Great video! I have a lot of experience with microwave firing of ceramics and a few patents as well. A word of caution is to keep the ceramic fiber as clean as possible. Any contamination on the outside can cause that to couple into the microwave energy causing heating in areas which can radiate out to parts of your microwave that cannot tolerate the heat. This can lead to an undetectable runaway. Not something you want to do in your kitchen! Enjoy what you can do with an old microwave in your shop or garage, and maybe invent some more interesting ways of using energy sources we never thought possible. But please be careful- have a fire extinguisher close, keep things super clean and keep the power outlet accessible for a quick unplug if things start running out of control.
Have you seen the Shake The Future YT channel videos on his metal melting using microwaves and his designs? Wondering what someone with more experience thoughts are regarding. I'm impressed he's appeared to even melt small amounts of iron and cast with.
I have watched a video on that channel. Although the kilns I worked with were bigger than most people’s garages, this guy somehow developed very good understanding of heat transfer, high temperature materials, microwave heating, etc. I am impressed! I will probably leave a message for him on his channel.
Yes, very impressive with the range of materials melted and system design. Plus cost effective. The vacuum forming got me, I still haven't found one of those silicone sleeves.@@johnbrennan9778
❤ And this is what inspired me and my sister's to get into ceramics Ham radio as well as electricity, battery and shooting clay pigeons, I was a tomboy and trained as a Mechanic, , enameling and jewelry for my friends!!❤ Best Wishes and Kindest Regards, 🕊️☺️✨
One of the cool things about glass is, once you get it hot enough to start glowing, it will absorb the microwaves and continue to heat. so both the waterglass if you mix that for your liner, and your work will actually get warmer than the carbon is doing once the carbon has time to heat them up.
I am just blown away at the ingenuity of people these days Robert. I have to tip my hat to them all Sir. Nice video with pertinent subject matter too. vf😀😀
Wonderful Idea & Clear Explanation of a microwave kiln! Robert.....So many possibilities unleashed. Here in the States white ceramic plant pots are sold at maker shops where artisans, and children visit the maker shop for a fee, select a porcelain shape to paint, paint it, and return days later to the maker shop to pick up the glaze fired piece. Blank higher temp with standing white porcelain flower Pots are sold there. I bet you now know what brand graphite paint I will be bringing into the maker shop to mix with a clear porcelain glaze offered there. i can make a large pot kiln. Yea !
interestingly, Nader Khalili a professor of architecture from Iran wrote a book "How to build your own ceramic house". The entire house is made of mud bricks and the mortar also. These are domed homes. Then a massive kerosine fire burns within the house, turning the house itself into a kiln in sense, but hardening the stone. It's a marvellous book that even details how to make tiny clay models to practice dome design, as well as corbelling chambers.
Yet another novel twist to things! I am not sure if this is relevant but I think glass has two "states". When solid, microwaves pass through unimpeded ..... when it is molten, less so! To the extent that it heats itself up!
I’ll say it again. We are going to need so much more energy in the near Future than has ever been available in The Past. And I’m sure we have enough crafts for the whole class!
you can sinter tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS), first suspend in liquid to create a sol which turns into a gel, needs to be pressure cooked and then sintered. Has same molecular structure as natural opals. However these fire and not rainbow opal but I believe if you have several half gelatinised suspensions of TEOS with different coloured oxides you could mix this tiny blobs together to create a rainbow effect. Kyocera's synthetic opals are actually plastic junk and do not have the actual moleular structure of natural opal... a most beautiful gem.
It's not the bowls absorbing the microwaves, its the fact that microwaves don't go very deep into stuff that has a ton of moisture in it, so it's mostly the outside of the mass of beans that's heating up. You just have to split up the heating time into a few cycles and stir the beans between them.
I reckon there is some small heating effect due to the bowl alone, though perhaps it's the conductivity (or wall thickness) that makes some of my bowls seem much more susceptible?@@AtlasReburdened
We have been playing around with Microwave kilns here the last couple of weeks. We have successfully cast crucible's out of silicon carbide and waterglass using a 3D printed mould (we made the waterglass out of kitty litter based on a video from NurdRage!). We then wrapped this in ceramic blanket. I am not sure of the temperatures we got as it was off the scale of our thermometer, but we did accidentally burn off most of the zinc (watch out for the dangers of zinc smoke) in some brass we were melting using only a 950W microwave.
I use a mix of 3 cement 4 sand 7 vermiculite 7 perlite to make my fire bricks which can be cast in any mold size you require.... would make the walls at least 50mm thick for strength 🤔
This is really interesting. Also you say only glasswork and ceramics, 800°C is more than enough to melt Aluminium. That said, Aluminium scrap in a microwave might not be the best ideas if you're still gonna use it for food later in the day.
You could probably do cuttlebone casting. Is it hot enough for fine silver? I shouldn't even ask, I have the answer in a dozen books, but they are waaayyy over there >
Very interesting. I do a lot of small figurines in my microwave kilns. The only problem I am trying to eradicate is the base cracking after glazing. I think the current problem may be the microwave has a built in cooler which I may have to disable.
I was wondering if it would be feasible to use a high voltage spark to melt a very small spot of glass which would propagate from remaining hot from the microwave? As far as I know as long as you have a way to start the glass melting then the microwave can keep it molten.
I am looking for Carbon felt, as you use for your diy heaters. Is graphite carbon felt the same thing??? You say you sell 100% carbon felt in your shop..how can i buy it from you?. Love watching your DIY on here and listening to all your knowledge on making and transforming bits of things.😊
So if a standard microwave is capable of 1000 deg C plus, then if I use a graphite crucible wrapped in insulation and fill the crucible with finely shredded Coke cans I should easily render the aluminum down for casting... Interesting... And probably a lot cheaper than a gas/oil/electric kiln. I wonder if I can build a larger microwave proof enclosure, fit maybe 2 or more magnetrons and use a large graphite crucible... Where can I "borrow" a microwave leak detector now???
Its called an RF/EMF detector, cheapest one I know of that isnt chinese garbage is gq emf390. Also, a faraday cage enclosure would prevent the heat dissipation which is the main bottleneck of microwaves/magnetron failing when doing this sort of stuff. Maybe a chicken wire enclosure coated with susceptor magnetite and graphite, and grounded of course. Add a couple of high power industrial fans for heat dissipation and you may have something
Looks like you saw the Shake The Future YT channel being the time at 2:25 is an image, I believe, of that design. Amazing his videos and I want to try to recreate, though I need to setup my workshops first and foremost for the high temp and metal working. I'm guessing Shake The Future kiln design is the better of them all I've observed if you already have the materials lying around. I've also been thinking about making a microwave reactor using waste plastic and silicon carbide to crack those materials and distill out liquid and produce gas fuels as well. However, the later reactor design would have to be built with higher pressure pipe in mind I'm thinking to consider safety along with other safety pressure release valves.
I'd really like to know if these kilns are a good way to go for heating up metal. Obviously, not for large pieces but what about small things? Knife blades or other fairly small things?
Great idea isome questions pls if i nay - polymer clay can ne baked? - aur clay can be cured? Ceramic clay for using in the kitchen lets say? Thank you all 🇨🇾🇨🇾🎩🎩🌺🌺🌻🌻
Thank you Robert, ☺️ Each and Every Video that you upload is Brilliant, And I learn something really useful , new and interesting from you!! (And, your videos are great at getting my memory working again!!) Many of us are Inspired by your kindness and generosity with the knowledge you share!! As well as your help and positivity, Each upload is a step forward to saving this beautiful Planet!!
What are suitable high temp (1,500°c) inexpensive IR reflection coatings? I had an expensive can of some possible clear ceramic but don't have it currently and probably won't be able to retrieve it.
A day ago I got a slush ice and thought it would be wonderful to have one at home, so I checked the internet for a homemade slush ice machine but saw there were non out there other than a margarita machine problem though is the tank size and the noise it makes so I was wondering if you could be interested on a take on it? I do plan on trying something out soon before summer :)
Actually he misquotes the max temperatures you can achieve. With a magnetite/graphite susceptor and good insulation, you can melt gold silver and copper. Seek boris petrov's videos on the matter as a verification
Won't this shorten the life of a domestic microwave, because unlike liquids absorbing the radiation, the radiation will keep bouncing around inside & cause feedback overload ?
Melting metal is a dirty smelly unpractical business for the home. You can only do that kind of thing in a purpose designed unit in my opinion. If you do manage to do it in the home the quantity of metal you can safely melt is only suitable for jewellery scale.
