Sweet Dreamer

Thanks Benitron. Lot's of good infromation in your post there. I'll definitely be thinking about making proper charcoal when the time comes. It's going to be quite a long time before I'll actually be casting bronze. I'm definitely going to start out casting aluminum until I get that down really well. I guess I can get by with just wood for casting the aluminum. On the furnace, what I'm seeing is two basic things. One part seems to be the insulated high-temperature-resistent cavity in which to heat up the crucible. The other part would then be the firebox. Of course, if a person is heating with gas there isn't much need for a fire box since the gas torch basically just blows right into the cativty that holds the crucible. So I'm thinking the real "design information" I'm seeking is information on good ways to build a firebox that will burn wood or charcoal and to be able to direct that heat into the crucible cavity efficiently. This is probably a lost art due to the availablity and convince of modern bottled gas that will easily produce the desired temperatures without any fuss. I certainly undestand the attraction to that as well as the practical aspect of it. For someone who is solely interested in casting metal that's definitely the way to go. I certainly wouldn't argue with that. I'll just have to keep my eyes open for wood or charcoal furnances and see how they were built. Maybe a book on the history of casting might help.

@ Bentiron Thanks for the information on the bronze alloys. I knew there would be issues with that already without having to read any books. ;) I imagine that getting the right bronze scrap and additives is no doubt something that comes with lots of experience. I was originally thinking about just casting in aluminum, but people on the model railroad forum suggest that casting parts in bronze makes for a much higher quality model that will bring far higher prices on the market, so I've decided to think about stepping up to bronze. I've never done bronze before. @ ianinsa, There are several reasons why I have decided to go with wood fuel. The main reason is that I have literally tons of it already for free. Any other souce of fuel would be an additional expendature. I don't mind doing things the old-fasioned way. A second reason is that I am in a restort area where many of the crafstman around here do their handicraft using "retro" technology. There will be people watching me cast metals. So it's more than just a mundane job. It's a bit of a theatrical production as well. I was even thinking about using a very large bellows, but I've decided not to go that route. So I will be using an electric powered blower. That's another issue too. I would really like to find, or build, a quite blower. I'll have to look into that. You need to understand that my goal is not simply to cast metal in the most efficient or easy way that I can. Like I say, this is a whole theatrical production type of thing, but at the same time I'd like to cast some really good parts. I will be using the parts as well. So I'm killing two birds with one blast furnace here. Oh, by the way, I actually have a Terry Aspin book. It's called Foundrywork for the Amateur - Workshop Practice Series number 4. This is a very old book that I've had for many years. It does have a very simple brick furnance shown. It's 18" square (outside measurement) with a 9" square cavity for the crucible. The outside of the bricks are wrapped with heavy sheet iron. That "Pizza Oven" I was looking at actually has two layers of bricks. The inner bricks are firebrick whilst the outer bricks are just standard red bricks. I like that design. Seems like over kill for a pizza oven though. Of course this is just the basic idea. I could even turn that up vertically and have it a vertical cylinder. It would probably be easiest to build horizontally then I could turn it up vertically after it has cured. I guess when it comes to building the furnance it dosen't really matter what fuel will be used. The firebox would be seperate anyway. I think I'll just design my own furnace cavity kind of like this pizza oven on vertical. @ Steve Sells, Yes, I would like to get a furnace up and running so I can start casting. Nothing teaches better than actual experience. ;) A furnace cavity is just a furnace cavity. That really shouldn't be a major factor in the actual process of casting. I just want something solid, permanent and pretty. I could even line it on the inside with something modern. That wouldn't be a problem. Except if I'm going to do that I better leave room for the liner.

I love to read books. I already own quite a few books on metal casting in my own personal library. And I'll definitely be looking into the books people have mentioned on here. In the meantime I want to BUILD a furnace. I know it's going to be brick because that's what I want. I know it's going to be "quaint" because that's what I want. I know it's going to be wood-fired, (or charcoal fired), again because that's what I want. So that much is a given. I'm a wanton person. B) Right now I'm not really interested in casting anything. I'm interested in BUILDING A FURNANCE. When it comes time to do the actual casting I'm sure I will have researched that to death and back. In the meantime I want to build a quaint-looking brick furnace that will do the job. I can design it myself, and probably will. But that's basically the information I am currently looking for input on. No sense in re-inventing the wheel if there already exist plans for cool-looking brick furnance out there that is specifically designed for wood or charcoal fuel. So far I found that pizza oven and that other one where the kids were coming dangeously close to killing themselves in a sea of motlen aluminum. Sadly they offered no plans for how to build their furnance though. I really want that modified pizza oven. :wub: Right now that's my current leaning. Maybe build a firebox under it with a grate leading up to the pizza hut? :) Most of the books I've seen on casting have really crappy-looking totally-ultiliarian furnances. Yuck! I want a really cool furnance. Then we can talk about casting metal. ;)

Lots of good information here. I'll have to look into making charcoal. I heat a lot of things with wood so I have a lot of wood stoves that are probably making tons of charcoal already. I never heard of "vacuum casting" so that's something new I'll need to look into. I'm not too worried about learning all of the details of casting right now. Right now my main agenda is to build a suitable furnance. One that looks good and will serve my purposes. I really like that pizza oven. So I'm thinking of taking that general design and modifying it as a blast furnace. I guess the main thing I'll need to design around will be the crucibles. What crucibles will I need for casting bronze? What exactly is bronze anyway? I always think of it as contaminated brass. (ha ha) And how about casting in pure brass? Does that require more or less heat than bronze? What are the advantages or disadvantages between casting pure brass and bronze? Also are there different types of "bronze"? Where do you typically get the scrap bronze to melt down?

Thanks for the replies. I'm on dial-up with a really bad connection to boot. Surfing around trying to hunt for information just isn't an option for me right now. I actually drove over to the library last night just to join this forum and make my initial post. They have wi-fi. And I had to use it from the parking lot because they were closed. Anyway, I've done casting before many many years ago. So it's not entirely alien to me. I'm also a very safety-aware person. I have a full machine shop and woodshop and I also do welding. Safety is my number one priority. I'm retired from a career in R&D where I have also been in highly dangerous situations in steel mills, rolling mills, etc. Not to mention chemistry labs where I've performed many experiments with highly volatile materials. I'm just giving a little background to aside any fears that I might hurt myself casting molten metals. In truth, I'm already a bit apprehensive about it. When I was at the Library I watched a few videos of some guys casting metals and I was shocked to see them doing this with no gloves, no eye protection or anything, and they even seemed to be doing things using really flimsy equiptment. I would never cast molten metal under such absurdly unsafe conditions. 30 lb's of brass would be an exceedingly large pour for me. I'm not sure if I will ever need a pour that large. None the less I would like to furnace to have that as the max capability. Even if I make small parts I might like to prepare several molds and pour quite a few parts in a single run. So for that I might like to have the extra molten metal. Anyway, right now I'm just concerned with building a suitable brick furnace that can be fired with wood fuel. I was looking at this video. I REALLY LIKE this oven! Unfortunately it's just a pizza oven. But I'm wondering if I could modify it to use as a blast furnace for aluminum and bronze instead?

I have limited acess to the web right now so please bear with me as I ask some questions. I would like to get into casting aluminum and bronze. I would very much prefer to heat the metal using wood as fuel if at all possible. I would also like to build a permanent stone furnance using fire brick. So right now my main question is where can I find designs specifically for building a wood-fired brick furnance? Size is not so important as I can scale it up or down to suit my needs. I just need the main idea of the design. I plan on casting fairly small items most will be small parts for building model train engines in G-scale. I may cast a few things larger, but most of my castins will be very small pieces. About the largest object I plan on casting right now will be a large locomotive wheel about 4 inches in diameter and about 1/4" thick. But I do hope to cast several at a time. So I'd like to be able to prepare at least 30 pounds of bronze absolute maximum. I'll probably never need that much in a pour, but it would be nice to have that capacity. Thanks in advance for any help.