Foundry Project Page 16

These are my test molds ...just some styrofoam in there, and then the ingot trays. I'm not getting fancy for my very first pour. I want to just see how things go.

I fired my little furnace up with a moderate amount of charcoal and put the crucible in there. I fired it with 1 battery on my blower for about 20 minutes... nothing. I then got out the 2nd battery and this really makes a mess. It shoots a lot of sparks out and I believe it is an "Oxidizing" fire since it is so much air. This, according to Dave's books, is not good. I was however, just trying to melt something. Still couldn't do anything but get my fins on the bottom to glow red.

I am quite sure now, that my 2 inch X fins on the bottom are far too large. I am making another crucible for tomorrow, this one will have no fins on the bottom. This new crucible will be made out of 1/8 inch steel rather than my original one which was 1/4 inch steel.

So I probably had those 2 things working against me here. The 1/4 inch steel and the big X fins on the bottom would be great for a gas furnace, from what I have been told. I will hang onto this crucible for just that occasion :)

So tomorrow I will try again. I hope to finally smelt some metal, but whatever happens I will keep you posted!

OK it's time to try this again (9/13/2002) I have my furnace lit and my new crucible is ready.

This one is made of 1/8 inch steel and it has no fins on the bottom :) It is 7 inches in diameter and 7 inches high. That's a pretty big pot if you ask me!

I had a new extractor made, the other one was much too bulky for my taste. I couldn't operate that other one alone so I like this much better.

Again, hours going by here. I have filled and refilled, I tried everything but nothing seems to work. I must need a huge amount of charcoal in this damn thing! The bottom got red ...not glowing orange, just red, but no melting :(

I removed the little bit of wood in the bottom, it was stopping up my run-off hole. I think this was a mistake. I should have kept it in there, as metal would have burned right through the wood, if it did run out, and the wood kept this flame from shooting out the bottom. Now I fear I am loosing a lot of heat with this bottom flame here :( -Goodness, what else can go wrong ...heh. Oh well, I am learning many things NOT to do for my 3rd furnace... if I can't rectify this one. I may just fill in this entire runoff tray tomorrow as it appears to only cause me problems. The furnace is in excellent condition otherwise. I also need to fill in this tuyere hole a bit. I don't like how big it is.