I have cast aluminium , bronze and brass in the past with good results. I have never managed to pour cast iron and I now want to try to do this. I am looking to pour up to 20 pounds of iron per charge. So anything that will help me get there will be appreciated. I am thinking that oil firing would be best for me as I am too close to other people to go the coal / coke route. Andrew.
Welcome to the forum! Sounds like you are well on your way. This has to be the first time anyone mentioned they want to burn waste oil because their neighbours are so close, usually that's people's reason for burning propane instead of oil, lol. That's probably because we don't tend to see a lot of folks here at all who are melting with coal power. Anyhow, you'll find plenty of info about waste oil burners here, and a few iron casters sharing their experiences as well. Good luck! PS. Got any pix of your castings or foundry gear? Jeff
Welcome. I use diesel, and I guess that is considered a fuel oil. Diesel burns cleanly without smoke, but I think waste oil would do the same. If the burner is tuned correctly then you will get a clean burn pretty much regardless of the oil type. The coke/cupola method is big and messy, and can take multiple people, but I guess in theory could be operated by one person. Unlike melting aluminum, there is not much room for error when melting iron. The fuel and air mixture have to be pretty exact, the refractory and crucible have to be rated for 3,000 F (with a ferrous-metal-rated crucible), and there are certain techniques that you need to be aware of for dealing with slag, charging the crucible during the melt, etc. Iron is very hot, and you need full leathers or silver suit, and a heat shield on the pouring shank to protect the gloved hand nearest the crucible. And you need some dark-lensed glasses due to the IR/UV that comes out of the furnace and off the crucible. Iron can definitely be melted/poured, but you cannot do it casually like aluminum; you have to get serious and pay close attention to everything. And if you want the parts to be machinable, there are things you need to do for that too. There are a number of people here that routinely do iron pours. Ironsides taught me a lot of what I know about melting iron, along with melterskelter, and some input from the guy who started this forum DavidF.
