There comes a time when we need to heat something up real HOT.
Go on Youtube and look up Coffee can Forge
EZ to build and use.
Ive been making Fire place Pokers out of old Brake rods. Want to burn the finish off of something...Throw it in the Forge.
A couple times I have needed to pour aluminum for a small casting, and done it at home. An old paint can with a hole cut in the side for the draft from a blower, a coffee can with holes punched in the bottom that rests on the lip of the paint can below it. Put about 4" charcoal in, soak it with starter fluid and as soon as the coals glow on the edges put in a 4" crucible w/ some aluminum, put charcoal around the sides and start the blower. The blower needs a damper or shutter of some sort so you can regulate the amount of draft, too much or too little and it doesn't work well. Add charcoal around the edges as needed. Molten aluminum, ready to pour in about 15 minutes and the setup can be re-used a couple times before the coffee can is burnt thru! (But the casting quality generally is not quite as good as a commercial induction furnace)...
What are you using for a crucible?
My coffee cans are made out of card board and plastic now! LOL
I don't think many are made of tin any more so you better save your old ones.
you can use a 1 dollar stainless steel waterbottle from the dollar store.
Very interesting. Yet another idea learned by reading the Forum.
Hal, clay/graphite crucibles are available online, but fairly expensive. Before I had a proper crucible, I used the bottom 8" of a cut off propane torch cylinder. Of course, I found it laying around somewhere because I would never risk taking a hacksaw to a propane canister, even if it was empty... If you ever find one that already has the top sawed off, they make an excellent crucible. The little end cap on the bottom of the canisters come off pretty easy and you are left with a nice round bottom that distributes the heat evenly.
Bear in mind that this works, but it is a rude & crude way to make castings. When you use charcoal, propane, oil, etc to melt metal, the byproducts of combustion mess up the metallurgy and you can end up with all kinds of casting defects. Brittle, porous, hard, soft, tough to machine, etc...
Foundry is very technical, in order to get a good quality casting, there is way more to it than just melting metal, but just melting metal is fun!
I'm making one out of an old welding tank. These powerful little forges will handle about any small-medium task as well (if not better)as the ones that sell for many hundreds of dollars.
NOTE: Messing about with used compressed gas tanks of any kind is not for the amateur or 'experienced' fools.
Jimmy
Here's a chap that builds something somewhat 'similar' to my own project:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbvG4vVJqCw
This pic best resembles the one I'm making
"Budget Casting Supplies" has lots of good stuff for the home foundry. Besides crucibles, they also have fluxes and degassers and other really useful things to do a better job at a fair price. "Petro bond" sand works very well. Unlike "Green sand" it keeps well until you are ready to use it again. Green sand requires the right moisture content. Petro bond can be "reconstituted" with motor oil
I empty the "empty" gas cylinder by taking them to the local gun range and taking the top of them off with one or two 30-06 rounds. Then once punctured, they are safe to saw NEVER drill or saw an "empty" gas cylinder of ANY kind
And don't open a spray paint can with a electric can opener to get the ball out of it. I saw the results of this in Safety Meeting video at work.
Fred,
I would never have thought of that if you hadn't posted it. Now I may just have to try it!
Just kidding. Who the heck would do that and more importantly why?
They would do it to get the ball out. And it sounds potentially messy.