Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll definitely need to do that. I’m not experienced with melting such small quantities, so I wasn’t paying too much attention to it-usually, it’s not a problem. I’ll definitely need to enlarge the opening next time. Cheers!
*What should I cast next in stainless steel?* Leave a comment and I might do it. Just make sure to suggest something small :) Amazing what you can do with a 900w microwave. I’ll need to do some more stainless steel melting and strengths testing. For the next time I know not to overheat my molds and use less sodium silicate. Also, some chemicals can be used to help break down sodium silicate, so it’s easier to open the mold. And last, I’ll need to see if I can harden the final cast by heat-treating it or whatever it is I am supposed to do. This opens up new possibilities and projects. Stay tuned! I am trying to publish more videos this year. I’ll also try out……♫ I am bulletproof, nothing to lose, fire away, fire away.
Yep, I agree. I definitely need more space. Luckily, there’s a place nearby that’s available for purchase. With my UA-cam earnings, I’ll be able to buy it in 2058. We’re getting there, boys-be patient! :)
@@ShakeTheFutureplace ceramic tile on microwave metal side as sort of table. It probably prevent lose painting from inner side and prevent arcs and sparks in future.
Yes, loss of detail can happen when the mold is heated too much, as well as difficulty heating the mold to the temperatures required to melt metals with higher melting points. That said, it can be done with some metals. It's on my project list as well. Cheers!
Stainless steel has its properties because of very low carbon content, carbon would bond with chromium and precipitate as chromium carbide, depleting steel from chromium and possibly leading to intergranular corrosion. I know it's just a ring but I'm wondering if silicon carbide mold can introduce carbon into the alloy... Maybe it's even the reason why the ring shattered, basically just turning the alloy into cast iron 🤷🏻♂️ what do you think?
Silicon carbide is more stable compared to chromium carbide, if I remember correctly. Because, carbon is covalently bonded to silicon. Chromium carbide has metallic bonds which are less strong/stable compared to SiC. So, the issue shouldn't be that.
The more I think about it, the more I am inclined to think that oxygen might be the issue during the melting. Stainless steel would loose chromium due to formation of chromium oxide at high temperatures under oxygen rich atmosphere. That might make the stainless steel brittle.
@@OzanTheWise Silicon carbide crucibles are commercially available, also for melting iron. But have you considered that in the microwave, the temperature can rise way above the melting point of iron, locally? Maybe it's possible not only for carbon, but also for silicon to alloy with the iron?
@@Nonononono_Ohno Well I am still trying to wrap my head around how microwave melting works, so I can't 100% speak confidently but I highly doubt that it is capable of that much temperature with this setup. You see, the melting point of silicon carbide is more than 2800 C (over ~5000 F). That is almost equivalent to the boiling point of iron (or steel). If he could have been getting temperatures like that, he would have seen damage in the crucible and/or the whole setup way before he can cast anything and judging by the flow of the molten steel during the cast, that is nowhere near that high. Besides, in order for silicon to form alloy with iron, you will still need to separate it from its carbide form and high temperature is not the way to do it. You would normally reduce silicon carbide with silicon oxide to get silicon that alloys with iron.
I think you probably know more about the subject than I do. All I can say is that I'll do some more stainless steel melting, casting and testing. I can also do it with a graphite crucible that I put inside of the silicon carbide heating tube. I have not tried it yet, but it should work. Graphite crucibles that I have bought, did not heat up in the microwave. Cheers!
At this scale, why not make the mold & crucible one and the same unit? For instance: At some later point in melting the steel in the crucible phase, place the mold upside-down on the crucible a few minutes before you'd do the pour normally... then when ready, pull the entire insulated unit out & simply flip it over with/without vacuum for the pour. Also, a small bench-top vise with pointed/pinching jaws should allow to more carefully crack the mold open; hammering is probably not ideal before heat-treatment and annealing.
Thanks for the suggestion! I did buy welding goggles because it was suggested here in the comments. However, I didn’t wear them because they were too dark and very uncomfortable. Maybe I should have spent more than €4 on them 😀
@@ShakeTheFuture Goggles like the old forney or hobart round type have replacement lenses from 2 to 10 or more. The 2's are like weak sun glasses. The old round type goggles are adjustable so we could wear them 6 hrs a day (legal limit to working in extream hot buildings). More exotic iron has sparks like fireworks.
I guess the next video notification I am going to get of this guy is "Can I fuse glass with Metal in my microwave" and have an intertwined ring with a glass jewel fused into it... Gosh, I love his presence in the videos. So like a friend actually advising his experiences. The part of the very useful data is just a bonus. I sincerely enjoy when I get any notification of a new experimentation you care to share with us. And I am aware that it is not easy putting them together at such descriptive quality. Vielen, vielen Dank.
Thank you so much for such a kind comment! I really, really appreciate you taking the time to leave it. People like you are the fuel that keeps the channel going. All feedback is welcome, whether good or bad (as long as it’s polite). It’s so nice to know that people enjoy the content.
That's because of too much sodium silicate and the fact that the mold was too hot. Using less sodium silicate can help as long as the mold does not become too weak. Melting metal in the mould can be done, but it's not always the best approach. It's on my project list to do a video about it....the list is massive, so who knows when I'll get to do it. Cheers!
Great video. Sorry it may have not turned out like you wanted it. I looked back on your first videos and I realized that I have been following you for 10 years. I had another account then i switched to this one. I have enjoyed these years
Thank you so much! Yes, I’ve been on UA-cam for quite a while now. One of the reasons I didn’t make another 'perfect' ring is because I only had three printed, and I printed them a while ago. My resin printer was filled with a different type of resin, so I didn’t feel like changing it and printing more rings. Since I try to avoid chasing perfection and don’t want to waste too much time on things that don’t matter, I felt the video demonstrated everything I wanted to show. It’s clear that the technique works. This way, I can publish more videos, so it’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned. :)
Yes, but there are two issues with that method. First, I would need to heat the mold to a very high temperature, which could result in the mold deforming and losing details. Second, the molds contain much more silicon carbide than a crucible, making it difficult to heat them up to those temperatures.
Great method, really! Congrats! May be you can add a thin wall inside the ring, to make it more rigid during the extraction, and remove the excess metal just after the pouring.
The reason I didn’t use plaster is for safety reasons, as well as because I’m not experienced with casting stainless steel, so I didn’t want to take any chances. For example, casting iron in plaster molds is a big 'No,' and I’m speaking from my own experience. Even though I knew you shouldn’t pour iron into plaster molds, I wanted to try it myself, so I did. Iron reacts with plaster and gets way too hot. It was like watching a volcano erupt, with hot metal splashing from the mold and the smell of pyrotechnics as well as the middle part of the mold burning/shrinking away like styrofoam. But what about stainless steel? Well, as far as I’m aware, stainless steel doesn’t react the same way, but it’s still too hot for plaster. That said, it might still be possible. For example, normally you wouldn’t pour copper into plaster molds, but I’ve achieved some great casts by doing it, because the item I cast was small and cooled down instantly. One example is the copper egg cup I made in the microwave metal melting video/guide. I’ll try it out! Cheers!
3d printing with welding wire, but the arc being completely inside the hot-end, no outside arc. also try carbon graphite powder molds. carbon is also a medical material so dont worry so much. well you could just run welding wire out molten very fast directly in the mold. yep kinda spot melting welding of the wire with welding machine, but more like 3d printing.
Well, that's why I chose to melt a fork or a spoon instead of only nuts from Aliexpress. If you pause the video @7:46 you'll see it says stainless steel on the spoon. Same with the fork. Cheers!
@@ShakeTheFuture Yes, yet sometimes the claim of stainless is questionable. THere are many grades, some not even 304, 310, and the ranges go into 400 series. The differences are in chromium molybdenum, and balance of other metals. Thanks for your videos, makes me want to try. At least for pottery :-)
maybe the carbon from the silicon carbide diffuses into the steel making it harden and brittle (and not too stainless anymore) , perhaps you can test this with some acid for testing stainless steels
I’ve reused it a few times, but I eventually stopped. I haven’t found a good way to break down sodium silicate. I tried a few methods, like using caustic soda, but the results were so, so. I ended up reusing old silicon carbide mixed with new, but I had to grind the used material. It was very hard on the cereal grinder blades, which is one of the reasons I don’t do it anymore. Cheers!
That's good to know... well, I probably knew it, but I’m surrounded by Spanish speakers, and they pronounce shop names differently. It has definitely influenced me. When I first moved to Spain, sometimes people would talk about shops like 'Primark,' and I couldn’t understand which shop they meant. Then I realized what they meant :)
How do you avoid changing the carbon content of the material while melting and pouring it? Is it possible your first cast is brittle due to carburization from the silicon carbide mold, forming cast iron?
Well, I definitely don't know a lot about it. I'll be doing some more stainless steel melting, testing and reportint, maybe then we'll have some more answers. Cheers!
@ShakeTheFuture Wikipedia says SiC is soluble in molten iron, I suspect it ends up being a major carbon source in your setup. You could probably verify this by weighing mold and metal before and after.
Thanks for the suggestion. Can you point me to an example video or other source. Since I don't know anything about the topic, it would be nice to see what exactly you had in mind. Cheers!
@@ShakeTheFuture Maybe something like the thingiverse item 1744495? Though that's a raw 3D scan and might need to have the geometry cleaned up before you can 3D print the positive.
UK, 🤯 i knew metal got hot in a microwave oven but had no idea it could be gotten to that temperature of hot 🧐🗡 any issues with running a microwave on its side ? besides rotating table not effective
No, I haven’t experienced any issues as far as I know. I’ve been using this microwave since 2020. I only had to change the magnetron once, but that happened very early on, after about three months of use it died. Cheers!
I could have, but one of the reasons is that it’s very easy to burn out resin in a silicon carbide mold. You don’t even need a kiln. When I use plaster or sand molds, they are burned out in a microwave kiln. The walls of the kiln are covered with silicon carbide, or in my case, the kiln contains three silicon carbide rings that heat up the mold. If the mold is made out of silicon carbide, it’s super easy to burn out. I just used my metal melting chamber, which is basically a ceramic fiber sheet. The mold heats up on its own. I burned out the mold in 3 hours using a cycle timer. In reality, the microwave was only ON for 25 minutes. The power setting was set to 500W (medium). Another reason is that I am new to stainless steel casting, so first I wanted to try out SIC molds. I will explore sand molds in the future. Cheers!
Hi! Somebody already asked me this question, so I'll just copy-paste the comment: "The reason I didn’t use plaster is for safety reasons, as well as because I’m not experienced with casting stainless steel, so I didn’t want to take any chances. For example, casting iron in plaster molds is a big 'No,' and I’m speaking from my own experience. Even though I knew you shouldn’t pour iron into plaster molds, I wanted to try it myself, so I did. Iron reacts with plaster and gets way too hot. It was like watching a volcano erupt, with hot metal splashing from the mold and the smell of pyrotechnics as well as the middle part of the mold burning/shrinking away like styrofoam. But what about stainless steel? Well, as far as I’m aware, stainless steel doesn’t react the same way, but it’s still too hot for plaster. That said, it might still be possible. For example, normally you wouldn’t pour copper into plaster molds, but I’ve achieved some great casts by doing it, because the item I cast was small and cooled down instantly. One example is the copper egg cup I made in the microwave metal melting video/guide. I’ll try it out! Cheers!"
I didn’t want to quench the mold as I wasn’t sure how the stainless steel would react. I guess it would be okay. Iron can sometimes crack if you quench the mold. Also, it doesn’t really break down when quenched-I suppose it might soften. Anyway, I’m experimenting with caustic soda to break down sodium silicate. So far I am not sure if it helps. More testing is needed. Cheers!
Not really. There is a chance that the final metal is not something you would call stainless steel. Another thing to consider is annealing it. I'll do more tests and we'll see how it will go. Cheers!
This is fantastic to see. I was wondering what sort of challenges you would run into, and for the first few trial runs, I would say that stainless is quite achievable It would be interesting if there was a method by which to control the temperature of the mold so that after you cast a part you could then put it in the microwave to temper the end product. If at all possible it would be really interesting to see the quality of some of the cast parts by sending them off to get x ray inspected. I have no clue what the cost of that would be though. Now for the next big question. TITANIUM. A fairly large jump in temps, but depending on the alloy, it wouldn't be too terrible. I'm not sure if the heat required at that point is just more than the insulation and kapton tape can handle, but it would be interesting to see if it's at all possible.
I’ll definitely do some more stainless steel casts for sure. Titanium is definitely a different ball game, and I’m aware of the dangers. I’ll try it out, but not indoors. Next time I go to my mother-in-law’s house, I’ll take the microwave with me and do it outside. Cheers!
What about using stainless steel wire for stock material? It can be cut without noise so you don't bother the neighbours and it's thin so it melts easier :)
Yes, there are definitely better materials I could use, but I want to make it more fun for the people watching. That's why I decided to melt an Ikea fork-it’s something you can find in every Ikea store around the world. The nuts, for example, might be made from a different metal, but the forks-well, they’re labeled as stainless steel :) Cheers!
It's easier to heat up a small crucible than a mold. Also, there can be loss of detail. Using a mold as crucible can work with some metals, stainless steel....probably not. Cheers!
I comment from time to time. Your melting kiln appears to be all k-wool, am I right? No hidden liner? I have not tried stainless steel but have done quite a bit of ductile iron, the largest being a 21 foot ball to smash things with. It stayed red hot for over a year! With ductile, you melt the iron in a standard furnace and add chemicals to a ladle and pour the iron over it. The Iron has a huge reaction to the chemicals (mostly magnesium and silicone in a rock like form) so we stood behind a large I beam so our clothes wouldn't burst into flame. I wonder if the microwave vaporizes the stainless chemicals like our carbon furnaces? Otherwise, that ring shouldn't break like it's doing. Mixing up stainless on your balcony might draw a bit of attention because of the huge cloud of smoke.
I honestly don't know what's happening. I'll do some more casts and report on results. I was also wondering if I am overheating the metal. More testing is needed, that's for sure. Cheers!
Use a welding mask to deal with the light.. And make sure its molten Could try casting something practical and useful, like a miniature model of yourself 😎
A welding mask sound like a good option. I would cast a model of myself, but then I would need a 3D scanner. Well, I suppose there are ways to do it with a phone. I'll need to explore it. Cheers!
That's for entertainment purposes, as well as being easier to grab a spoon from the kitchen :) Once I practice and decide whether or not it's something I want to keep doing, I'll explore other sources of metal. Cheers!
I've been waiting for this video ever since you mentioned you would do it in an answer to my comment several months ago. Do you think the commercial microwave you mentioned previously would be able to melt a higher volume of stainless? Something else that would be interesting is to see if you could use your methods to debind and sinter metal fdm parts. I need to go get a microwave and kwool. You are the man for figuring all this out.
That's great! I'm interested in trying some sintering myself, but I'll be honest-I have so many projects on my list that I have no idea when I'll be able to try it out. You never know. Even this video wasn’t planned for January; it was a fill-in video that I grabbed from my project-to-do list while working on something else, so you never know. Cheers!
It was annoying how you kept saying you need high 'heat' to melt stainless when heat is irrelevant, it's temperature that's determining if it's melting or not. You know the difference right? Of course a microwave can supply 1100W or heat or something and to get high temperature required to melt SS you need to do the things you said, but with small enough volume or good enough insulation you can melt it with FA HEAT. Don't mix your terms.
I was googling about melting steel in microwave and got close to 0 results, and few days later youtube just recommends me what i want. Thanks for video. I wonder if i just melt iron sand in microwave and carburize it with carbon container, will it be usable for knife? 🤔
I'll give you some advice as a denture caster. Next time, cut a funnel in the mold so that all the metal gets inside and doesn't spill out.
Thanks for the suggestion! I’ll definitely need to do that. I’m not experienced with melting such small quantities, so I wasn’t paying too much attention to it-usually, it’s not a problem. I’ll definitely need to enlarge the opening next time. Cheers!
So far so good, proof of concept established. Now, let's move on to tungsten.
Easy! I am just waiting for the next lightning storm, so can boost the power of my microwave and maybe even travel in time 😀
*What should I cast next in stainless steel?* Leave a comment and I might do it. Just make sure to suggest something small :)
Amazing what you can do with a 900w microwave.
I’ll need to do some more stainless steel melting and strengths testing.
For the next time I know not to overheat my molds and use less sodium silicate.
Also, some chemicals can be used to help break down sodium silicate, so it’s easier to open the mold.
And last, I’ll need to see if I can harden the final cast by heat-treating it or whatever it is I am supposed to do.
This opens up new possibilities and projects.
Stay tuned! I am trying to publish more videos this year.
I’ll also try out……♫ I am bulletproof, nothing to lose, fire away, fire away.
try add some borax to the steel and see if it casts better
Cast the logo for your channel 😎
Nails for hammer test
Cast a cupboard knob with your channel logo on it
@@MagicGumable Thanks for the suggestion!
This guy is the Microwave God of Molten Metals!
Thank You very much!
You better get this right soon! At the rate you're going, you won't be able to invite anyone else over for lunch/dinner ...cough... ;)
Yep, I agree. I definitely need more space. Luckily, there’s a place nearby that’s available for purchase. With my UA-cam earnings, I’ll be able to buy it in 2058. We’re getting there, boys-be patient! :)
@@ShakeTheFuture - Haha... I was just implying that you'll run out of spoons and forks and then can't have anyone over! :D
@@ShakeTheFutureplace ceramic tile on microwave metal side as sort of table. It probably prevent lose painting from inner side and prevent arcs and sparks in future.
can you not melt the metal direct in the mould ?
Good question! He did mention that overheating the mould leads to a loss of detail so maybe that's a problem?
@@peterspencer6442he also needed the insulation to be really thick so the mold probably wouldnt have fit in the insulation
Yes, loss of detail can happen when the mold is heated too much, as well as difficulty heating the mold to the temperatures required to melt metals with higher melting points. That said, it can be done with some metals. It's on my project list as well. Cheers!
Stainless steel has its properties because of very low carbon content, carbon would bond with chromium and precipitate as chromium carbide, depleting steel from chromium and possibly leading to intergranular corrosion. I know it's just a ring but I'm wondering if silicon carbide mold can introduce carbon into the alloy... Maybe it's even the reason why the ring shattered, basically just turning the alloy into cast iron 🤷🏻♂️ what do you think?
Silicon carbide is more stable compared to chromium carbide, if I remember correctly. Because, carbon is covalently bonded to silicon. Chromium carbide has metallic bonds which are less strong/stable compared to SiC. So, the issue shouldn't be that.
The more I think about it, the more I am inclined to think that oxygen might be the issue during the melting. Stainless steel would loose chromium due to formation of chromium oxide at high temperatures under oxygen rich atmosphere. That might make the stainless steel brittle.
@@OzanTheWise Silicon carbide crucibles are commercially available, also for melting iron. But have you considered that in the microwave, the temperature can rise way above the melting point of iron, locally? Maybe it's possible not only for carbon, but also for silicon to alloy with the iron?
@@Nonononono_Ohno Well I am still trying to wrap my head around how microwave melting works, so I can't 100% speak confidently but I highly doubt that it is capable of that much temperature with this setup. You see, the melting point of silicon carbide is more than 2800 C (over ~5000 F). That is almost equivalent to the boiling point of iron (or steel). If he could have been getting temperatures like that, he would have seen damage in the crucible and/or the whole setup way before he can cast anything and judging by the flow of the molten steel during the cast, that is nowhere near that high.
Besides, in order for silicon to form alloy with iron, you will still need to separate it from its carbide form and high temperature is not the way to do it. You would normally reduce silicon carbide with silicon oxide to get silicon that alloys with iron.
I think you probably know more about the subject than I do. All I can say is that I'll do some more stainless steel melting, casting and testing. I can also do it with a graphite crucible that I put inside of the silicon carbide heating tube. I have not tried it yet, but it should work. Graphite crucibles that I have bought, did not heat up in the microwave. Cheers!
At this scale, why not make the mold & crucible one and the same unit? For instance: At some later point in melting the steel in the crucible phase, place the mold upside-down on the crucible a few minutes before you'd do the pour normally... then when ready, pull the entire insulated unit out & simply flip it over with/without vacuum for the pour. Also, a small bench-top vise with pointed/pinching jaws should allow to more carefully crack the mold open; hammering is probably not ideal before heat-treatment and annealing.
That's an interesting approach. Cheers!
2:11 picture this: You're walking the streets when you look up and see a bald guy mixing things vigorously with a mask, on the porch of an apartment.
Oh yes, We would wear gas welding goggles to pour iron, they seal around your face so no sparks can sneek in and you can see the white metal!
Thanks for the suggestion! I did buy welding goggles because it was suggested here in the comments. However, I didn’t wear them because they were too dark and very uncomfortable. Maybe I should have spent more than €4 on them 😀
@@ShakeTheFuture Goggles like the old forney or hobart round type have replacement lenses from 2 to 10 or more. The 2's are like weak sun glasses. The old round type goggles are adjustable so we could wear them 6 hrs a day (legal limit to working in extream hot buildings). More exotic iron has sparks like fireworks.
Wow that's awesome, "starts looking at microwave menacingly".
Cheers!
I guess the next video notification I am going to get of this guy is "Can I fuse glass with Metal in my microwave" and have an intertwined ring with a glass jewel fused into it...
Gosh, I love his presence in the videos. So like a friend actually advising his experiences. The part of the very useful data is just a bonus.
I sincerely enjoy when I get any notification of a new experimentation you care to share with us. And I am aware that it is not easy putting them together at such descriptive quality.
Vielen, vielen Dank.
Thank you so much for such a kind comment! I really, really appreciate you taking the time to leave it. People like you are the fuel that keeps the channel going. All feedback is welcome, whether good or bad (as long as it’s polite). It’s so nice to know that people enjoy the content.
Goodwill is a great place to get cheap silverware, they are usually only 25 cents each, at least in the US.
That sound like a very good deal indeed. For that price I would buy it.
The video I've been waiting for! Thanks for sharing!
Interesting that the hold mould loses detail. I was going to suggest melting the material in the mould.
Hold =hot
That's because of too much sodium silicate and the fact that the mold was too hot. Using less sodium silicate can help as long as the mold does not become too weak. Melting metal in the mould can be done, but it's not always the best approach. It's on my project list to do a video about it....the list is massive, so who knows when I'll get to do it. Cheers!
Great video. Sorry it may have not turned out like you wanted it. I looked back on your first videos and I realized that I have been following you for 10 years. I had another account then i switched to this one. I have enjoyed these years
Thank you so much! Yes, I’ve been on UA-cam for quite a while now. One of the reasons I didn’t make another 'perfect' ring is because I only had three printed, and I printed them a while ago. My resin printer was filled with a different type of resin, so I didn’t feel like changing it and printing more rings. Since I try to avoid chasing perfection and don’t want to waste too much time on things that don’t matter, I felt the video demonstrated everything I wanted to show. It’s clear that the technique works. This way, I can publish more videos, so it’s a win-win as far as I’m concerned. :)
@@ShakeTheFuture I so agree. I enjoyed this videos as the others.
The results look awesome, regardless that the ring broke. Do you think an ultrasonic bath would be able to remove the casted part from the mold?
That's something I always wanted to get. An ultrasonic cleaner. You know what, I might get one and then we'll know the answer. Cheers!
@@ShakeTheFuture they're very cheap and super useful.
This is the most insane thing ive seen on UA-cam in a long time. Awesome!
I am gald you enjoyed it. Cheers!
Couldnt you put the pieces of stainless directly into the mould and then melt it in place?
Yes, but there are two issues with that method. First, I would need to heat the mold to a very high temperature, which could result in the mold deforming and losing details. Second, the molds contain much more silicon carbide than a crucible, making it difficult to heat them up to those temperatures.
Would be fun to see you casting a spoon from a spoon!
I had something similar in mind. Casting a Spoon from a fork :)
@@ShakeTheFuture Love that!
Great method, really! Congrats! May be you can add a thin wall inside the ring, to make it more rigid during the extraction, and remove the excess metal just after the pouring.
That's a great idea. Thanks!
Very nice video and very interssting how stainless perform
What you think will maby a plaster mould work for fine details too ?
The reason I didn’t use plaster is for safety reasons, as well as because I’m not experienced with casting stainless steel, so I didn’t want to take any chances. For example, casting iron in plaster molds is a big 'No,' and I’m speaking from my own experience. Even though I knew you shouldn’t pour iron into plaster molds, I wanted to try it myself, so I did.
Iron reacts with plaster and gets way too hot. It was like watching a volcano erupt, with hot metal splashing from the mold and the smell of pyrotechnics as well as the middle part of the mold burning/shrinking away like styrofoam.
But what about stainless steel? Well, as far as I’m aware, stainless steel doesn’t react the same way, but it’s still too hot for plaster. That said, it might still be possible.
For example, normally you wouldn’t pour copper into plaster molds, but I’ve achieved some great casts by doing it, because the item I cast was small and cooled down instantly. One example is the copper egg cup I made in the microwave metal melting video/guide. I’ll try it out! Cheers!
3d printing with welding wire, but the arc being completely inside the hot-end, no outside arc. also try carbon graphite powder molds. carbon is also a medical material so dont worry so much. well you could just run welding wire out molten very fast directly in the mold. yep kinda spot melting welding of the wire with welding machine, but more like 3d printing.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Yes! Keep at it man.
Cheers!
* the next day, before you strike the mould, try reheating it at a lower temperature to sinter the casting
Thanks for the suggestion. I will need to try that.
@ShakeTheFuture it helps with printed metal worth as shot
Great video! How do you know Ikea forks are stainless steel? and what grade? I am thinking high in nickel or zinc.
Well, that's why I chose to melt a fork or a spoon instead of only nuts from Aliexpress. If you pause the video @7:46 you'll see it says stainless steel on the spoon. Same with the fork. Cheers!
@@ShakeTheFuture Yes, yet sometimes the claim of stainless is questionable. THere are many grades, some not even 304, 310, and the ranges go into 400 series. The differences are in chromium molybdenum, and balance of other metals. Thanks for your videos, makes me want to try. At least for pottery :-)
Can You use a Sonic Cleaner to break up the mold? Or a Water jet cutter?
bruh, did you really achieve this? that's pretty crazy.
Thank You!
maybe the carbon from the silicon carbide diffuses into the steel making it harden and brittle (and not too stainless anymore) , perhaps you can test this with some acid for testing stainless steels
It's definitely something that needs to be tested. Cheers!
Always great quality video, hope one day i will try
Thank You very much!
Im melting some Silver right now for rolling some sheet. Great video, thank you, ~Pops
Thanks Michael!
I might have missed it, but can you reuse the silicone carbide from the mold? Or is it just a consumable?
I’ve reused it a few times, but I eventually stopped. I haven’t found a good way to break down sodium silicate. I tried a few methods, like using caustic soda, but the results were so, so. I ended up reusing old silicon carbide mixed with new, but I had to grind the used material. It was very hard on the cereal grinder blades, which is one of the reasons I don’t do it anymore.
Cheers!
Just an FYI, in English-speaking countries, we typically pronounce IKEA as Aj-kii-ja.
That's good to know... well, I probably knew it, but I’m surrounded by Spanish speakers, and they pronounce shop names differently. It has definitely influenced me. When I first moved to Spain, sometimes people would talk about shops like 'Primark,' and I couldn’t understand which shop they meant. Then I realized what they meant :)
You might have to adjust carbon content or heating method to avoid the brittleness issue.
Thanks for the suggestion. I must admit I know nothing about the subject, so I'll need to educate myself on that. Cheers!
@@ShakeTheFuture you might have accidentally hardened the steel from cooling it too fast. It might need to be tempered after.
How do you avoid changing the carbon content of the material while melting and pouring it? Is it possible your first cast is brittle due to carburization from the silicon carbide mold, forming cast iron?
Well, I definitely don't know a lot about it. I'll be doing some more stainless steel melting, testing and reportint, maybe then we'll have some more answers. Cheers!
@ShakeTheFuture Wikipedia says SiC is soluble in molten iron, I suspect it ends up being a major carbon source in your setup. You could probably verify this by weighing mold and metal before and after.
Very cool work. Since you asked...would love to see you cast some turbine blades in Stainless Steel.
Thanks for the suggestion. Can you point me to an example video or other source. Since I don't know anything about the topic, it would be nice to see what exactly you had in mind. Cheers!
@@ShakeTheFuture Maybe something like the thingiverse item 1744495? Though that's a raw 3D scan and might need to have the geometry cleaned up before you can 3D print the positive.
UK, 🤯 i knew metal got hot in a microwave oven but had no idea it could be gotten to that temperature of hot 🧐🗡 any issues with running a microwave on its side ? besides rotating table not effective
No, I haven’t experienced any issues as far as I know. I’ve been using this microwave since 2020. I only had to change the magnetron once, but that happened very early on, after about three months of use it died. Cheers!
@@ShakeTheFuture cool, look forward to seeing you use it to complete that ring 🤞
Are SiC gring coffee grinder blades?
I was doing this in a flat a number of years ago and people in the opposite block called the council .it didn't end well. 😢
Why not align the mold inverted over the hot crucible and flip them over together?
I suppose that's one why to do it, thought I suspect vacuum was needed in this case. Cheers!
Most can foods are tinplated steel, can you try casting with that metal?
Thanks for the suggestion. I added your comment to my suggestion-List 👍
try soaking your mold in strong acetic acid. It will break up the sodium silicate binder.
I did use some caustic soda. Not sure if it helped. Cheers!
@@ShakeTheFuture is it molten caustic soda or just dissolved in water?
Why did you not use regular sand mold?
I could have, but one of the reasons is that it’s very easy to burn out resin in a silicon carbide mold. You don’t even need a kiln. When I use plaster or sand molds, they are burned out in a microwave kiln. The walls of the kiln are covered with silicon carbide, or in my case, the kiln contains three silicon carbide rings that heat up the mold.
If the mold is made out of silicon carbide, it’s super easy to burn out. I just used my metal melting chamber, which is basically a ceramic fiber sheet. The mold heats up on its own.
I burned out the mold in 3 hours using a cycle timer. In reality, the microwave was only ON for 25 minutes. The power setting was set to 500W (medium). Another reason is that I am new to stainless steel casting, so first I wanted to try out SIC molds. I will explore sand molds in the future. Cheers!
cant you use a plaster mold? that devolves in water
Hi! Somebody already asked me this question, so I'll just copy-paste the comment: "The reason I didn’t use plaster is for safety reasons, as well as because I’m not experienced with casting stainless steel, so I didn’t want to take any chances. For example, casting iron in plaster molds is a big 'No,' and I’m speaking from my own experience. Even though I knew you shouldn’t pour iron into plaster molds, I wanted to try it myself, so I did.
Iron reacts with plaster and gets way too hot. It was like watching a volcano erupt, with hot metal splashing from the mold and the smell of pyrotechnics as well as the middle part of the mold burning/shrinking away like styrofoam.
But what about stainless steel? Well, as far as I’m aware, stainless steel doesn’t react the same way, but it’s still too hot for plaster. That said, it might still be possible.
For example, normally you wouldn’t pour copper into plaster molds, but I’ve achieved some great casts by doing it, because the item I cast was small and cooled down instantly. One example is the copper egg cup I made in the microwave metal melting video/guide. I’ll try it out! Cheers!"
Great video! Maybe you can break the mold with a thermal shock? Try making yourself some new earrings.
I didn’t want to quench the mold as I wasn’t sure how the stainless steel would react. I guess it would be okay. Iron can sometimes crack if you quench the mold.
Also, it doesn’t really break down when quenched-I suppose it might soften. Anyway, I’m experimenting with caustic soda to break down sodium silicate. So far I am not sure if it helps. More testing is needed. Cheers!
is it normal for stainless steel break so easily?
Not really. There is a chance that the final metal is not something you would call stainless steel. Another thing to consider is annealing it. I'll do more tests and we'll see how it will go. Cheers!
This is fantastic to see. I was wondering what sort of challenges you would run into, and for the first few trial runs, I would say that stainless is quite achievable
It would be interesting if there was a method by which to control the temperature of the mold so that after you cast a part you could then put it in the microwave to temper the end product. If at all possible it would be really interesting to see the quality of some of the cast parts by sending them off to get x ray inspected. I have no clue what the cost of that would be though.
Now for the next big question. TITANIUM. A fairly large jump in temps, but depending on the alloy, it wouldn't be too terrible. I'm not sure if the heat required at that point is just more than the insulation and kapton tape can handle, but it would be interesting to see if it's at all possible.
I’ll definitely do some more stainless steel casts for sure. Titanium is definitely a different ball game, and I’m aware of the dangers. I’ll try it out, but not indoors. Next time I go to my mother-in-law’s house, I’ll take the microwave with me and do it outside. Cheers!
Wonderful job!
Thank You very much!
Shaved Future 😂
What about using stainless steel wire for stock material? It can be cut without noise so you don't bother the neighbours and it's thin so it melts easier :)
Tig rod might give more options for composition. But then the thumbnail wouldn't be as fun.
@@eslmatt811 That's true. I also need to think about the thumbnail :)
Yes, there are definitely better materials I could use, but I want to make it more fun for the people watching. That's why I decided to melt an Ikea fork-it’s something you can find in every Ikea store around the world. The nuts, for example, might be made from a different metal, but the forks-well, they’re labeled as stainless steel :)
Cheers!
It would be cool if you could cast one of those ikea forks. Or maybe a spoon?
Well, I was thinking about melting a fork to cast a spoon 😀
This is so cool.
Thanks!
How many watts is your microwave oven?
It's 900w output power. Cheers!
Why not just use the mold as the crucible?
It's easier to heat up a small crucible than a mold. Also, there can be loss of detail. Using a mold as crucible can work with some metals, stainless steel....probably not. Cheers!
Very cool. Thanks
Soak the mould in water instead of hammering
And the stainless will be very porous if you don't involve inert gass.
Yes, sometimes I do that indeed-soak it in water. I’ve also tried adding vinegar or caustic soda to the water, which might have helped. Cheers!
I comment from time to time. Your melting kiln appears to be all k-wool, am I right? No hidden liner? I have not tried stainless steel but have done quite a bit of ductile iron, the largest being a 21 foot ball to smash things with. It stayed red hot for over a year! With ductile, you melt the iron in a standard furnace and add chemicals to a ladle and pour the iron over it. The Iron has a huge reaction to the chemicals (mostly magnesium and silicone in a rock like form) so we stood behind a large I beam so our clothes wouldn't burst into flame. I wonder if the microwave vaporizes the stainless chemicals like our carbon furnaces? Otherwise, that ring shouldn't break like it's doing. Mixing up stainless on your balcony might draw a bit of attention because of the huge cloud of smoke.
I honestly don't know what's happening. I'll do some more casts and report on results. I was also wondering if I am overheating the metal. More testing is needed, that's for sure. Cheers!
7:57 do this again but slower and more dramatic music 😂
Bravo............clever..........know turn the ring into a spoon.........cheers
Thanks!
Use a welding mask to deal with the light.. And make sure its molten
Could try casting something practical and useful, like a miniature model of yourself 😎
A welding mask sound like a good option. I would cast a model of myself, but then I would need a 3D scanner. Well, I suppose there are ways to do it with a phone. I'll need to explore it. Cheers!
Why do you buy stainless steal just to melt it? Buy milder steal...
That's for entertainment purposes, as well as being easier to grab a spoon from the kitchen :) Once I practice and decide whether or not it's something I want to keep doing, I'll explore other sources of metal. Cheers!
Thanks!
Thank You very much! That's very kind of you.
I've been waiting for this video ever since you mentioned you would do it in an answer to my comment several months ago. Do you think the commercial microwave you mentioned previously would be able to melt a higher volume of stainless? Something else that would be interesting is to see if you could use your methods to debind and sinter metal fdm parts. I need to go get a microwave and kwool. You are the man for figuring all this out.
That's great! I'm interested in trying some sintering myself, but I'll be honest-I have so many projects on my list that I have no idea when I'll be able to try it out. You never know. Even this video wasn’t planned for January; it was a fill-in video that I grabbed from my project-to-do list while working on something else, so you never know. Cheers!
WOW!
Try to cast a fork from a spoon :)
That's exactly what I had in mind, but the other way around-spoon from a fork 😁
Cheers!
It was annoying how you kept saying you need high 'heat' to melt stainless when heat is irrelevant, it's temperature that's determining if it's melting or not. You know the difference right?
Of course a microwave can supply 1100W or heat or something and to get high temperature required to melt SS you need to do the things you said, but with small enough volume or good enough insulation you can melt it with FA HEAT. Don't mix your terms.
Thanks for the correction 👍
@ShakeTheFuture no probs. Also I made a mistake, 1100W isn't heat, heat would be Wh or kWh, like energy storage in a battery. I realised after.
I was googling about melting steel in microwave and got close to 0 results, and few days later youtube just recommends me what i want.
Thanks for video.
I wonder if i just melt iron sand in microwave and carburize it with carbon container, will it be usable for knife? 🤔
Awesome! I am glad UA-cam recommended this video. As for the knife making, I suppose there is only one way to find out. Cheers!
jelly roll some fiber maybe
Not sure what you mean. The ceramic fiber is rolled around the crucible. Cheers!
@@ShakeTheFuture I was thinking reinforcement under the crucible shell would help hold it together during construction.
Thanks!