First I got out my old Lyman furnace to make a repair that I knew it needed between the thermostat wire and the heating element. Opened it up and found that I had already fixed it (yea!) exactly as I was planning. Cool. Then I plugged it in to test it. I was in the workshop instead of the reloading room so plugged it into a short 12 gauge extension cord for testing purposes only.* Satisfied that it was melting a few scrap boolits, I turned the thermostat down and started to unplug it. The plug was hot. The rubber had softened it was so hot so I unplugged it at the wall. After it cooled down I discovered that the furnace cord was now permanently attached to the extension cord. Both went into the trash. I found a replacement cord rated for 1250 watts.
*I always run my furnaces on short heavy extension cords that run to a metallic box that has a duplex outlet and a mechanical timer much like the light timers in locker rooms and at tennis courts and baseball fields. There is never any overheating. I blame this on an oxidized plug on the furnace cord that I ignored instead of cleaning up before using.
Time to check the mail. The replacement handle to my RCBS Pro-Melt was in the mailbox. Time to install it and fire it up for the first time in four years. This one was on the casting bench under the vent hood. Really, this whole exercise was because I wanted to see how well the vent hood evacuated casting smoke and odors. Turned on the aforementioned timer and the vent hood, flipped the switch and it went back to the off position without a flicker. While it was packed away the 40+ year old switch had given up the ghost. It's not listed as a separate part or even shown in the drawings in the instructions so I ordered one. Now I have to wait a week or so to put the Pro-Melt back together.
During the disassembly I tried something that I wanted to pass along to everyone. One of the bolts that holds the furnace body to the supports was stuck pretty hard. I hit it with some Kroil and waited a while after tapping the bolt head with a small hammer. It was still stuck badly enough that I was afraid of breaking the bolt. Thinking back on a video I watched a few weeks ago, I tried my DeWalt impact driver hoping that the jolts of the impact might free the bolt. It worked, effortlessly. There was significant rust on the bolt but it spun out easily.
I still didn't get to test the vent hood; something to look forward to next week.
|
   
   
|
|
Reply With Quote
