
iwilltry's instructables
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- iwilltry commented on iwilltry's instructable Measure the Specific Heat of Water and Other Fluids1 year ago
- iwilltry's instructable Build an Electric Foundry for Melting Aluminum (that Works on 120 VAC)'s weekly stats: 1 year ago
- iwilltry commented on iwilltry's instructable Build an Electric Foundry for Melting Aluminum (that Works on 120 VAC)1 year ago
No worries. While I think I had adequately warned of the risks, I hadn't included much discussion of how to design to eliminate the risks. Your feedback prompted me to do so, so thank you for that.
View Instructable »Great point about grounding the housing. I'll add it in my warning.
- iwilltry commented on iwilltry's instructable Build an Electric Foundry for Melting Aluminum (that Works on 120 VAC)1 year ago
Despite the clear warnings I included (only bolded paragraph in the entire instructable), I expected this to draw comments. The ceramic fibre insulation around the terminals is quite thick... you don't really get a sense of it from looking at the pictures but it would be very difficult for it to short out against the housing.Realistically, this IS the kind of shortcut one takes when prototyping something that isn't certain to work. You focus on the unknowns and shortcut through the knowns, exercising extreme caution and being aware of the risks taken. Now that I know the design can melt aluminum I can add refinements (if I choose to pursue the design further). I don't need to research how to make such a connection. It's not difficult. It just takes time I didn't feel was worth investing...
see more »View Instructable »I'm not sure if you think I should know better than to do it, or know better than to tell anyone I did it ;-). You might be right about the latter. But I disagree with the former. I've worked with some very educated and talented engineers over the years. Believe me, educated people take calculated risks all the time. Being aware of the risks is exactly what makes it possible to take shortcuts and get quickly to the heart of what you're actually trying to learn.
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I came up with the method myself. However, I'm sure I'm not the first to do something like this. It's a fairly obvious method if you know some basic electronics and thermodynamics.