Originally Posted by
alloy2
I hope your working under a fume hood or outdoors, the fumes from the insulation are very toxic.
I'm in the garage with the door 1/4-1/3 of the way open, a fan turned on to blow the fumes towards the outside, and I wear a respirator mask (among other safety gear). That said, I'm not burning the wire insulation jacket off. All of the wires are stripped. Some wires have a varnish or an enamel "paint" on them, and those are the red copper wires I'm referring to (if you Google "red enamel copper wire", the first results should show what I mean by them.). Unless that's what you're referring to as insulation, since that varnish does seem to act as an insulator and produces fumes, too.
Also, I think I figured out why it doesn't melt. The red varnish on the copper wires (i.e. those from motors) collect at the bottom of the crucible, and turn black. It turns gooey and sticks to the bottom and lower sides, and stays adhered to the graphite crucible. Despite the high temperatures exceeding 1100C, the copper won't melt because that varnish seems to absorb most of the heat, and effectively acts as an insulator. That's my theory at least.
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