How to make a microwave foundry part 2
Channel: kayaking4autism
Date: 2012-04-19

The molochite layer-ing of the magnetite/Silicon carbide stucco is complete and has been thoroughly baked off at 230 degrees C in my oven. I am adding some perlite around the crucible to help further insulate it in hope of reaching high enough temperatures to melt metal. 
Perlite has awesome insulative properties, a thermal conductivity of only 1.37x10^-3 W/mK.
It is still unclear at this point how perlite will react inside a microwave.
I have ordered some Zinc and am going to attempt to melt this in Experiment 5, I have chosen this metal as it has a lower melting point than aluminium and won't have the same high surface area to volume ratio problems beer cans have as it is a powder rather than a .80 micron folded sheet.
I also know Zinc doesn't oxidize as quickly as aluminium, hence its use as a coating for galvanized steel.