blast furnace

[wes]

I was considering useing a terracota pot packed in dirt inside a 5 gal bucket.Any tips?

Wes

 

[johnthomp]

hi there wes
with being pretty new to this site i can only tell you how i learned to make a blast furnace using an old gas bottle 2 inch diametre pipe and my missuses hairdryer i was smelting within an hour i got all the info and tips i needed from youtube videos I just typed in backyard foundry ;D

 

[ToniTD1490]

Hi Wes, I built my blast furnace with a terracota pot. Inside I covered it with refractory cement and I melt aluminium and brass.

 

[wes]

Well, youtube is takes a while for my computer to download videos.

I was thinking of useing the pot for the refractory lining.

Thanks
Wes

 

[Groomengineering]

Hi Wes, have you seen this site http://backyardmetalcasting.com/index.html ? Some interesting ideas on using flowerpots, coffee cans, etc.

Jeff

 

[xlchainsaw]

flowerpots last for a bit!! a cheap way to get started.

 

[T70MkIII]

flowerpots last for a bit!! a cheap way to get started.

Just so - I used a large teracotta flower pot as was (no lining, no burying in soil) with just a 40mm hole drilled near the bottom for a tweer. Lasted about 6 melts before started to crack apart. Good value to get some practice in while getting started, or if you don't intend to cast very often.

I just filled the bottom with BBQ coals, fired them and turned the air blast on (hairdryer - I hope my wife was finished with it) and I had good melts within a few minutes.

One thing I did do after a stainless steel pot let go on me (not literally - but very scary all the same) was make a sturdy 6" dia x 10" deep crucible out of some 1/4" walled steel pipe with a plate welded on to the bottom and a flange welded around the top, and made a strong set of tongs with which to lift the crucible by the flange.

Whatever you do, don't melt or cast Al over concrete (notwithstanding people do that on facetube all the time). I set my flowerpot foundry up in a sand box I made (about 4' by 5') on top of a concrete pad that had a slight slope. When the ss crucible developed a leak the aluminum cracked the flowerpot and ran out over the sand and onto the concrete faster than I could do anything but step back. When molten metal hits concrete it instantly vapourises any free moisture and the water bonded into it, and chunks are blasted out with serious explosive force. Could have been very nasty indeed.

Research, be careful and have fun.

 

[bearcar1]

Man, I would think that a flower pot of terra cotta being porous would have collected moisture in its walls. I would be way too scared to have such a high temperature, air blast driven fire, swirling around inside the thing for fear of it becoming cracked or heat fracturing while in use. The fellow here that used refractory cement inside of a cut open gas cylinder that had been discarded to me seems to have the right idea. Doing foundry work over bare concrete or cement is definitely a safety issue. Even in our small high school foundry section the floor in that area was a shallow pit that had been filled with sand. On more than one occasion I can recall something going amiss and molten metal was spilled. The sand pit prevented huge splatters as well as prevented any flash steam detonations from occurring. Of course there was a line of cats at the door that stretched down the block when we had the furnace going. ;D

BC1
Jim

 

[xlchainsaw]

a far cheaper furnace is use plain fireclay and sand and fire it!