Propane forge melting copper

[Mayor of MeltTown]

I’ve been told that a steel crucible is bleeding off  heat, wont melt copper. I sure my heat is good(no thermo. Guessing). My copper looks molten but will not melt. Going to try cast iron crucible. My current crucible is 4” square tubing with flat plate welded on bottom. Melts AL just fine. Wanting to melt brass. Have fun,be safe,and ask questions 

[ThomasPowers]

Since cast iron melts way lower than steel that is a BAD IDEA!   If it looks molten but won't poor you have most likely oxidized it to a nice bright shiny ceramic.  What flux were you using? How were you heating it? 

As messing with molten metal is WAY MORE DANGEROUS that working steel that is even hotter but still a solid; STOP NOW AND LEARN FIRST!

Have you been over to alloyavenue.com a set of forums for hobby casting---used to be backyardmetalcasting.com?

I've done small, couple ounces, castings for knife fittings in copper, bronze, brass, sterling&fine silver using a stainless steel creamer for a 1 use crucible; but then I took a class at the local U arts dept on casting. Stop by and I'll work you through a casting or two.

[Steve Sells]

how would anyone think steel will suck out heat but cast iron wont? PLEASE take a few steps back and learn more before hurting yourself

[eseemann]

I wonder if this is a Troll.

[ThomasPowers]

Could be; but it sounds just like someone trying foundry work with no experience, no training and no research!   So a danger to self and others.

Making a copper oxide sponge is a fairly common failure for people starting out without knowledge of oxidation, reduction, fluxes.   

Burning through a steel crucible is often the next issue as oxidation and dissolving from the inside combine with excessively long heats. 

Then perhaps success in melting; but failure in pouring due to: lack of superheat, lack of degassing of the melt,  lack of venting in the mold, wrong mold making materials, bad mold design, bad pouring, unsafe casting environment,  burning out of zinc if casting brass---may be combined with metal fume fever! 

All this combined with improvised tooling and lack of PPE and the Invulnerability of Youth/Dunning-Kruger can result in a massive saving of money on future Halloween costumes as you get to go as Freddy Kruger every day all year long combined with, here in the USA, MASSIVE medical bills.

[Frosty]

I strongly advise you to take some classes, ignore Youtube videos. Melting metal is inherently very dangerous. One mistake can empty the crucible in a spray of molten metal. Being covered in molten metal is: disfiguring, crippling possibly fatal and even if you avoid the worst injuries painful doesn't begin to describe serious burns. 

Nothing you've said indicates you have ANY useful knowledge about casting. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[eseemann]

A brand new account called "Mayor of MeltTown" makes me think this might be a troll. 

I could be someone that wants to cosplay Freddy Kruger all day everyday, if so he is on the right track. 

[Frosty]

He might be but the benefit of the doubt doesn't cost us anything and might save some kid serious grief.

Frosty The Lucky.

[eseemann]

Agree, and if nothing else we learned from the Rob Zombie remake of Nightmare on Elm Street that there is only one Fred Kruger. 

[Someotherguy]

This was a very informative little discussion, as a new melter that's trying to dip his toe into casting I thank you for your promotion of caution. As this is obviously a very dangerous hobby (not to take away from any of you who do this professionally, but for me and many others it is a hobby.) My plan is to build a small foundry very similar to this one. I found a handful of youtube videos from this guy the king of random. In this series he builds and over time refines the design, eventually upgrading from charcoal to propane fueled at which point it very closely resembles the one the original poster showed. I plan to go do more research, but I would like to cast some small hatchets for my groomsmen next July. I have a lot of copper wire in my garage that I inherited from a deceased relative, I am hoping to mix it with tin or pewter to try and make bronze hatchets or tomahawks. Any guidance you can offer me to hone my skills to make something decent by then would be much appreciated. I'm already looking into alloyavenue.com which was brought up in this thread. Thank you in advance for offering your many years of experience to a humble beginner. I obviously would like to do this as safely as possible. And while a few videos from youtube make it look very simple, I would like to avoid as many potential problems as possible. So far my tutorials have for the foundry have been the king of random, and I have seen a lot of casting videos including one where someone casts a bronze axe. But I hardly feel capable of doing this on my own and my friends though eager to learn with me, may not be  as much help as much as spectators. I am located in Huntington Beach California. Hope you are all having a great weekend.

 

[Steve Sells]

in most cases ,. if KoR suggests doing something DONT

He is dangerous and not very competent

[Glenn]

Grant Thompson, the creator behind YouTube's popular "King of Random" channel, died July 29, 2019,  at age 38.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

 He made some of the most dangerous video's I have ever seen. I think he died doing a paragliding stunt.

[ThomasPowers]

What type of axes are you wanting to cast?  I'd go with petrobond and a 90:10 bronze.

[justin78berry]

On 8/7/2020 at 3:10 PM, ThomasPowers said:

Could be; but it sounds just like someone trying foundry work with no experience, no training and no research!   So a danger to self and others.

Making a copper oxide sponge is a fairly common failure for people starting out without knowledge of oxidation, reduction, fluxes.   

Burning through a steel crucible is often the next issue as oxidation and dissolving from the inside combine with excessively long heats. 

Then perhaps success in melting; but failure in pouring due to: lack of superheat, lack of degassing of the melt,  lack of venting in the mold, wrong mold making materials, bad mold design, bad pouring, unsafe casting environment,  burning out of zinc if casting brass---may be combined with metal fume fever! 

All this combined with improvised tooling and lack of PPE and the Invulnerability of Youth/Dunning-Kruger can result in a massive saving of money on future Halloween costumes as you get to go as Freddy Kruger every day all year long combined with, here in the USA, MASSIVE medical bills.

This should be the heading of this forum lol.

[MK4]

On 4/7/2019 at 11:02 PM, ThomasPowers said:

Funny I have accidentally melted steel in my NA propane forge and steel melts about 600 degF above cop;per!

I'm trying to melt copper down and while I cant get it to liquify, my tongs are soft enough during the process that i need to reshape them afterwards. 

So i feel your pain