Having cleared up the mess from my fire and got the induction furnace back into com mission I got back to clearing up a bit of the junk that I'd accumulated as 'might be worth casting to ingot'. One such item was a rotating clothes drying line of the sort that sits in a hole in the lawn. Basically tubular and extruded aluminium alloy.
Going well, I'd cut it into 12" lengths and had got most of the extrusions as a puddle in the crucible. Then I popped one of the tubes in that I'd cut from the main stem.
As I reached down to my bucket for the next length I heard a tinkling sound - eh what's that? The tube was on the floor. Trying again sure enough the magnetic field of the furnace levitated the tube and tossed it out !
Easily cured by holding it down with my poker but amusing never the less.
The fact that the tube was a complete circle whereas the extrusions were channel shaped implies that the induced circulating currents created a magnetic field to oppose them and did the tossing out action !
Going well, I'd cut it into 12" lengths and had got most of the extrusions as a puddle in the crucible. Then I popped one of the tubes in that I'd cut from the main stem.
As I reached down to my bucket for the next length I heard a tinkling sound - eh what's that? The tube was on the floor. Trying again sure enough the magnetic field of the furnace levitated the tube and tossed it out !
Easily cured by holding it down with my poker but amusing never the less.
The fact that the tube was a complete circle whereas the extrusions were channel shaped implies that the induced circulating currents created a magnetic field to oppose them and did the tossing out action !
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