Foundry Project Page 14

I have now added more charcoal ...as the book instructs. I filled the furnace about 2/3 full of charcoal and put the air blast on. I guess this is what Dave refers to as "Vitrification". I will soon find out first hand if my new furnace can withstand the heat of a full blast.

A few minutes later and HOLY CRAP! This thing is scaring me. It has a 16 inch flame shooting out the top and if it were night-time, I imagine that flame would be over 2 feet! I had to call my wife out to see this.

Take it from me, this was an awesome sight to behold. I am praying that nothing blows up!

More snapshots from the Depths of Hell. Thank goodness this is broad daylight or I would be truly fearing for my life.

It burned for about 15 - 20 minutes really hard like that, now it's dying down considerably. I decided to open her up and take a looksie inside. Hmmm no cracks at all! -Well a few hairline cracks but nothing major. It looks great!

Kudos to you Dave Gingery... your formula stood up to the test. 2 parts Silica Sand 1 part Fire Clay (NOT Bentonite). -It must be Fire Clay, as Bentonite will simply crumble and be a huge waste in time.

Note the burned tube of my blower. I am sure now that Dave meant to leave the small metal tube in the tuyere. Oh well, I can see if I can add a tube now, and pack around it. It may hold or it may not. Otherwise I can try just keeping my blower out a bit farther. This is only my 2nd furnace so I'm still learning. I think that my 3rd will be nearly perfect :)

I'm putting the crucible in there now. God I have been dying to do this. Hmmm these fins are going to be a problem perhaps? A bit of twisting and I got it settled into the coals. If my fins are bad I will just remove them.

Crap, I don't have very long before I have to leave. Oh well, I'll try to heat this up with the remaining charcoal and the 30 minutes that I have left. If it doesn't get hot enough, no big deal... there is always tomorrow :)

A bit more positioning and I'm set.