Kiln, foundry.forge, whatever

[Saint 5150]

UI have a large stainless steel pool filter that I want to use for the "oven" portion and the exhaust off of my Dodge Magnum and a metal barrel for the fire pit. The filter will be buried up to the lid and I'll incase that in brick if necessary. The exhaust will be buried and half of the barrel. Will attach a blower as well. Was going to use a shop vac motor till a read some comments on here so I suppose I'll use a bathroom fan. I just didn't think that'd do the job. Any way is this a good idea. I primarily want to make plant pots but if u want to melt some metal then I'd like to be able to do that as well.

[George N. M.]

Dear Saint,

It sounds like you want to build a kiln to fire ceramics.  Someone with more experience with pottery can better answer this but the one time I tried to fire some clay items in my propane forge it was a dismal failure.  In fact, they disintegrated and disappeared.  I was told that with a kiln you have to bring the temperature up very slowly.  I'm not sure your proposed set up would do that.  Good luck though.

"By hammer and hand all arts do stand."

[J.L.S]

A ways to increase the heat...
there are two ways to do that, size or velocity.

for blacksmithing tho, most go for velocity, size only heats "more/larger area", velocity heats "faster"
 and if you want to melt steel, you probably need both.

the way to achieve higher velocity is to have a pipe/tuyere that becomes narrower right as it enters the forge/kiln/whatever.
here's some reference: 
if you have a 2" (5cm) diameter pipe, at the point where it enters the forge/kiln/whatever, it should taper down so the opening is about 1" (2.5cm) diameter.
when I was learning all this, a way this was taught to me was this: "open your mouth wide and blow air on your palm, gradually narrow your mouth down and you'll feel the air hitting your hand with more force"

another way to increase air velocity is to have a blower/source that's already producing air blasts at high velocities.
if you have something that can blow a 2lb (1kg) block of steel off a kitchen table effortlessly, you're good to go.
if not, play around with tapered tuyeres and good luck?
hope that helps, im still studying a lot myself.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Welcome to IFI Saint 5150... Where in the world are you located? What fuel are you proposing to use? Have you read this? READ THIS FIRST

[Nobody Special]

As above, welcome to IFI.  Sounds like your interested in three different fun hobbies.

Sorry to say, mostly forges, furnaces and kilns don't work interchangeably.  Each one really takes a different build.  You can do small melts in a forge, but not nearly as easily as in a casting furnace, and kilns...kilns are special.  Forging in a kiln or casting furnace is horribly difficult, and slow.  It's not just about producing a lot of heat, it's about the way it's directed and controlled.

I would also consider a different pipe for a tuyere, or at least taking off the hangers, and that muffler or catalytic converter.  Good luck, lots of good forge builds on here.  For casting, look at some of the sites dedicated to that.  Stay away from the more popular youtube videos on casting, those guys are dangerous and don't know what they're doing.

[gwynlaredogranger]

agreed about youtube casting videos! do not trust what you see or hear online. instead you should read 'the metalcasters bible' im sure its out there still has great info for getting started and how to build a furnace for casting, also covers sand molding. good luck.