I haven't found a thread made specifically for furnace safety measures. I am more interested in furance design safety measures but also any safety elements/processes you impliment (Either by foresight or by learning the hard way). Any idiosyncrasies? Things you avoid? Scar Stories/Mistakes? Design Regrets? Or things that you think are overkill for safety? This thread had some good rules and some ideas: https://www.homemodelenginemachinist.com/threads/15-hot-work-safety-rules-foundry.14397/ Pics encouraged!
Wearing welding protective gear should protect you from most light spills and splatters: gloves, leather boots, boot welding spats, leather apron long enough to reach your boots. A plastic grinding facemask will stop splashed metal but you'll have to whip it off fast if it does happen. Pre heating scrap before placing it into the pool of molten metal in the crucible stops steam vapour explosions from the surface moisture: it'll make metal spray into the air. Also rusty steel ingot moulds need to have moisture driven off by heating: I nearly copped a small splat of bronze in the eye that the facemask and safety glasses stopped.
A big one is situational awareness, always important but especially so if you are not working alone, bumping into someone or something while moving a crucible full of molten metal could have tragic effects, everyone there should know what to expect, what their job is and where to stand while hot metal is being moved, etc..
Furnace design safety measures???? Yeah DON'T USE FRIGGEN CONCRETE OR PLASTER OF PARIS! >>>>>>>>> KING OF BS (insert deceased random idiot) Crucibles never more than 3/4 full. Jeff will show his feet! Don't pour on concrete! (I'm guilty of this one) and this...
I don't usually have company but my general rules are: No dogs or kids Assume anything made out of metal or ceramic in the furnace area is hot Stay away from the molds I trust my PPE but I don't press my luck. An extra couple of seconds over an open furnace will burn up a welding glove and not only does that glove have to come off quick, there should be a spare at hand. I have a really nice pair of foundry gloves that are in a different class than regular welding gloves. 18" long. I wear them when I'm working over the furnace. They insulate so well it's easy to forget just how hot the environment is until I smell them starting to burn. Pete
Great picture Jason! Are there any things you guys designed in your furances to make them safer or to discourage accidents? Any one keep fire extiguishers or are they useless at these temperatures? I'll be running waste cooking oil not sure if a K type extinguisher is worth getting or if you plum your lines a particluar way etc.
lol... Just keep stuff like fuel lines and air hoses away. Dripping hot metal or tripping on either of those could wreck your day. My fuel line is cheap hose from lowes and I've got the worlds worst air hose. It's one of those orange plastic HD hoses. When it's below 50degrees outside, it gets harder than a wedding day prick! I hate it! If it was a permanently installed furnace, I'd hard plumb everything, but I need to be mobile and wheel it out into the driveway. It doesn't take much of a hot piece of anything to blow concrete apart. So if something is hot, I lay it in a tray of sand. Yup, learned that one the hard way, had a 1/4" thick piece of steel come out of my forge and laid it on the concrete. 30 seconds later I heard a POP! Damage was minimal, but if it was a puddle of bronze, I'd be running across the street! I also keep a fire extinguisher nearby and also a big container of sand. At least if the fire department drives by, I can appear to be trying to "look" safe. I'm in a neighborhood, but Texans tend to mind their own business like they should! Tempe is full of old farts, so keep a look out for nosy neighbors.
Good stuff man, I got really lucky working at a research facility they where junking some flume hoods with bulit in gas lines for N2 and O2 inputs and got some stainless swagelok tubing with a needle value. Some randomly high class shit for my furance! I am thinking that I will have to shoud my fuel sources with some sheet metal to separate them from the furance both by heat and possible debis. My current focus is clean is safe, everything has a place and a measure to be cleaned or kept clean.
GOOD! Can I put my order in for some stainless steel braided hose?? I have an oil and gas guy down the street from me and he's a real gem for dropping off high dollar valves to me. Since adding proper needle valves, it's made mixture adjustment easy. Funny how a 90degree ball valve sucks for metering fuel. Great for On/off, but that's it. You wanna see high class?? Check out the fuel line for my forge! I run this thing on natural gas. It gets a little warm so I wrapped it in kaowool and some metal tape.
I bring out an ABC extinguish with my equipment. I'm a lot more concerned about fires starting from molten metal popping and starting my barn on fire. That would handle deisel and waste oil as well if there was a rupture in my pressurized line that actually caught fire. My setup is about 8 feet away from the building but I intend to move it another 8 feet in the near future. If you're pressurizing your veg oil or especially if you're preheating it you may want to spring for the K type, but spilled cold veg oil isn't going to burn very easily. A 5 gallon pail of sand would probably be just as good. Adding ball valves in addition to your needle valves is strongly recommended. I make sure to bleed my lines if there is any chance of air in them. Intermittent flameouts and relight are unnerving and can sound like a gunshot. If get get a flameout I turn the fuel off immediately and then open the lid....in that order. Then remedy the situation or relight, whatever the circumstances require. Then close the lid after its burning again. Design the furnace so your open lid is not over the burner or fuel lines radiating heat on them. And fix any leaks or pooling immediately. Pete
