@George_Allen I never had the pleasure of trying to cast my own foundry as I lucked out on finding a few kilns at the dumps one day. So I salvaged the firebricks out of those. Then I just stacked them up around a metal bucket. http://i.imgur.com/Ld6E4.jpg
Whatever works!
@George_Allen make them from acrylic or mdf first, then gently make them from metal using your router.
I made my plates from 12mm acrylic on a laser cutter, then made them in 6mm alu on the CNC.
My furnace is simply bricks stacked on the floor with a chace cut inside for a $4 eBay element, only small for burning out wax in investment casting jewellery. Bit hard to move but it got the job done.
I’m having a hard time getting mine to heat up
What are you using as a fan? Also, are you using charcoal or those formed briquettes?
I used the briquettes.
I used a hair dryer for the fan and I don’t think that was the problem b/c it seemed to work pretty well
Maybe I’ll try the regular charcoal
I’ve always used regular charcoal. I seem to remember reading that the briquettes burn slower but put out less heat. That might be good for cooking, but not so much for a foundry. I found that when I packed charcoal into the foundry with a crucible in and ran it hot enough to melt, there wasn’t much charcoal left afterwards.
@George_Allen many folks start out with charcoal but no one ever sticks with charcoal. Gas is a lot better.
Ok. Would I just run a tube through the lower part of the bucket and attach it to a burner underneath the crucible? And place a grill over it?
I don’t want to blow anyone up…namely me.
@Paul_Frederick agreed, gas is better, but charcoal definitely works and allows you to get started with minimal outlay. The setup ought to work
Ok, I’ll give it a shot
@George_Allen most gas setups I’ve seen run a burner in through the side and the flames swirl round the crucible. Some of the later King of random videos show him converting to gas. I’d see if you can get your current setup working first though
I’m going to try the different charcoal first, but If I try to do gas wouldn’t it work just as well to have the burner in the bottom and I could put charcoal pieces around the outside of the crucible, or no?
I guess the charcoal would fall to the bottom when I pulled out the crucible
Yeah, you shouldn’t need to mix gas and charcoal. Also all the gas designs keep the whole burner assembly outside the Foundry, as they work on a mix of gas and fresh air. Basically a large blowtorch pointed through the hole in the side.
The way I use charcoal was to make a small pile and get that lit for 10 minutes, so there’s a good base smouldering away, then spread it over the bottom, adding any more if I can, then crucible on that, then pack around the sides. Once that’s done, turn on the fan and the fire should spread rapidly. Probably something like 5 minutes to get my small crucible up to beginning to melt.