The Home Machinist!

I had been using the simple loop and the pictured tongs for a #4 crucible very comfortably and successfully..
Here are the pictures.https://imgur.com/a/G8LT8fb
Recently I acquired several #8 and a #10 crucibles and need to improve my tooling. A #8 crucible with a loop is no where as easy to use as a #4 was.

Also the tongs I think will need to be altered with the pivot point closer to the crucible end.

After spending way too much time looking for inspiration on youtube Ill ask here. What tooling works for you?

Lazz wrote: ↑Fri May 17, 2019 2:33 pm What tooling works for you?

I used #8 crucibles for melting silver when I operated a precious metal refining service. I needed a way to pull the crucible from the furnace and pour without transferring the crucible to different devices, so I built this thing:


I was well pleased with how it worked. There were no stops to prevent over-gripping the crucible, but that wasn't a problem because you were limited by the power of your grip. I had no problems with crushing. The design demanded that you keep a firm grip on the crucible when it was loaded, however.
I would likely build another if I had intentions of using smaller crucibles for casting in the future.

H

I forged my lifting/pouring tongs from rebar and welded a couple of bits of an old cylinder (essentially pre-curved bar), then went to town heating and beating until they were a perfect fit around my crucible. My crucibles are only small, No4 I think. I pour them directly into moulds.
They are this style:


If you're going for larger or heavier, you may want to look at a separate pouring "tong" with the handles at 90 degrees to the crucible to give more leverage. Something like:

You can rest the "dumb end" in a cradle if pouring by yourself, A guy I know was pouring up to 50 kgs (100lb) of iron by himself with a rig like this
Check out
http://www.mibot.com/foundry/tools.php

Thank you for the pictures... And ideas.
I settled for somewhat of a combination of both examples.
Pictures https://imgur.com/a/DZM825T
The first try was with 1/2" pencil rod.... And after using it the first thought was HEAVY...
Round 2 was with 3/8 pencil rod....just over half the weight of 1/2"

The little 90 degree bend at the end is my positive position stop.

Don't know if this is what you meant, but here is some of our mess. You can see our lifting tongs to the left in the first picture, and to the right in the fifth. We intentionaly require two folks to lift and pour. It is difficult to see but the ground slopes away, with two folks on the hot tools, if there is an accident, this puts each person standing off to the side.
Scotty