Copper Ingots I Made with ZVS Inductin Heaters
Created: January 12, 2020
Last Updated: April 20, 2020
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Melting Scrap Copper to test the capability of my ZVS Induction Heater
Over the past several months I have melted a few pounds of copper scrap to try to learn how these Chinese Induction Heaters react to heating non ferrous metals in
an insulated graphite crucible.
In the picture above, you see several of the "ingots" that I made during the testing.
At the upper right, you can see one of the ceramic insulated graphite crucibles that I use for melting the copper scrap. Unfortunately, the graphite crucible
gets thinner and thinner with each melt, so it has to be replaced about every 10 "melts". The one in the picture holds about 550 grams (about 1.2 pounds) of molten copper when new
and when filled to the top.
In the background, you see the steel ingot mold that I made from a piece of C channel, then to its right, a small graphite ingot mold that produces tiny shapes
like the two tiny bars and the round piece that you see in the lower right.
The rectangular ingots that came from my homemade ingot mold are all 3 3/4 inches long by 1 1/2 inches wide and vary in thickness from about 5/16 inch to about 5/8 inch
in thickness. Their weights vary for 208 grams to 530 grams. (You do the math to convert to USA measure).
I even poured one small batch of molten copper into a short piece of 1 1/4 inch galvanized water pipe. To my surprise, when I knocked the solidified copper cylinder
out the pipe, its outer surface was a bright gold color! Then I realized that the molten copper had alloyed with the zinc coating on the inside of the pipe,
turning the outer surface to brass.