:58:51 -0700 Mirimir <mirimir@riseup.net> wrote:
On 09/17/2018 11:21 PM, juan wrote:
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Have you ever tried to melt aluminium? (700C) Copper? (1070C)
I have :) At times, I've disposed of HDDs by burning them. In a 25 liter steel drum, with holes punched around the bottom, for draft. I used dry oak, started with kerosene, and juiced occasionally with paraffin.
Everything but the steel parts burned. Including all the aluminum and copper. And that was without forced draft.
so you had to construct a furnace of sorts. It didn't have forced draft but it used convection. Did you use enough wood to fill the drum? The fuel / HD ratio was something like 20:1? More? Also, there's little copper in a HD except the pcb traces as far as I know? Anyway I take your comment as yet another example of the fact that heating metals is not easy.
I've also burned steel. But that took a methane-oxygen flame.
I've seen those used as a cheaper replacement for oxyacetylene torchs and they cut steel as if it were butter. BUT even using one of those, if you want to melt a sizable amount of material you need insulation i.e. a furnace.
And it was very dramatic. Even more so than magnesium. With lots of pops, and splattering molten steel.
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