Before blast furnaces, wood and charcoal were often put into copper and brass because it prevented the bubbles. The bubbles are dissolved oxygen that come out of the copper when it solidifies. Maybe use some artcivated carbon or charcoal sticks in the molten copper?
Nice little furnace. I built one similar a few years ago and it worked great for Aluminum. I melted some brass and bronze, but the wire oxidized so bad, I only got about 4 bronze melts until the wires failed. I would be interested in how long this holds up. Some charcoal will keep the O2 level down and help with oxidation of the wires and with the copper.
Do you know what wire you used? My experience with low grade nichrome wire was the same, but this Kanthal wire is just night and day difference when it comes to corrosion.
Steel would be very tricky to melt in a kiln depending on the alloy. As the carbon content of steel rises, the melting point lowers. So ill probably try melting cast iron, but steels with a lower carbon content (softer steels) would be much more challenging because Im at a higher risk of simply melting my heating element. Im planning on making a waste oil furnace for melting steel anyway and might just wait until that point to do further experiments on melting steel
Its very feasible, I bought the cheapest controller, so Im not sure if it can do the ramp up and ramp down temperatures you would want but if you find a proper controller I dont see why you couldnt use this kiln body for ceramics
