300 lbs of coal, what should I do with it?

[weldandfb]

New guy here,

I went out and mined 300 lbs of low grade anthracite coal and its sitting in my basement. I would like to do something fun with it, but im not sure what.

I have never done anything like this before. I would like to melt steel but what do i make my forge and crucible out of that will take the heat?

Should I start with something simple like melting cans? Can I make a good crucible out of fire cement? I was also thinking about making aluminum bronze since I have a lot of aluminum and copper lying around, good idea or no?

What should I make/cast? Knife, wheel, trinket, tool? 

How should I go about making a coal forge/foundry that will take the heat? Everything on YouTube is charcoal, propane, or diesel/kerosene.

TLDR: Lots of coal, don't know what to do with it, looking for project ideas.

Also I'm a Welding Engineer if you have any welding questions

[Charles R. Stevens]

Read up on casting, molten metal can be fatal. Most folks start with aluminum, i would recomend using auto parts as we already know they are castable aloys. Several of the nife guys here make their iwn bronze for hardware, as well as cast other materials. 

[Glenn]

If you need to ask then you ARE NOT ready for HOT liquid metals. Way too many things that can and most likely will go wrong in the process.

Auto parts are cast, but they have other things mixed in with the metal. magnesium is one. I got out of the casting game the day I HAD to implement PLAN B in order to stay safe.

AT a minimum I would recommend reading all you can. DO NOT depend on youtube for accurate or complete information. Find a person in your area or take classes to gain knowledge. IF it feels wrong, do not do it and quickly walk away to a new zip code. HOT liquid metal is not nice and is very unforgiving.

As far as the 300 pounds of coal, build a solid fuel forge and be happy. Anthracite coal can be used as a forge fuel but required constant air flow to stay on fire.

[ThomasPowers]

Melting steel with no experience and home brew crucibles and improvised equipment and little or none of the very expensive safety gear is an excellent way to retroactively cancel your birth certificate; so much so that your post reads like a troll on these boards.  (sort of like folks asking you how to make an arc welder from a bucket of salt water and a couple of coat hangers...)

Best thing to use low grade anthracite for is decorative gravel borders.  If you are working metals you want the good stuff.

May I commend you to backyardmetalcasting.com

[Steve Sells]

an Engineer that refused to read the pinned post at the top, and wants to jump in the deep end?  I really doubt it.

[Frosty]

an Engineer that refused to read the pinned post at the top, and wants to jump in the deep end?  I really doubt it.

Watch  out Steve, he might be a chef and woodworker too.    I've worked with engineers who were report writers and had virtually no experience doing things so it's not an impossible claim I suppose.

Maybe he stays up front when welders are taking a train?

Frosty The Lucky.

[Charles R. Stevens]

In the queens english "enginear" has a bit wider meaning. As in ships enginear, train enginear...

[ThomasPowers]

I have a great fondness for Welding Engineering;  When the Welding Engineering program at OSU moved to a new campus I helped to clean out the old building which started as Industrial arts in 1915 IIRC.  I still have some of the old sample library awaiting a powerhammer to knock it into usable sizes.  The arrangement I had was that I took my pay for helping clean it out in scrap...lovely lovely scrap.

[Nobody Special]

Hi weldnfb,

Seriously, we're not all grumpy, just a frequently asked question with some dangerous answers. Best bet is to join a group or take some lessons from artists or professional casters. I might also reccomend to you the backyardmetalcasting.com mentioned above, as well as the Dave Gingery books. For more advanced reading the Naval Foundry manual is floating around out there on the internet.

First, a forge and a foundry work very differently one from another, what makes one work well usually works poorly with another.

Two, low grade anthracite blows for anything but heating and running electrical plants. High grade kinda works for forging, but is difficult to use for a beginner. Charcoal or propane is much easier to cast with. With coal, the struggle is actually not to have it absorb into the mix and make cast iron (which is brittle and non-malleable).

Three, I'd start with practicing on ingots, probably aluminum, in a green sand mix. Once you get that down, then you can start on molds. Cans make a miserable aluminum due to the crap ton of oxides on the thin surface (huge surface area), as well as the alloy (or lack of). Poor aluminum and tons of slag. Homemade aluminum bronze can be.....difficult. Takes multiple heat cycles to get it to come out right at best.

Four, invest in good PPE, ventilation, and GOOD crucibles. Homemade jobbies tend to come apart at the wrong time. Trust me on this one, have the burn scars to prove it. Always have a backup plan including injury, spectacular failure of your crucibles, and multiple ways to extinguish a fire. (every one of which I've needed a plan for.)

Five, if it's what you want to do, don't give up, but build up to it. Casting is FUN. Dangerous, but fun.

[Charles R. Stevens]

tP raises a good point, despite the PITA for fire fighters, mag is still used in cars (chevy trucks use it under the instrument cluster to hold up the stearing collom. But they do not use it on the motor. Heads, pistons, accesory brackets, water pumps ect. But just to be safe, a rasp and a lighter will make for shure.