Kevin was kind enough to bring down his nice crucible after I brought my furnace body in.  It is just barely small enough to fit in with about 1/2″ clearance on either side.

I may try to increase this slightly, as the sides aren’t exactly perfectly circular anyway.  Im just not sure how to ream it out without destroying it.

So I spent an hour or so making a tool for the upcoming alum smelting sessions. I came up with a nice set of tongs that fit right around the body of the crucible. It is just barely small enough to fit between it and the sides of the furnace, and sometimes need a bit of finageling to get it in, or out. But all in all it works pretty well.

I loaded it up with a bunch of alum scraps we have, as tightly packed as I could make them, and the tongs seem to hold it just fine.