Metal Casting Zone

Delaware, East coast

The kiln will be 24" x 24" x 30" Id and I will probably make my own refractory again but use low temp fire clay this time instead of the hi temp I used for the baby. The baby can melt down a 316 ss crucible loaded with bronze in about 45 mins

I was able to get some work done today before if started to snow. Still cant figure out why everytime I go to work on the new furnace it rains or snows, but on well its coming along. I got the brick in place no mortar yet just a test fit and short fire to see how it all looks. So far everything looks good just have to cut two more bricks and figure out how im going to make the lid then im done. Heres a few pics. Oh and I made my first melt today I had a small stainless pot laying around so I put a few small peices of aluminum to see how it would do, the pot was red within 20 seconds. I guess it might be warm enough.

the brick furnace is huge!!!!i think it needs to be half that size!!!can it be sort of hexangle??? just so the flame swirls around the crucible. there is no doubt that burner is going to melt!!!!! you could "line" the inside with your bricks and just render the outside with cement,sand and fire clay to hold the bricks in place. furnaces dont last long once the casting bug bites lol so try and design it to be easily repaired.

As of now the bricks are just stacked up with no mortar so things can easly change. I agree that it needs to be smaller ill probly stick with the square shape for now I plan on trying it out before I set it all up. I almost talked myself into changing the burner to two nozzles, one on each side of the crucible. For now I have more than enough time to think about what I want to do and not enough time to do it. Either way im going to build it around a #10 crucible and ill use the brick and burner that I have, just not sure how its all going to go together yet.

a number 10 crucible!!!! you are going for the top first go!! is it possible for you to get a large earthenware flower pot?? over here we have a recycle dump and we can pick them up for $5 ea. then you can place your bricks around it and fill the voids with sand,cement and clay. this will last for some time while you are learning.a number ten holds a lot of metal. if you are casting small items it will take hrs to make the molds . im estimating of course but a number 10 would pour a slab of aluminium 2 ft long 2 inch thick and 8 to 9 inches wide.you might also need a helper to handle it. just to help you think as you havent set anything in concrete yet!

Thanks for the idea. I am only casting ingots for now so no mold to deal with yet, I also have someone to help with the lifting and and casting. The main reason I started with a #10 was because I have at least 2500 pounds of metal that I have been stocking up on for the last few years so I cant really walk in my shed an longer. my plan was to pig it all out then start on learning to make molds.

sounds good. i like the "pigging idea" it will help clean up the metal and make casting easier. about melting....... when you start try and get a bit molten first before adding more. i melt a lot of extrusions now and just love watching them slide down and disappear. dont make your ingots too big!!!make them long rather than short and fat.say 2 inch square and 12 inch long with a divider in it so you can easily break it in two. you can make a pattern and press it into sand to make your molds.this pattern will make about 1 kg bars. its actually quicker to "build your pot up" by adding small amounts of metal than placing one or two big hunks of metal in and blasting away. you need to get a small molten pool in the bottom first before adding "hunks" so to this effect small ingots are better. i pour mine out into small cake tins about 2 inches round. this size would be just too small to dribble into from a number ten! i had trouble with a number 8!!!!

My steel ingot mold is 2" channel 12" long so the ingots should be about 2"x12"x1 1/4" ill use it on the lead, zink, potmetal, aluminum, and brass. As for the bronze, copper, and nickel im thinking of sand casting ingots 3"x12"x3/4". How will the sand react to 3000 degree temps I have never done it before and would think there would be a problem.

I had a lil bit of extra time today to work on the furnace and burner. Now I have a few questions. When the furnace was good and hot I turned on the oil and started to turn off the propane the oil started to burn on and off. Im guessing that the 1/4" line isn't flowing enough oil to keep up, so my first question is how much oil is enough to keep a flame without propane. My other question is about freeze up of the propane tank. I haven't had a problem yet im guessing because the tank was full, I made the fuel line to take two tanks but only use one for now. My other question is will two tanks be able to run without freezing up.