Metal Casting Zone

Now I bet that headline got you attention, meet the baby It is a coffee can type furnace with a 3in by 3.5in inner chamber. I decided to take my own advice and construct a small furnace before i line the elcheapo furnace. This is also my first attempt with home made refractory 2 parts sand 1 part fire clay and one part pearlite. This furnace will be getting alot of use as i experement with lost wax casting, and for an added twist it will be running on acytiline.
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thanks for sharing,I'm interested im making my own refractory as well. will be nice to see how your mix turns out and preforms.I did't notice any cement in the mix are you using the clay as the only binder?

thats great . it will be good to see how it goes.

The baby has been fired up, and it is anything but a baby. this baby eats al for breakfast and also took out brass!! The acytiline idea had a melt down (seriously) so I switched to propane, a propane torch to be exact. Ill be posting some pics soon of the baby in action
Im very excited right now the only problem I had with the propane was that I was useing the little fat $2.79 bottles of propane which ice up in 10 min. The propane torch I am useing is an unmodified harbor freight item for 22.00. I just need to adapt it to a larger tank to beat the freeze up problem. How ever for someone who just wants to do al
they are just fine with this set up.

i made a similar one from an empty paint can and just used my gas set with a large propane burner .it worked fine till the flowerpot lining broke up!

ok here is the harbor freight torch i am useing
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Its puts out a very nice flame
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thought this was cool shot
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Ok heres the inside with brass just starting to melt, I had to stop at this time due to the little bottle running out. I adaped it over to run on a bbq tank and found my regulator (no gauge) did not put out as much pressure as running straight off one of those little bottles. I still managed to melt the brass but I feel cold shuts might be a bit of an issue. Either that or the small quantity of brass I was melting just cooled too fast while I was playing around, It still poured well but some froze to the edge of the thin ss measureing cup I was using. Next I will be constructing a crucible to fit the furnace 2in x 3in ss. and will have a mold rammed up to actually pour a part, also I see a good adjustable regulator on its way into the picture.
Oh Btw the brass melt time was 15 min from cold start
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I forgot to mention that the home made refractory is holding up just fine, could use a little more insulation though as the outside of the can gets really hot.
Also does anyone have a Idea of the pressure of one of those little propane bottles?
and the pressure of a bbq propane tank?