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I Forge Iron

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Let me start by saying I'm new to this forum. I have been casting aluminum and brass for about a year now.I like most people don't ask questions tell somthing goes wrong, and today it went wrong big time.I just started machining thing and wanted to make a permanent mold cuz I hate playing in sand all day, so naturally not wanting to buy a huge block of iron I decided I would cast my own. How hard could it be?  Right! Wrong very wrong. I have an LP furnace made out of a propane tanks and plaster.I have a blow dryer Jamed on the back too but I never realy use it. So anyways I got a cast iron water pipe from the junkyard it was really rusty i don't know if that matters or not. I thin smashed it with Thor's hammer into pieces threw a more than have of them in the crucible ,and let-er ripp. I'm bringing the temperature up slowly its a graphite crucible its getting hotter and nothing happens . I turn it up more and turn the the blower on low for an hour. Everything in the furnace is glowing orange red now but no meltie. Ok full gas full blower I'm I'm done skrewing around out here im jumping in full dangle! 30 mins later everything is yellow glowing.Its so hot I can only look in for a second b4 it burns my face I threw 30 more mins nothing still I threw an aluminum inget in it makes the iron more bendy now but an hr later still nothing hot as xxxx glowing yellow but still nothing. I get my dross stick and start poking around.Its made of conduit. The iron is bendy enough for me to push it off the walls of the crucible. I pushed down in the middle and started to stur it up success its a flued, thin flash heat fire and sparks fly up. I jump back. I don't know what just happened but it looks like it's gona work now. A good 4 inches of my dross stick melted that's weird but it's gona work looks like. I cover up the glory hole to let the last little crumbs melt,go inside get something to drink etc. But as soon as I walked back to the shack the I get hit with the strongest smell I ever smelled in the history of smelling. It almost knocked me out and i wasn't even in the shack I was next to it.Xxxx is that from? I went back inside to get my charcoal filter mask put it on and decided I should end this little experiment now and dump out the crucible. Blower off, gas off, top off furnace ,crucible out crucible pouring just that quick. But no pouring was to be seen.It somehow turned back into a solid in the blink of an eye. How is that even possible I tried to poke it with the end of a knife and the knife rolled over from the heat what happened? I'm so lost rite now. Does anyone know what happened here? I'm going to attach the pictures of this catastrophe below. Ruined crucible is pick #1. Pic 2 is a piece of the cast iron I didn't try to melt. Pickle 3 is my ruined knife and pic 4 is my furnace and homles man shack where I ruin knifes and crucibles I guess.

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Welcome aboard, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header it'll save the Darwin Award people time finding you.

I don't know where to begin but how about speaking English rather than Text babble shortthumb so regular folk have a clue what you're saying.

That gripe out of my craw, No, most people don't dive into dangerous things without ANY research, only Darwin award candidates do that kind of thing. Don't feel alone there are plenty of you out there.

Do NOT do ANY more casting you not only lack the most basic knowledge you lack the common sense necessary. What on EARTH made you think adding a lump of al to an iron melt would make CAST IRON more bendy? That has to be one of the most ignorant things I've heard in a long time. Not that you didn't top it of course but <SHEESH!>

Oh boy ANOTHER furnace lined with Plaster of Paris! Another example of your lack of basic knowledge let alone lining a furnace capable of doing the job at all let alone doing it safely. Do you even know what a furnace is supposed to be lined with is called?

I have to stop. Normally I'd try to reassure a beginner I'm not trying to discourage them but that'd by a lie. I don't know you from Adam but I don't want to even think of what you're going to do to yourself if you continue to do such foolishly ignorant things. You're too ignorant to grasp even marginally how ignorant you are and you're playing with things that maim and kill experts who blink.

Take up something you have enough sense to practice safely, ask someone to teach you to knit with blunted needles.

Frosty The Lucky.

 

 

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Important question?  Do you have the proper safety equipment?  Especially goggles suitable to what you are doing. Arc Welding goggles are not the ones needed!

I Know of at least one person experimenting with melting steel that went blind for it and he was using expensive safety gear---just not what was needed.

What is the melting point of cast iron compared to the metals you have cast?  

How were you fluxing it especially as you were using terribly corroded metal to start with?

Plaster walled melting Furnace?  For Pete's sake WHY?  I hope it's not another "I can't spend US$40 on proper refractories so I'm going to spend HUNDREDS of Dollars more in fuel to save money"

There is a metal casting site on the internet you would be better to work with: http://www.alloyavenue.com/

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What you posted is frightening, so like men world wide we react with anger. 

You are indeed ignorant, that dosn't imply that your an idiot, just that you lack the basic knowledge to proceed.

Please back up and learn what you need to know to proceed safely. No one here wants to hear that you have have killed or maimed yourself or some one else. 

We indeed have casters that can help you along, and they can guid you to other forums that specialize in casting. 

In closing, please don't get butt hurt and leave as we are now invested and want to see what you can do with proper equipment and procedures.  

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Since the other curmudgeons have beat me to it, and have already ventilated your evego   {even I the typo king had trouble understanding your gibberish } I wont repeat too much of what was covered already, nor will I lock this thread yet,         but s it is close to being so far out there, I have to wonder if its real.....

while you are looking up melting temperatures for frosty and Thomas, , look up the oxidation theorys in practice  and failure temperature of Plaster of Paris then explain why you think its a good choice?

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