metalresearcher - 22-4-2012 at 04:05
Looking for a furnace chamber for electric arc melting most refractories do not withstand the arc temperature.
Normal refractories melt easily. So bricks made of pure CaO or MgO are the best, like Henri Moissan did in 1897 with his EAF experiments.
Looking for 'magnesia' on ebay resulted in soldering slabs which I already have and contain no magnesia at all. The temperature rating of "2000 F" which is actually 1100C tells that this is
indeed the same as the soldering blocks which are ideal for soldering (I use them frequently) but not for arc melting.
Hexavalent - 1-5-2012 at 13:22
Would it not be possible to make your own? I've heard of those home brick pressers, wherein you compress finely shredded newspapers into bricks for
firelighting . . .is a similar method not possible but substituting the CaO or MgO powder?
I also know that Magpie once made a pill-press for chemicals . . .perhaps you could ask him for the designs, and just increase the size?
How big do you need your bricks to be?
rannyfash - 1-5-2012 at 13:58
most fire cement melts at 1523 kelvin, i have 4kg lying around to make an arc reactor, so many unfinished projects :C
Endimion17 - 7-5-2012 at 08:25
I've seen "bricks" made of magnesium carbonate in one sports equipment shop. It's basically the stuff people use in athletics (pommel horse, rings,
parallel bars, etc.) for drying and smoothing their palms. One brick was a bit smaller than a standard pocket tissue and I think it was a bit over
3€.
If money isn't a problem, you could use them for making your furnace. It decomposes to the oxide above 540 °C.