My First Furnace Design/Construction

Discussion in 'Furnaces and their construction' started by Dazz, Jan 31, 2020.

  1. OMM

    OMM Silver

    I absolutely love the kiss principle. One day, I hope to build a small furnace with my leftovers on NG/LP. I will definitely use KISS! It will be inside a 20 pound propane tank.
     
  2. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    All right, I'm going to build an oil burner to check it out.
    I need to scrap some rims and was thinking about it anyway.
    Don't hold your breath though.
     
    OMM likes this.
  3. OMM

    OMM Silver

    Absolutely love it. Experimenting with reported results is great!

    I’m going to try to use the same burner. Win or lose... I will report.

    I believe Jeff (and Jason with the Glory-hole) walked along the same path.
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2020
  4. FishbonzWV

    FishbonzWV Silver Banner Member

    Matt, are you running oil and Satanite? And if you are, how's it holding up?
     
  5. OMM

    OMM Silver

    Just IFB (no Satanite) and I’m on my Forth 1/2 hour burn with no melting results. I’m getting white flames from WVO after 10 minutes. I am a little bit scared to use the stainless steel crucible for the first melt! Actually, really scared!
     
    Last edited: Feb 8, 2020
    FishbonzWV likes this.
  6. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Ya-know Matt, when you started your furnace build and indicated they were 3500F IFBs, I initially thought you were mistaken. They are clearly marked in a convention that would suggest they are (although I usually see a "K" vs the "L") but I've never heard of an IFB rated that high.

    http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?threads/my-ifb-fibre-blanket-furnace-build.856/

    I use this site as a tech reference and even Corundum, ZrO2, and Bubble Alumina bricks are only <3270F service temperature. You can poke around at specs for all the brick materials there but nothing is in the category of 3500F.

    http://ktrefractories.com/Refractory-Bricks.cfm

    You either have something very special (so your test results may vary from others) or we're not interpreting the markings correctly. The other thing that is universally true with IFB, as service temp goes up, so does density, and insulating qualities go down. I can't imagine why a crematory (that was your source, correct?) would need such an exotic brick to do the job.

    Best,
    Kelly
     
  7. OMM

    OMM Silver

  8. Dazz

    Dazz Copper

    It is not so much a question of what I need, but what I can get.
    I can't get IFBs with a high enough temperature rating to survive behind a hot face.

    Dazz
     
  9. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    First time I ever heard my name used in the same sentence as "glory hole", honest...

    I guess that's worth climbing out of my snow cave to respond to.

    The iron furnaces in Ironsides' videos linked above by Fishbonz are both blanket and coating construction using a few different painted on products, so I don't doubt a blanket and 3200F Satanite furnace could stand up to cast iron service too. I used 2600F rated blanket closest to the hot face in both of my furnaces, which I figure should provide a little more safety factor than standard 2300F blanket would.

    I have been meaning to try out my oil burner in my satanite and blanket furnace. I've only used propane in it since before my Satanite arrived, because it melts metal so fast and uses so little propane to do it that it just hasn't seemed worth the hassle of setting up the oil tank and drip line ever since that first test run melting copper with just box store fireplace chimney mortar from a tub.

    That box store chimney mortar stuff didn't hold up well to a white hot furnace running on diesel, nor did I ever expect it to (only tried it because there was a rush and I could not wait for the satanite to come in the mail any longer), but the satanite does seem to be much more suitable and has a significantly higher temperature rating.

    Indoor foundry or not, my shed isn't heated and my greensand is a huge PITA to mull and work with in this cold. So I'll see if I can come up with a lost foam project that will give me an excuse to not only see how the thin Satanite hot face holds up to my oil burner, but also test my new CO meter and see if my ventilation is up to the task. If it can blow out enough oil burner & shop vac exhaust to keep me safe in there, then I figure my customary propane & hair dryer exhaust should be no problem... Been meaning to test all of this for quite a while now anyway.

    I've been thinking about making a sand casting pattern for one of those match plate vibrators that you can see on the old ray-vin site for a while, but it's an equally good candidate for lost foam as well. Maybe I'll do that. I could always design the foam pattern with draft angles so that if it comes out well, I can use the resulting lost foam casting as a pattern for making sand cast copies later on as needed...

    Y'know, these tests might be just the thing to shake me out of this bleak, depressing mid February Netflix binge mode I find myself stuck in!

    Jeff
     
  10. Jason

    Jason Gold

    OMG... wtf did I start?:eek::eek:o_O:oops:
     
    OMM likes this.
  11. OMM

    OMM Silver

    I hope, Nothing much!:cool: Or I need to duck and run.

    I’m working through a process on how to light it safely with diesel. The last light went off without a hitch. (I am using two burners holes though, Tuyeres). Shoved a high intensity, handheld blow torch lit into one of the tuyere. Lit the diesel air torch, pulled the handheld blow torch and put in the second torch then turned it on with diesel. about three or four minutes and I switched one of them to WVO and the second, after about 10 minutes.
     
  12. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Likely. It seems binder would become a major factor at these temps as the choices become much fewer and everything starts looking like flux. I never put much effort into materials in that range because I just didn't need it. It's alchemy!

    Best,
    Kelly
     

Share This Page