DIY casting furnaces are nothing but Do It Yourself casting furnaces. One can make variety of furnaces. The procedure of some of them can be described as follows:
DIY Induction Furnace: Theoretically, only three things are required for implementing induction heating: High frequency Electrical Power Source, work coil for generating an alternating magnetic field, and a workpiece-electrically conducive. However, the practical approach is very complicated. For instance, the work coil and High Frequency source’ should have a matching network in between, to obtain better power transfer. Use of water cooling systems is very common in induction heaters of high power. This facilitates removal of waste heat from the matching circuit of the work coil and the coil itself. This process involves application of control electronics as well. Control Electronics, as the name suggests, controls the heating action’s intensity, thereby ensuring consistent results. It also provides protection against unpleasant operating conditions.
Usually, the incorporation of work coil takes place into a resonant tank circuit. There are innumerable advantages of this. The first advantage is that any one of the parameters, i.e. voltage or current is made sinusoidal. This causes fewer losses to inverter by the way of allowing it getting benefited from either zero-current-switching or zero-voltage-switching corresponding to the arrangement chosen. The visibility of sinusoidal waveform at work coil gives the proof of purity of signal. There also occurs less interference of radio frequency with the equipment in its vicinity. It’s up to the designer to choose one amongst several resonant schemes.
DIY Bronze Furnace: The making of DIY Bronze furnace involves taking silica bricks of 9 inches X 4 ½ inches X 2 ½ inches in the first place. After that, one is supposed to put a steel plate having dimensions 18 inches X 24 inches at the place where he intends building the furnace. In other words, the steel plate should be used as a base. The construction of furnace should start thereafter. It is advisable to keep the circumference of the furnace as 14 inches. A small hole of diameter 3 inches should be made at a height of 5.5 inches above the floor. Let the height of the cylindrical furnace be 11 ½ inches (including floor). This hole is to be used for inserting the burner.
The cutting of the burner port should be done in such a way that it acts as a perfect tangent to furnace. This should be done in order to make the flames whirl around crucible, thereby hitting it indirectly. The peculiarity of bronze casting is emission of toxic fumes. Therefore, it is always advised to perform the casting task in the area which has ample ventilation. Wearing of safety clothing is recommended. After the completion of furnace (including the cutting of hole to get the fitting of one’s biggest crucible enabled), it should be permitted to dry. At that time, trawling of water, vermiculite, and kaolin clay on the exterior is recommended. The immediate use should be strictly avoided, as it may develop cracks. After drying, let the furnace be heated slowly to reduce ‘kaolin paste’ cracking.
