Metal Casting Zone

Already a thread on this. Once again, guilty of promoting a different forum, but here it is from the beginning
www.backyardmetalcasting.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2442
On that forum it is more often than not known as a "Moya" style burner, from the guy who more or less started the thread.
I have some pics of the various versions of mine on there, as any good backyard project it has gone through several different versions. Oil is gravity feed and controlled by a homecast needle valve. The oil more dribbles than sprays into the furnace, and doesn't like to work real well when it is in the single digits farenheiht outside. It's pretty foolproof and duh simple to build. You do need a good blower, though, especially if you build it with smaller diameter pipe. I had to go up to 1 1/4" due to the added resistance being too much for my crappy blower to deal with.

a very interesting read on a sister forum. ive read of this type of burner and may work for some. ive read a lot of lionel olivers casting adventures and congratulate him on his success . he details many burners that work but in his words sort of... nothing is shown or explained UNLESS there is something better!(yesterdays technology!!)atomizing the oil and spraying it onto the hot walls of the furnace is the way to go but how????i beleive he found a way as the last ive heard he was casting iron on a daily basis in a small foundry he built.in the photo i saw of his foundry it appeared that he had a pressurised tank supplying the oil instead of gravity feed. the "glass" that was formed in the furnace appears to indicate a high amount of silica sand present.

I was thinking something like this. Like a boost to get it started. On reading Lionels labs a bit closer, He is starting with propane for about 5 min or so to get things hot and then adding oil to get iron heat temps.

not a bad idea but im a little concerned about having diesel so close, especially if you are going to iron temps. gas i think is a little safer. just my thoughts!!!

I tried it with the diesel for starters. I couldnt get the diesel to stay lighted. When I adjusted to have more fuel, it just flooded out the furnace. I ended up having to have a rolled up piece of card board with a bit of wax on it to act as a candle of sorts. Once that burned off the diesel I got the oil going. It took a looong time to start this thing. On the other hand I removed the diesel funnel and replaced it with a place to spray propane. Ohhh we are talking flames right now. As much as I am resistng the propane thing (for what reason I have no idea) I can see that this way is by far faster. I only had to run it on propane for about 2 minutes or less, crack the waste oil valve and whoosh it took off with big flames.

this is what i found as well once you have a decent propane burner it doesnt take long or use too much propane either!

after it is all said and done here is the scrounge furnace running on manzanita wood that was trimmed from the neighbors yard.

The darkened area around it is where I wetted the ground down to put out all the sparks that were flying all around. The Fire Chief is probably going to have a problem with this in about a month when everything drys out. The waste oil burning version (same furnace different tuere pipe) doesn't fling near the sparks. I used silica sand and fire clay. I was amased to find that after your start the first fire in it the inside of the furnace turns to a big clay pot. It also lost about 10 pounds in water weight. The whole thing now tips the scales at about 65 pounds. Now for some wheels...

Whooo hoooooo!!!! go baby go! FIRE

Looking good there dumpster. time to se how well she will melt

looking good! now for the first melt....then the first pour! you arent far from being hooked now!

OK first problem. I made a crucible out of a old hydraulic cylinder. about 6 inches in diameter. High carbon steel with a chrome lining. I fired up the furnace and put just enough AL in it to make sure that there were no leaks. ( I did the water test but wanted to make sure that a crack wouldnt open up when I heated it) It held the molten AL just fine but I have some heavy deterioration on the side of the crucible. I read somewhere that the "type" of flame needs to be such that it doesn't oxidize the melt. How is this attained. Is this the reason for the deterioration or is this just a wear thing and I should stock up on old cylinders for Ill be welding more crucibles? As you can see from the flame in the previous pictures that there is next to no smoke. do I need to back off on the air/ increase the amount of fuel? Help please, before I hurt myself. And I am already hooked. The roar of the furnace resonates with my sense of creation and invention. The neighbors think I am a total kook but Im having a blast.