I looked around for nice pair of crucible tongs, but the ones I could find were a little more than I was willing to spend. So I decided to make somthing myself. Here are the pieces I started with. The small pieces were 8 yen (about 7 cents) and the big pieces were 45 yen (about 41 cents).
I bent and twisted the steel pieces using a vice and a rubber mallet to come up with something that looks like a pair of tongs. I secured everything with a bunch of machine screws. They haven't come loose yet, but I check them before each use. The pivot joint is also a machine screw with a couple of nuts to lock it in place.
Overall, it isn't really strong, but even my small crucible full of aluminum isn't very heavy. Another problem is that have to hold the crucible from the top and tip the whole thing over to pour. I am working on another set of tongs where I can grab the crucible from the side and pour. If I had the means (and the knowledge!) to weld, I could have made something better. Maybe later...
In any case, I am very careful to move the hot crucible and pour over a bed of silica sand just in case there is an accident.
Here is my dross skimmer. It started out life as a very cheap (about 90 cent) pair of food tongs which I just bent apart. The serrated edges work very nicely for collecting dross.
