Metal Casting Zone

Here is a short pictorial of my experience in Backyard Iron Casting. I used my small Freon Tank Furnace with a forced air propane burner. Used about a 1/2 tank of propane. I have a small graphite crucible that I shaped from a plug and it holds about 9 lbs of Iron. Used lost foam casting and cut the letters and the pattern with a wire foam cutter. Glued them together with a hot glue gun, and imbedded it in greensand.

Covered with graphite ready to skim slag.

Here's the messy pour.

Final Product. More of an experiment than trying to make something useful.

this is terrific!!!!!! is there any chance of a pic of your furnace and burner????i never thought you could do just a small amount of cast iron. thanks for showing.

yesss please more infoand photos thanks.

Here is a couple shots of the furnace. I had to make 2 lids for it because the small lid wouldn't let me use my taller clay crucibles. It's lined with an insulating refractory and the covered with 1/2 to 3/4 inch of commercial refracrtory rated for 3100 F. The burner is an 1 1/2" X 18" muffler pipe with 1/8" copper tube going through the side. I regulate the propane at about 10 psi. and it has a blower that puts out about the same as a small shop vac exhaust. I've melted mostly Aluminum, about 4 Brass melts and one Iron melt. Hopefully the weather will warn some and I can get back out and melt some more. I did have to put the propane tank in a water bath for the iron melt because the tank was freezing up.
Also, a picture of the crucible. This was some sort of plug used in a foundry and I hollowed it out. I did crack after the iron melt.

im speechless! many thanks for showing. this has given me much food for thought as a new furnace is on the drawing board. i hope you kept the graphite that you hollowed out. it may be able to be mixed with fire clay for more crucibles.

That's not a problem, I have about 40 more of the plugs and some other graphite stuff. Plus some that I ground to a powder at the shop. The big piece is 30" long and hollow, the little plug is 5" dia and 5" tall. I think they are the valve for bottom tapping ladles in the foundry. I mixed some graphite with refractory and made a bowl, I want to try to melt glass in it.

i envy your supply of graphite. im trying to source some for myself.

Question about your iron melt .did you add to or use any kind of flux in your iron melt?
If so what type of flux how much did you use?
Did you add any type of carbon like coke to the iron melt .I read that carbon occupies the space between the iron and somehow retards the change of silicon and carbon content in the iron? What that means I don’t know yet. may have to do with hardness?

It was a good grey cast iron to start with. About 1.8% C and 1.5% Si. I added a small amount of ferro-silicon and fluorspar just before I pulled it from the furnace, about 2oz. of each. I also had the melt covered with graphite.
Cooling has a big effect on hardness, if you cool it too fast you end up with white iron. It's very hard and brittle. Low Si may cause this too, I'll have to check on that.

what does the ferro-silicon and fluorspar do? and the melt covered with graphite.
i am now just starting to read books on iron melts