[TheForge] How to melt steel with sunlight:

[James Binnion]

You might want to look at this. It will give you an idea what size installation you would be looking at for a hot zone the size of a "cooking pot" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_furnace



On Nov 27, 2010, at 5:24 PM, peter fels & phoebe palmer wrote:

> Sounds even better.
> But we are talking about a pretty big fresnel lens then ...though i 
> suppose a bunch of them could be used in a grid, given a bulge to mount 
> them on.
> Those cheap dimestore mirror strips designed to fit on a wardrobe door,
> have the interesting property of bending into a mild arc,i 
> found....which could be used as a focusing mechanism.
> Tempered glass will bend even further.
> 
> 
> On 11/27/2010 6:01 AM, Andrew Vida wrote:
>> 
>> peter fels&  phoebe palmer wrote:
>>> Thanks Bruce;
>>> That's delightful!
>>> Brings me back to my old proposed solar forge
>>> If one were to use an array of cheap mirrors with tracker/step motor
>>> rigs like Kurt's,
>>> combined with a big lens...say a pool of water in a plastic sheet hung
>>> from a frame.....
>> 	Too much fuss.  Fresnel lenses can be made arbitrarily large yet remain
>> very light in weight.
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James Binnion
jbin at well.com