Fallon

I’m looking to buy or build a starter foundry. I have an old brake drum coal forge & have mostly finished a propane forge in an old propane can (fired up nicely with just 2” of Kaowoll, Kast-O-lite is curing & will see if it still runs nicely this weekend I hope). I’ve got a decent bit of Kast-O-Lite 30 & Kaowoll left over. I do a bit of welding as well. I’m well aware of the risks of hot metal, zinc fumes, steam explosions, silica from refractory & insulation & what not. I did some aluminum casting back in high school shop 25 odd years ago. I’ve got about 600 gallons of crushed aluminum cans I’ve collected over the years. (Perfect for spending a lot on fuel to make lots of dross & an alloy that doesn’t cast well) as well as some other aluminum scrap. I could take them into the scrap yard for cash, but spending money to melt them down & reuse them myself sounds more entertaining. I also have some copper, brass (yay zinc fumes) & bronze I would likely use for stuff at some point after I have a handle on aluminum. I don’t have any plans to tackle iron or steel & their higher temps, but who knows I could get there some day after I get comfortable with easier metals & build a new foundry. Not super likely at this point though. My initial plans mostly revolve in messing around with melting stuff & making some stock to machine into other components. Later if I’m having fun & what not I’d look at getting setup for casting with all the green sand stuff & other gear. Questions: What size crucible should I be looking at to start with ? 5-6kg crucible? 10-12kg? I always want to go bigger, but am aware that is much slower & costlier to heat, not to mention harder to move that much heavy. I’m envisioning making things vaguely water bottle sized. Should I be looking at buying or building? Buy a cheap foundry off Amazon or what not. Assume it will need some work to seal up the ceramic blanket (I have the Kast-O-Lite, but would there be room?) & a bit of tuning. I’m guessing the starter crucible & implements won’t be great, but enough to get me started & see what I would need it I keep with the hobby long term. It would be cheap enough that I’m not out a lot in $$$ or effort if I don’t stick with the hobby. I can afford to dump $200 on one of the cheap 5 or 10 KG foundries knowing that it might not last too long due to cheap build quality of me just not using it like expected Any recommendations for a cheap store bought one? Build a foundry using leftover forge materials. What size crucible should I target to build the forge around? 5-6kg crucible? 10-12kg? I always want to go bigger, but am aware that is much slower & costlier to heat, not to mention harder to move that much heavy Would a beer keg based one be to big for efficient melting on my target use cases? With my forge I found & am still finding design flaws because I don’t know what I don’t know. I ended up over engineering a number of things that have no value & not putting enough effort into things I should have. Avoiding this has me some what eyeing up a cheap store bought one to start with.

I've got an old brake drum coal forge a friend made decades ago & was handed down. I've used it a bit, enough to know some of it's many limitations & am looking to finally complete my first propane forge. I've got an old propane tank shell I've started building & a pile of other supplies. Started things a year or 2 ago but other stuff put this project on hold. I've read through the forums a lot over the past few years & have the general process down, but still have a few questions. Probably making a run to the local Ferrier/blacksmith supply tomorrow or in the next week to grab some missing parts. I should probably just toss together a quick & dirty first try to see what works & what questions are actually relevant. But unfortunately my brain needs to over-engineer everything on the first try, usually focusing on a bunch of constraints that don't end up being relevant. Stuff I have on hand Propane can, grinder, welder, scrap pipe to make a mount for the burners Lots of 8# 1" ceramic blanket A stash of soft & hard fire bricks 2 Black Beauty burners (3/4" OD) A 55lbs box of Kast-O-Lite 30 (hopefully still good after a year or 2 on the shelf, box didn't seem hard, but haven't opened it up to check) 100lbs propane cylinder, POL fitting, high pressure regulator, gauge & hose Stove paint Stuff I'm missing Ridgidizer Probably several fittings & some copper to go between the burners & propane hose Pristix/Metricote Any particular angle or offset I should go for on mounting the burners at? Consensus seems to be mounting them at an angle for a swirl & more even heat rather than vertically with hot spots, more scale & chimney issues. Is the hole through the blanket & refectory just a straight hole slightly bigger than the burner or does it need to be tapered in a particular manner? Should I be going for a relatively flat floor building up the bottom with some wool before applying the Kast-O-Lite, or leaving it more circular/oval & not building it up as much? Should I use the Kast-O-Lite as the floor of the forge or plan on sticking one of the hard fire bricks on top of it? I have the front of the can tack welded on for alignment while I weld on some brackets to bolt things back together. Should I just leave the front off & use some of the soft or hard fire bricks to close off the front of the forge for now until I figure out what works best? If I attach the front of the tank back on, any particular size or shape I should be shooting for to retain heat, minimize back pressure & maximize access? I cut a hole in the back & had been planning on plugging it with a fire brick. But I realized that hole was centered & isn't likely to match up with the wool + castable height. May not even be the right size for the fire brick (cut it a year or 2 ago). Fire brick for the back going to be a decent start? I don't have any Kiln wash at the moment. Would it be fine to just use the forge with the Kast-O-Lite for now & add that in later? Local Ferrier/blacksmith supply only has ITC-100 I think. Do I need to fire the ridgidizer for the first 1" of wool, then install, ridgidize & fire the 2nd 1" layer of wool or can I fire both layers at once?

I'm in the process of making my first gas forge. I inherited a brake drum coal forge somewhat recently. It's fun, but Coal is a pain & brake drum forges aren't a great design. So I've started chopping up an old propane tank with an obsolete valve to make a propane tank propane forge. I've done a pile of research here and, on various other forums & been pretty depressed watching some of the hacks do stupid things making poorly designed or dangerously implemented things on YouTube. I have a couple questions to try & make my first gas forge build successfully. Is it better to rigidize the blanket then install it before it dries or to install it then try to coat it evenly? Do you need to fire the first layer of rigidizer & blanket before you put in the 2nd layer of blanket and again before you coat it in refectory? Do you need to fire the refectory before you coat it in IR reflector? How long does dry Kast-O-Lite 30 last if you put it in a good sealed bucket? Similar to concrete, indefinitely if you keep it sealed & dry? I cut off the front of the tank to clean it & properly install stuff. I'm a hack welder but have a TIG/stick machine & some little ability. Should I try & weld it back up after assembly or put on a hinge? If I hinge it, how do people handle the edge? Cover the ceramic blanket with refectory all the way to the shell? Leave it mostly bare ridged blanket? Are there issues with the blanket or refectory not creating a good enough seal to protect the shell? Would I be better off just not putting front on & leaving it refectory covered blanket? I have a really nice powered respirator to wear when building things, before it's rigidized. How big of an opening do you put on the front? Wayne Coe's pictures & others have a D shaped opening around 1/3 of the front of the propane tank. I know some of that is subjective, but a aware of potential backpressure issues as well. Most of my work will be knives, maybe up to manchette size, probably along with tongs & other shop or blacksmithing tools. I'm guessing the propane tank forge is a bit big for some of that, but I'm hoping it's not to inefficient. Would I gain much going with 3" of blanket for extra insulation & to decrease volume? I've seen plenty of debates on pointing the burners straight down or in at an angle & haven't figured out which school of thought I'm going to follow. Both seem to be valid, just different use cases & trade offs. For the floor, do people go with round or flat? If flat, do you just build it up with rigidized blanket then coat with refectory? Would soft or hard fire bricks be a better choice to build up & level? Would coating the bricks in refectory cause thermal expansion cracking issues? I'm assuming I don't want a really thick refectory floor beyond 1/4-1/2" or so to avoid being a large mass to heat up. I've got a box of 1" 8PCF ceramic fiber spun blanket, rigidizer, box of Kast-O-Lite 30, some ITC 100 (should have gotten cheaper stuff I now realize), high pressure regulator & a pair of Black Beauty burners. Scrounged up the parts over the past while off my scrap pile, local farrier, Internet & Craigslist. I have intent to make a furnace for some aluminum casting at some point too, so extra blanket & refectory will get used. I hear the rigidizer doesn't last long if mixed, so only going to mix up the minimum needed & store the rest. It's winter here in Colorado, so I assume all rigidizing, refectory & ITC 100 installation & cure time will be in the basement rather than the unheated shop. Will lug things out to the driveway to fire.