Melting NaCl (table salt)?

Artlav

I was thinking of making an MWIR lens from table salt, which is quite transparent for it.
That needs a big, monolithic cylinder of salt - 3x1 cm.
Now, growing it the classic-oversaturated-solution way would take forever, if feasible at all.
And i want to try to just melt some salt and cast the piece that way.

So, primary question - what kind of safety concerns are there about heating up and melting table salt?
Would it just melt, or start decomposing/reacting somehow?

And a secondary question - is there a point?
That is, would it solidify into something monolithic without using Kyropoulos method or similar?

Bonus question - given the goal above and a set of household materials, how would you proceed to achieve it?

DrStupid

It should work. There are some relating papers but most of them are fee-based. Here is a free paper with a brief description of a Czochralski method:

http://144.206.159.178/ft/566/62884/1067612.pdf

You can also buy finished crystals:

http://www.2spi.com/catalog/submat/substr.shtml