Smelting stainless steel 304

Jewelry Discussion
1

Does any one kne of someone in this country who could smelt 1000 lbs
of stainless steel 304??

Thanks,
Sue dorman
www.suedorman.com

2

Do you mean smelting or melting? Smelting means extracting a metal
from its ore. You smelt iron, not steel. Or perhaps one should say
that you smelt iron ore to get iron…

Do you have a half ton of 304 that you need made into ingots, or do
you need a half ton of 304? If the latter, you can buy it in any
number of forms. If the former, you’re looking for a firm that casts
steel.

Elliot Nesterman

3

Sue,

Smelting is a form of extractive metallurgy; its main use is to
produce a metal from its ore. This includes iron extraction from
iron ore, and copper extraction and other base metals from their
ores. Smelting uses heat and a chemicalreducing agent to change the
oxidation state of the metal ore; the reducing agent is commonly a
source of carbon such as coke, or in earlier times charcoal.

What is it you wish to do as a “smelt” of 304 is not, strictly
speaking, possible.

If you are interested in having items cast then I suggest an
“investment casting” foundry…there are many. If you are searching for
a special chemistry to a stainless alloy then there are boutique
steel mills which can do a custom melt or better yet a mixing of
metal powders to a given chemistry and then a sintering.

Richard Furrer
Sturgeon Bay, WI