Thread: Melting Down Old Steel

Originally Posted by ScienceGuy

I use regularly an inert-atmosphere furnace that can go up to 1600 degrees, should be no problem getting a full melt on steel.

Is that Tmax Centigrade? 1600 F won't be enough.

Yeah sorry, max T is probably around 3000 F.

Then you have enough, iron melts at 2700F/1482C. Having a controlled atmosphere is pretty nice.

Well it will be melting point from the Fe/C system, which will change depending on the composition but is easily found from the phase diagram, and in any case is generally under 1500 C, all the way down to under 1200 for the eutectic. We can hook up any gas, typically we use argon, but could do nitrogen or air as well.



(http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/c...arbonPhase.png)

Damn I haven't seen this chart since I was doing metallurgy as an apprentice in about 1988