I figured I start a thread here for this project as it made
more sense than continuing to talk about it in the introductions forum.
Overview: I am currently working on a solar foundry that
would melt small quantities of glass and metal for use in the personal fabrication
of small items, or for recycling and casting scrap metals. This system could
then be scaled up to accommodate larger quantities of material to be melted
down for both precious metal reclamation and scrapping, or for a small glass
working business.
Design: The basic design is a Fresnel lens mounted in a
frame that is connected by supports to an attachment placed at the lenses focal
point. The lens frame is connected to two mast poles (one on either side of the
lens frame) where a motor controls the vertical orientation of the frame. The
masts are attached to supports which are in turn attached to a rotating
platform where a motor controls the stands horizontal orientation.
The crucible design is spherical at the moment. This is
mainly because the crucible will be outside of a furnace in contrast to the
normal setup where the crucible is inside the furnace. It will have to be
highly insulated to keep as much heat inside of it as possible. It will be made
out of ceramic most likely, although it could be made from soapstone if used
for melting metals with low melting points.
I am currently in the design phase working out the sizes or
various components and parts. The main construction will begin after I get a
Fresnel lens of sufficient size. For the time being I will be working on a
scale model of the full size stand. Ill keep this thread up to date with what I'm
doing as well as posting drawing, pictures and videos.
I'm going to try and learn to use sketch-up or some other
free CAD in the future, but for now Ill
just stick with the pencil & paper, and good old paint program.
Thank you to dorkmo for drawing the basic design in sketchup!
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=5eec7c1a68191fdfb38804396e417a9b
Fresnel-Crucible stand side profile1.PNG | 28K | |
Crucible Mounting Arm1.PNG | 21K | |
Crucible mount attachment1.PNG | 26K | |
Crucible Mount Arm and attachment1.PNG | 34K |
_MG_4358002.jpg | 176K | |
_MG_4360004.jpg | 116K | |
_MG_4361005.jpg | 192K | |
_MG_4363006.jpg | 80K | |
_MG_4353001.jpg | 63K |
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