March 6, 201214 yr Hi there My name is Leon and I'm from Durban, a hot and humid little city on the East coast of South Africa. My friend and I got into melting aluminium (that's aluminum to you 'mericans :D), brass/bronze/copper etc. on charcoal fires. So far, cast iron is still a dream but we're working on switching to waste crank-case oil as a fuel because it has lower cost and higher temps. Part of my furnace research led me to forging related websites and I intend to get into forging as soon as (or maybe even sooner) we've got some positive results with the oil burners for the furnace. I'll probably go with a propane forge because I would already have all the basic knowledge. Anyway, as long as it has to do with hot metal, I am interested. There's a lot of knowledge in the forums and I'm hoping to put some of it to good use.
March 7, 201214 yr if you have charcoal, use it to forge! the best fuel i reckon, cheap to make, clean and up till the industrial revolution, the only way to go! thousand of years of quality forging there!
March 7, 201214 yr A lot of BTUs in waste oil Make sue there isnt any gasoline in the mix. I have not done cast iron in mine but have seen it done at another location. Last year a friend tried doing some iron in a crucible like Al Pendry (SP) and melted some of the bricks inside the oil fired crucible forge. our burner design is basically a 2" iron pipe with a blower on the end. A tube with a valve enters this pipe just outside the outer shell of the forge. This pipe enters the inside of the forge and comes out on the inside wall so the fire goes round the outside of the crucile in a circle round and round till it exits a hole in the lid. Takes a propane weed burner to get the oil burning. Once up to temp the oil is blown into the hot furnace but not sprayed likie a oil burner gun.
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