Metal Casting Zone

sorry i cant help with your fuel problem. for 3000 deg plus as i understand it you will need to have a blend of graphite powder through it. i use silica sand and pouring brass into it i do get some fusion in it. im using bentonite clay as a binder. i under that aliminium oxide is good too for cast iron but im tipping it will be expensive

in regaurds to you oil flow, I doubt it is the 1/4" line but more likely the valve at the tank you are useing, Is it a freon tank? Also you might not have the temp up hi enough without the lid on to sustain burn. once the lid is done and you have a round chamber your oil burn should sustain its self. You could also try to pressurize the oil tank and force the oil out.

I have had trouble with the propane tank freezing up. I put it in a tub of water, warm if possible, but any will work. I had to have something to hold it down, they float when they get low on fuel. They can really ice up fast and the pressure starts to drop. I would like to divert heat from the furnace, but I don't want the tank to blow up.

Im hopeing that useing two tanks will help the freeze up its still raining here so haven't been able to mess with it to much. xlchainsaw You said something about graphite powder in the greensand. We use a graphite coating at work, I bet I could have the overspray and just dry it out. I also can get zirconia beads that are as fine as powder I was wondering how they would work instead of sand. Ill always try to use the free stuff first, got to save some money somewhere.

Jammer wrote:
I have had trouble with the propane tank freezing up. I put it in a tub of water, warm if possible, but any will work. I had to have something to hold it down, they float when they get low on fuel. They can really ice up fast and the pressure starts to drop. I would like to divert heat from the furnace, but I don't want the tank to blow up. i dont have the problem here in the tropics!! back home in tassy people with gas heaters use to insulate their bottles with hessian bags.maybe you could try putting your gas bottle in an insulated box????????

They'll ice up in warmer weather too. I'm using the 20 pound cylinders, if you have the larger ones it's not so much of a problem. I think the 2 tanks hooked together will help also.

I haven't posted in a lil while, but im still working on the project. So far I have only melted down about 20lbs of aluminum and maybe 5lbs of copper. I have a new question im thinking about useing wood or charcoal to fire my furnace to save on fuel cost and then switch on the propane and oil when I need the real heat. Now I know that you can get good heat with wood but how hot can it really get, keep in mind ill use the same air supply as my oil burner so there will be more than enough air. Im still planing to pig out nickel, and now looking into some stainless so im thinking that the wood will cut my fuel cost in half at least im hopeing

Would depend on several factors, namely the kind, size and condition of the wood. Aluminum temps, at least, maybe brass. Charcoal (the real stuff, not briquettes) would get hotter, because you are not using the heat to drive off water and volatiles locked up in the wood. It'll work fine for preheat.

thanks for the reply, you said that it depends on the size and condition could you go into more detail. I have about five acers of woods here so I have plenty to burn. Just not sure about the condition your talking about. I was thinking of just taking out a bunch of the small trees in the back yard everything under 3 inches and and cutting them into 4 or 5 inch peices and burning them. Do you think it would work?

It may have to dry out some, I think you would get less temp out of green wood.

Hey, I think this is the longest post on the site, Congrats rmatchell.