Smelting, Melting, Foundry, and Casting

Hello All; I have a couple of boxes of brass pipefittings; and I was looking for some brass flat stuff to make guards and such; so I figured I'd melt some and pour it into a flat thing to make a plate. Seems simple enough, right ? Well; I grabbed a grafite crucible, put it in my coal forge and tried to melt stuff in it. And lo and behold; it did; it started to melt. But before I could add some borax, it started to like "burn" green flame; white smoke; and rather voilent. so I turned off the forge and left the place; since I know that zinc fumes are really really bad for you health. I was wearing a respirator rathed for organic and metal vapors (doesn…

Hello, Noob here. Some friends and I are starting on building a foundry. We've done some reading and watched a lot of videos however it is sometime hard to tell who actually knows their stuff and who's just talking out their xxx. So we're coming to you guys because you seem like you know what you're doing. A lot of the burners we have seen are those pipe burners like the one pictured below. I have also heard that ribbon burners are more fuel efficient and superior when it comes to forging, but I do not know if it is better when used in a foundry. (we would like to be able to cast iron or steel). Can I please have the general consensus on which is preferred?…

I'm currently building a foundry furnace for melting metals. So im curious, what is one feature, design choice, change from common design, or idea, that you wish you added while you were making your current setup. Or what is an existing change you made previously that you really liked and you think other people would benefit from. For example. My forge works great, but I wish I made the doorways longer and more insulated.

I just purchased my first furnace, it is a USA Cast Masters 12kg Propane furnace with a 10kg crucible. I have done two melts so far and have made some copper ingots that have came out pretty good. The provided valve says 20 psi but has no gauge. I cranked it all the way up and left the air flow fairly low so it didn't sound to loud. I did it in my back yard in daylight and I wasn't able to see any flame coming out the top. As I understand when melting copper I should have a little flame coming out the top, but either I couldn't see it in the light or I couldn't get the right air/fuel ratio to see the flame. It took about 35mins before the copper started to melt and probab…

Hello all, this is something I’ve always been interested in but never had the time to get started. I wanted to look into a forge that was large enough to produce enough material to cast a decent bar. Everything is metric so a lot of times I’m looking at images and wondering if the forge I’m looking at is tiny or a decent size. I don’t want to waste my time ordering something only to get it and it’s the size of a tin can. So first can anyone recommend a starter forge that I can grow into. Secondly, I have my old fire gear for safety, consists of fire rated pants jackets, boots, gloves but recommendations for safety equipment would also be appreciated.

Hi everyone, I'm based in Bristol UK and I desperately need some advice. I have got in my possession thousands of knives from a police amnesty we did 2 years ago. I want to now melt them down and ideally, eventually make some kind of sculpture to commemorate victims of knife crime. I have absolutely no connections (the person who was going to do it has passed away) and wandered if there are any pointers from this community. I would be so grateful for any advice Nick

I'm looking to get into smelting, but I understand its dangerous and requires the proper equipment, education, and discipline. And before I even buy myself equipment, I need a safe place to put a smelting forge. I know I need to do it outside because of the Carbon Monoxide. However I don't know what or where to put a smelter at. A yard with grass or leaves just sounds hazardous because a yard would catch on fire, and I don't want to put it on concreate either because there could be water trapped in the concreate and I'm not looking to gamble with safety like that. Would I need a special tarp or matt to put under the forge and the ground around it, or maybe a certain table…

Alright guys, I'm starting this thread because I hope to embark on the process of making wootz. However I always wanted a steel of meteoric origin. So I'm going to be smelting iron from a campo del cielo meteorite and combining it with other materials in a crucible to hopefully achieve true woots from the stars. I'm going into this with the mindset I will have plenty of failures and setbacks and it may even be impossible. However I am beyond determined to make reproduced wootz and im excited to share that journey with you all. I will try and record every aspect of the processes in detail for all of you.

Hey guys! Im about to embark on the long journey to make my own steel. I want to do crucible steel and im having trouble finding a crucible for sale with a cap included that can fit 2 and a half pounds of material. I've been doing research for a few days now and I cannot seem to find a silicone carbide or alumina-mullite crucible that would work for this. Most graphite clay crucibles are rated to only 26 or 2700 degrees and iron won't melt till 2800 and the foundry needs to be around 3000 degrees before the steel will for from the ore. So can yall please send me some links to any crucible that meets these requirements. Thank you so much in advance!

Hello, I am new to casting and about ready to make my first cast. I have one of the electric furnace for melting metal. I am starting out with copper. When I start to melt the copper should I set the furnace at the temp that copper melt at or 5 or 10 deg. highter to make sure the copper will melt? thank you

Hi team! Relatively new to the hobby, and I'm hoping to ask for a few insights by a few of you learned gentlemen! The Context: I'm quite fixated on creating as much of my tools and equipment myself as possible (not including safety gear, for that only the best I can buy). I've got quite a collection of Aluminium cans. I live in a relatively small apartment, so no room for a workshop just yet, and most of my foundary needs to be portable so I can transport it to somewhere that it's safe to actually work with molten metal. More than that, my scope of projects is quite limtied due to space constraints. But what I can do, is melt down all these cans into…

Hey everyone, I work for a small foundry and we're having some problems with LG2 castings, all moulds are made with green sand in steel boxes. The issue we're having is small air bubbles just under the surface of the castings, now this isn't everytime and is kind of hit and miss when it happens. This is becoming a major issue and we can't figure it out. We never had this problem in the past. The metal is poured into 90mm pouring cups as the entry point and the bubbles even appear in the runner when removed. Does anyone have any ideas on how to prevent this? 1st picture is bisection of a casting, as in cut in half and the second is of the runner.

So, I have a Johnson gas furnace from way back for melting non ferrous.. I put it on the side and with the new school going along I have been looking for a Muller and few other items.. I was lucky enough to find a Non Ferrous foundry selling all it's equipment.. I bought the whole thing. I now have about 1 ton of green sand, 2 gas furnaces, 4 mullers, about a dozen flasks, air rammer as well as a bunch of other items.

Despite being a combat veteran, I have been struggling with my foundry since a brass/steam explosion months ago. Over the last two months, I've managed to fire up the foundry 2 times, and my anxiety was palpable. It's an odd feeling to be THAT shook up by anything at this point in my life, it takes a lot to put me off-balance. Anyways, my scrap collection is brimming and I need to make some ingots. Apologies for limited participation on the forums recently, a few months ago I thought I was ready to get back into it but that wasn't the case. Here's to finishing out 2021 SAFELY and not letting anything stand in the way of a good time. Hope you all are doing well, and …

Ok, before I get the knee jerk response that 6061 isn't good for casting I actually have something to add to the subject. Well, I think I do. Yes, 6061 as it is is not great for casting, but because of my primary business I generate a lot of scrap 6061. The first solution I found is maybe beyond the average backyard metal caster. Its pressure die casting and fast cooling. You still have to make some allowances in your design for shrinkage and what not because you are making a molten metal solid, but it doesn't allow for the grain structure formation that seems to make 6061 less suitable for casting. Its an industrial process and take a little more than most pe…

i know people use flower pots as a foundry, so if i can find one without a hole in the bottom, can i use it as a crucible? and if i cant find one without a hole, my local wally world sells oven bake modeling clay, can i form a crucible/ use that to patch the hole in the bottom?

im seeking to make a personal forge that can reach and maintain 2400c temp to melt aluminum oxide. im not sure what materials can withstand this heat and have been looking at quartz and graphite materials but not sure if im going in the right direction and am looking for some sound advice. the fuel i would prefer is hydrogen but im very open to suggestions that are enviroment friendly.

Hi all, I just buy a melting furnace for my hobby and I can't get to melt not even aluminium. I got some pictures, any help will be much appreciated.

I just got my Toauto 12 KG forge today, Commercial links removed and I have a two main questions It came with a bit of cotton-like material on the underside of the lid, and it is completely blocking the exhaust hole in the top. Is this just shipping protection, or is it supposed to be here? Should I do seasoning of the crucible or the mold to make them last longer or anything? If this has already been answered, sorry. I am a bit new here. Thanks for your help in advance!

Hi guys, I finally have all the equipment pieces in place to tackle small casting projects. The first one is a mould for my favourite fishing sinker and even with all the power outages I managed to get a decent print (took me 5 tries). What do you guys think? Regards

My next experiment will be to create an electrode from a 50/50 ratio of ultra fine silicon carbide and pure graphite powder bonded with veegum and a pinch of zirconium silicate to increase strength and decrease shrinkage. My theory is that said electrode will still have enough electrical conductivity to strike an arc and get the tip of said electrode hot enough during the initial few seconds to electrically activate the silicon carbide. And since silicon carbide has a massively high thermal breakdown temperature (about 2700 celsius compared to 800 celsius for grapite), theoretically this should result in an electrode that lasts a lot longer and doesn't get the metal melt …

I’m building a second foundry, and would like some suggestions on cement. What do y’all suggest?

I want to make a home made furnace because its a lot cheaper. Im planning on melting a few different metals the hottest melting point being brass (1700 F) so i need coal or something that can reach 2000 F. Is there something that can reach that high or would i need to buy a real furnace? I got the idea from king of random and Im planning on following his instructions on youtube. If you have any recommendations it would be amazing if you can leave a link please and thank you.

I'm wanting to get started with casting. There's a lot of information about forging here but, I haven't seen much about casting. I'm mainly just looking for a set up to melt copper,aluminium and such. I've done quite a bit of my own research,but I would like to get some more information from people rather than youtube, or articles.

Hello everyone, First post here, just getting into the furnace/melting/casting hobby and I'm excited to start. I've been doing a ton of research on the correct PPE, refractory coating practices, etc. Baby steps. I'm learning a ton already just lurking and reading around, and I have a question: I already purchased a couple tongs from ProCast, specifically some charging tongs and vertical lift tongs. The vertical tongs are this style: After using them a few times I'm growing concerned that they are not going to be adequate for use in my top loading Devil Forge because of how wide you have to open them in order to slide the larger end und…