The Artful Bodger's furnace book

[mjonkman]

I've been thinking about making myself a home foundry furnace this summer that would be capable of running on either propane or used oil. Ideally I could start by using a propane burner and then over time upgrade to a used oil burner - assuming there is nothing radically different in the design of the rest of the furnace.

A while back I stumbled on The Artful Bodger's Home Foundry website and http://www.artfulbodgermetalcasting.com/ and he sells a book on making his particular furnace and oil burner. I figure by the time I include exchange and postage to the states the book would be in the neighborhood of $40. I'm curious whether anyone here has made the furnace in question and whether they felt the book was worth the cost or whether there might be a different site and or plans available that would be as good or better. I don't mind paying $40 for the book if its worth it so that isn't my hang up, I just would like to get some feedback on the book from someone that has used it.

I'd eventually like to melt cast iron in the furnace though I'm not going to start by pouring cast iron.

Sincerely
Mark R. Jonkman

 

[xalky]

I like the propane idea better because it's cleaner.

I built one 18 years ago that ran on propane. I don't have it anymore, my buddy has it. I used a shop vac in the 'blow' mode for the blower. I used a section of exhaust pipe as the mixer/burner. When I built it, there wasn't a whole lot of info on the web about building the burner part. I kinda winged it and finally did get it going well. I singed the eyebrows off my face one time trying to get the air/fuel mixture right. :lmao: I don't reccomend this route. There must be way more info on building these things online now.

 

[jim18655]

Lots of info here:
http://members.optushome.com.au/terrybrown/welcome.html

 

[dpat]

try foundry zone.com and backyard foundry.com lot of info

dpat

 

[12bolts]

Hi Mark,
Welcome, whereabouts are you located.
I havent read through Bodgers website so I cant comment on anything he says but I can thoroughly recommend http://www.alloyavenue.com/vb/forum.php/. Probably the most knowledgable bunch of blokes out there on the subject of melting metal. And everything they offer is free.

I like the propane idea better because it's cleaner.

I have to disagree here, my WMO burner is extremely clean......... as far as burning hydrocarbons gets..... and the calorific value of oil is higher than propane so you get more oompf. However there are plenty of people who swear by their gas fired rigs. I just like the idea of free fuel.
I have a waste oil burner, homemade, and I can get from a cold furnace to pouring temps for bronze in less than 2 hours. On my last burn I melted my steel furnace lid. Bit bummed about that in one way but kinda impressed on the other hand, cause I never melted steel before!

Cheers Phil

 

[GarageGuy]

I'm also planning to build a foundry furnace this summer. I was going to use a popular 30 gallon steel drum lined with refractory cement design. I found a drum on CL over the winter. There are a number of videos on YouTube. Many are truly frightening with the lack of safety involved, but some of the ideas and designs are alright if you add the proper safety gear. There is a fellow in the UK (I think) who seems to be very successful with cast iron. His YouTube channel is "luckygen1001". Here is a link to his videos:

http://www.youtube.com/user/luckygen1001/videos

Tubalcain (mrpete222) also has some good foundry videos here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mrpete222/videos

I plan to cast mostly aluminum and brass, but would like to move up to casting iron at some point. The furnace is likely the cheapest and easiest part. The crucible and other tools, tongs, pyrometer, casting sand, frames, etc will be much more expensive and challenging to find.

Best of luck. Keep us updated with your progress, and I will do the same.

GG

 

[master53yoda]

I second the Alloy Avenue, I'm also a member there. I have 2 furnaces mine are both physically fairly small one is a crucible furnace which is most common , the other is a dierct fired tilting furnace that i melt all the cast in, the dross remains in the tilting furnace and is dumped at the end of a run. most of my runs are 55 to 60lbs from out board motors to ingots. I completed a run in the last 3 hours including the tear down on the motors. I do three and sometimes four runs a week. Both mine fire on Natural gas I use NG because it is quick, easy and this burn cost less then $3.00. The burners would work equally well on propane. Oil is going to be the what you end up with in the end if you are going to do cast Iron in any amount, it can be done with propane and natural gas but they both have a lower flame temperature than oil does. Oil also burns slower so the heat is more spread out than with gas flames.

I keep my furnaces as small as I do so that i can pick either one up and carry it without any problems.



Good luck and be safe, shoes long pants, gloves, eye protection, and good ventilation.

 

[mjonkman]

Thank you all for the responses.

Phil - I'm in central Virginia (USA)

I've looked at a lot of the sites both today and/or in the past.

Another site worth mentioning is backyardMetalcasting.com (or is this the site DPAT where referring to with "backyard foundry.com"?)

In terms of youtube, I have to say the single most inspirational and informative (at least from my perspective) on home foundry is the one guy that has never said a word in any of his videos: Myfordboy - https://www.youtube.com/user/myfordboy (GarageGuy if you haven't already watched his 30 some odd videos, I'd say it be well worth it). I'd say myfordboy's videos are why I want to try metal casting - with the full reason to make model engine parts vs. buying casting kits. Pattern making is something I think I would enjoy immensely as I'm an avid woodworker as well.

From everything I've gleaned from various websites I think my thought process /understanding is leaning towards

1) Build a furnace of reasonable size using the highest temp refractory cement I can find - right now that appears that a company about an hour or so away might stock KAST-O-LITE 30 PLUS (3000 F) or is at least listed as a distributor (http://www.hwr.com/ProductCatalog)

2) Furnace design appears to almost identical between those powered by propane and those powered by oil or other gases - the prime difference obviously being the burner. But I should be able to build a furnace that would be able to be used with either propane or used oil and simply swap the appropriate burner. - Would this be a reasonable statement?

3) I think I will start out with a propane burner and restrict myself initially to learning casting techniques using Aluminum. I think based on what I've read its a tad safer or at least not near as hot (though hot enough to do the same damage I suppose).

4) I'll probably start with wooden boxes as I have tons of wood out here - like 3000 bd ft of oak, cedar, maple, cherry and walnut.. though I'll restrict myself to building things out of oak.

5) I'll probably start with some form of green sand - there seems to be a lot of recipes out there on making your own

6) I figure I can probably make the tools like the tongs etc myself. Depending on budget when I get to that point I may just buy a reasonably sized crucible vs using a steel crucible.

I'll definitely take a look at the Alloy Alley and probably sign up for that forum - it appears to actually be related to the backyardmetalcasting site.

Thanks again for the responses and if you have more suggestions, I'm all ears.

Sincerely
Mark R. Jonkman

 

[ironmonger]

<<snip>>
1) Build a furnace of reasonable size using the highest temp refractory cement I can find - right now that appears that a company about an hour or so away might stock KAST-O-LITE 30 PLUS (3000 F) or is at least listed as a distributor (http://www.hwr.com/ProductCatalog)

Furnace temperature is a product of the volume of the furnace and the BTU's introduced. To get higher temps add BTU. The peak temperature of the various fuels have less to do with the temp than the BTU.

2) Furnace design appears to almost identical between those powered by propane and those powered by oil or other gases - the prime difference obviously being the burner. But I should be able to build a furnace that would be able to be used with either propane or used oil and simply swap the appropriate burner. - Would this be a reasonable statement?

Yes, but bear in mind equal heating requires similar BTU input

3) I think I will start out with a propane burner and restrict myself initially to learning casting techniques using Aluminum. I think based on what I've read its a tad safer or at least not near as hot (though hot enough to do the same damage I suppose).

I doubt you would know the difference... the burn would hurt like hell regardless of the metal. Appropriate PPE is a must.

4) I'll probably start with wooden boxes as I have tons of wood out here - like 3000 bd ft of oak, cedar, maple, cherry and walnut.. though I'll restrict myself to building things out of oak.

Most of my flasks are made from wood. They are easy to make, and extend if you have to. You can also use them to cast aluminum flask parts as well.

5) I'll probably start with some form of green sand - there seems to be a lot of recipes out there on making your own

I like Petrobond oil bonded sand. I don't cast every day, and I can open a bucket of Petrobond and go to work right away. There are many casting supply houses around the country, if you have one close by, visit or call and see what they can do for you. Carpenter Bros is my local outlet, and they sell to small shops here. Last time I bought Petrobond it was about $60 for 50 pounds.

6) I figure I can probably make the tools like the tongs etc myself. Depending on budget when I get to that point I may just buy a reasonably sized crucible vs using a steel crucible.

Don't over look graphite crucibles, they are much less pricey than the SC. I don't think that I would use them for Cast Iron very often though, The welded steel work pretty well, have a S40 stainless steel one that I made up, but I still like the graphite. YMMV


I have the book, and while I don't think that there is anything that you couldn't find online, I look at it like shareware. I like to encourage folks to write and publish useful tech info.

Many furnace designs have a 'vent' in the bottom to allow the metal to exit the furnace if a crucible should break. I build mine with a solid bottom. If a crucible breaks I would rather chip out the metal or build a new furnace than contend with the molten metal flowing all over the place. That's just my take...

I haven't built a oil fired crucible furnace as yet, but I will use the book as a starting off point. I don't think that you would find many on the forum who would build ANYTHING just a described...
You have to have a plan to deviate from.

paul

 

[Flammable_Solid]

Aluminum takes a lot of energy to melt, even though it melts at a lower temperature. The high conductivity of Al makes the spatter stick to you versus bounce off of you like Fe.

Invest in the proper PPE, as medical bills cost more than anything else. Kick-off style safety shoes are worth the $$$.