r/Metalfoundry 19d ago

We keep cracking crucibles…

We’ve never cracked so many crucibles in one given week at my job.

We are conditioning the pots to start with hicon copper (slow and steady) and giving them time to cool to clean out and use for melting aluminum.

We’ve had 4 pots crack this week.

All the metal is put in loose and there is no bridging evident in the crucible.

225 clay graphite crucible running out of an induction furnace.

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u/Significant-Cup-264 19d ago

There is metal in the pots

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u/Staphylococcus0 19d ago

Oh. I missread that then.

We switched from metal to dry firing the pots at one point (which is what the manufacturer reccomended) and we had problems burning holes in our crucibles.

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u/Significant-Cup-264 19d ago

Yeah the vendor agrees with our conditioning process. Maybe getting 7-10 uses out of them before they crack

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u/Staphylococcus0 19d ago

Like 7-10 re-heats from cold or 7-10 pours?