If you are still sitting on the fence about melting cast iron then have a look at this video. This is his first time melting cast iron. He gets fluid iron and pours it into a sand mold using a naturally asperated propane burner. Burner at 0:48, 1:14 pouring at 1:57. He makes one big mistake at 2:35 dunking the red hot casting into water. Cast iron is like any other high carbon steel it will harden if cooled too quickly. Near the end of the video he uses a interesting method etching letters in his casting.