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Jewelry | 19 Jun 06 | Comments (5) | Stumble
Flat Pack Re-arranged designer Kieren Jones has sent us some images of his do-it-yourself kit for melting down jewellery and creating new rings with a domestic microwave. Disclaimer: don't try this at home until you get the crucible (see above) and instructions from Kieren. And, I have no idea when and if they'll be available... UPDATE: Kieren clears up a technical question, and, IMHO, don't ever try this at home.
The crucible with jewellery before melting.
The crucible with new ring.
How does this get around the 'metal in a microwave' problem and get around the lack of water content in gold or reach the required temp of over 1000 C? Is this a joke/art piece? I've worked in gold for some time myself and I don't get this?
Looks to me like a hoax, or art piece. There are sprues on the gold ring, but no corresponding bits in the mold. And the shape of the ring doesn't correspond as exactly to the shape of the mold as one would expect.
For an article on microwave casting, see http://theodoregray.com/PeriodicTable/PopularScience/2003/09/1/index.html.
Steven, Kieren wrote me about your question; "In response to the question raised about Twelve Hundred Degrees, the crucible is a working prototype that can quite easily melt small amounts of metal using a conventional Microwave oven. The materials used to do this are primarily Silicon Carbide and Boron. Very simply, Silicon Carbide, when put in contact with micro-energy gets extremely hot in a relatively short space of time, the Silicon Carbide also absorbs the Micro-waves before they have time to be reflected from the metal back into the Magnatron which prevents the microwave oven from arcing and thus overcome the problem of putting metal in a microwave oven. Should people be interested in this sort of research, I suggest they visit the site of David Reid who is a leading researcher in this field, however, I would also like to stress that this method is still potentially hazardous and should not be attempted at home.
it just looks like on of Richard Hutten's project...with the microwave funny effect.
the project is called "Ring S.M.A.K" and has been done with Michael Young's wife. Have a look at his website for many more good and original projects :
www.richardhutten.com
http://www.richardhutten.com/objects/ring2.jpg
I have microwave melting equipment and crucibles for sale..now! I have been making them for the past 2 years to demonstrate the metal casting process for school kids. I have about a dozen out now, and will be willing to start offering them to the general public. E-mail me for pictures and prices. I will probably sell through e-bay and use pay-pal. I am currently reformulating our crucible mix for better performance.