Blast furnace?

[Grant Kegllr]

I'm new to forging and smelting. I've always wondered, could you make some like like a blast furnace that youd see in a big steel mill like the old Bethlehem Steel furnaces? How would I go about "tapping" and controlling flow of the metal?

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome to IFI... I suggest reading this. READ THIS FIRST

[ThomasPowers]

You want to produce cast iron from ore?   MUCH easier and cheaper to make a  cupola to produce the molten cast iron;  I've seen several in action made and run by hobbyists. You go about tapping the cast iron (as that is what a blast furnace creates) the same way they did. 

Now most hobby folks are running bloomeries that smelt ore into metal directly. (The Japanese Tatara is an example of a bloomery.)

Now if you want to make a Bessemer Converter; that is much more difficult and dangerous and you still need a cupola to provide the cast iron. Kelly, who predated Bessemer by a few years did his experiments in a refractory lined barrel so you should be able to scale it down a bit.  Do expect to spend thousands of dollars for the proper safety equipment.

So can you give a bit more detail on what you want to accomplish?

(I was part of a short stack Scandinavian, think Y1K, bloomery crew for over a decade at Pennsic each year.)

[Frosty]

Welcome aboard Grant, glad to have you. If you'll put your general location in the header you might be surprised how many members live within visiting distance.

At the risk of hurting your feelings just asking that kind of question demonstrates you don't know enough to even talk about doing these things. Seriously, if you don't know how to tap the furnace you have significant studies ahead of you before someone is likely to let you help during a pour.

Don't go away, I'm not trying to discourage you, that was just a reality check. We're about safety here and you can NOT handle molten metal without running serious risks even if you know what you're doing. Stick around, we'll be proud to help you along the way we're just not likely to tell you just enough to get yourself crippled or killed.

Frosty The Lucky.

[Nobody Special]

Hello,

 

You've got most of the requisite warnings that melting iron is dangerous and expensive.  Bloomeries are less so, and leave you a workable product at the end instead of cast iron.  Where are you at?  I would highly recommend checking out groups in your area (and it may have to be a larger area) that do iron pours if that is what you are into.