Another lightweight fiber blanket furnace

Discussion in 'Furnaces and their construction' started by Tobho Mott, Apr 29, 2019.

  1. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Yeah, we do, I get the reference. And I definitely agree, this Satanite stuff is really easy to work with, and these type of furnace seem to work great. I just broke in the new furnace and my newly tempered #6 clay graphite crucible pouring some aluminum using the hot shot just in preheat mode (5psi propane with a hair dryer for a blower, never hooked up the drip and left the noisy shop vac in the shed). I saw molten metal in the crucible at the 9 minute mark and was opening the furnace to skim and pour by 15. Sometimes I'm able to switch over to diesel or wvo after 10 minutes of preheat when I use the big furnace...

    Here's the goofy spooky test ingot I poured. Should fit back in the crucible nicely if nobody I know around here wants a free paperweight.

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    Time will tell how much maintenance the new furnace will need compared to my other one, which needs hardly any.

    Jeff
     
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  2. Looking great!

    We're not having a race, but for reference, my brick furnace is ready for a little oil at about 1-1/2 to 2 minutes and full oil no propane 30 seconds later. It's ready to pour at 20 minutes if I keep the burner turned down.
     
  3. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Final build video, showing the Satanite application and the test run the using the big furnace's Hot Shot burner running 5psi propane (ie. in preheat mode), except with a much smaller blower. All of which has been documented already in recent posts above:

     
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  4. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Update on the copper casting for the argon condenser discussed above (ie. The reason I tried the Canadian Tire chimney cement before the Satanite arrived): Josh (local blacksmith) told me the scientists were able to successfully machine the casting, and it does work for condensing argon gas into a liquid for their dark matter experiments. Woohoo!

    The reason I was there was to take a one day forging class that he gave me as payment for helping him out with that. So this post isn't really foundry related from here on, except that metal casting led directly to me taking this class.

    Since my admission was free, I paid to sign up my son too, call it a two-fer I guess.

    It was a 6-hour class, "dual throwing axes". Got to use coal and propane forges, practice upsetting and forging a taper and drifting the eye (original hole was drilled, not punched), then drawing out the upset end to form the blade. They're just toys really, made of 3/4" square 1018 - fun to throw and not much good for anything else, but I think a good intro to some basic skills. Was nice to have an actual teacher there to advise us and help us correct our errors instead of trying to figure it all out on our own, or online after the fact.

    Guess I'm gonna have to dig into my piles of junk looking for parts to build my own forges now!

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    The freshly rebuilt coal forge Josh had burned out trying to melt the copper on his own wound up being the one I got to use. :D

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    Jeff
     
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  5. Jason

    Jason Gold

    This is how the sickness starts! Very nice Jeff. I only use my forge a few times a year, but when I need it, it was worth all the heartache building that thing.
    I stuck mine on wheels so it's easy to scoot around outta the way.
     
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  6. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    It's not really a sickness, I'm just a little bit metally ill! :cool:

    I remember your forge build, with the awesome crayola burner. I don't know if I'll start with anything so fancy, I might just roll some kaowool up inside an old Costco 'balloon time' birthday party sized helium tank (just like your 'tower of power' oil tanks, but pink), paint on some Satanite, and shove my Moya burner in through the side somewhere. Or just turn the Red Dwarf on its side, lol. I have an old round charcoal grill base that I think I could line with refractory for the coal forge side of the equation. I might even have ALL the parts I need lying around to do both...

    Can definitely see the usefulness of having both types available - the pic above when I was upsetting just one end of the work would not have been so easy to do using a propane forge that wants to heat up the whole part, for instance. Whereas when drawing out the blade it was nice to use the propane forge and know I wasn't likely to burn the edge off the thing accidentally...

    Also I think I gave him a metal illness too. He was talking about roping me into making wrought iron with him, using an old technique called puddling. From what I can find online, and to simplify a bit, this involves stirring a big reverb furnace full of molten iron with rods of some kind, to remove the impurities.

    Sounds like fun!

    Jeff
     
  7. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I think you two should go for it! Wrought iron is the most misused word out there. Real Wrought is not steel as you know.
    Here is a YT channel, you guys should check out. He did some good videos on wrought iron if you look. I don't think he makes it that's for sure.
    You would be one of the rare ones if you did! I wish I knew more about it. It would be very cool to see it replicated today.

    https://www.youtube.com/user/TechnicusJoe
     
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  8. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Josh had a few pieces of wrought iron that he showed us when we were there.

    Since I already have a metal illness, obviously I'll be there whenever he's ready to try it! :D

    Jeff
     
  9. Jason

    Jason Gold

    It's really amazing stuff Jeff and works MUCH easier than modern crap. If I didn't screw with bronze, this is where I'd be!

    Did you ever see the devils blacksmith? I'm guessing they didn't raise the funds to finish this. Would have better than
    watching BS forged in fire dumbed down for the masses.


    Check out this series. Lot's of good stuff on that channel.
     
  10. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    Thank for the video suggestions, I'll check those out tonight when I get home.

    Jeff
     
  11. Ben Ricard

    Ben Ricard Copper

    Wow !!
    I litteraly copied this.
    I had no idea anyone else did.
    I am struggling with the lid.. what to use as a lid. And I have to dress up the liner better tomorrow. I want to perfect my linning. For the record it is my son and I the first time ever.. still proud. Lol IMG_20200322_184657196.jpg IMG_20200322_184628998.jpg
     
  12. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Good father/son project. You both can learn together. Just be careful. Liquid metal is no joke.
     
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  13. OMM

    OMM Silver

    I have the ongoing joke going with my wife that I'm going to be teaching my 5yr. son how to play with fire and make popcorn in the driveway well melting aluminum. He can learn how to melt aluminum when he's done learning how to play with the chainsaw..... This might follow 20 hours of how to sharpen an axe and using an axe to chop down a tree.

    Magnifying glass, Match, blow torch, knife, axe, table saw, chainsaw, then climbing with ladders then I can get into melting... I was brought up with guns at the age of five and I disagree with it. Every Saturday I was taking out to a homemade shooting range. 22 calibre rifle, three shots on a target, three shots on any targeted animal. My father brought the animals home for Sat dinner. Yes, I've eaten squirrel and turtle.... And a few bird.
     
    Last edited: Mar 22, 2020
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  14. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Have you pulled the fresnel lens out of a tv yet? They can set a car on fire at the right focus!
     
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  15. Shouldn't you be starting him with the basics: hypergolic mixtures like potassium permanganate and glycerin?.
     
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  16. The lid's going to be a tough one, maybe a trash can lid with a hole cut in it and lined with kaowool sewn in with wire and satanite coating.
     
  17. Melterskelter

    Melterskelter Gold Banner Member

    I would suggest using kaowool book-stacked and into a domed lid if possible. Something along the line of this thread, BUT, using a dome shaped cover like a wok instead of flat shape.

    http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?threads/on-building-a-satanite-wool-furnace-lid.999/

    I have only 5 iron melts on mine now, but it looks to be holding well. I am pretty sure (in my own mind ;-] at least ) that book-stacking wool is much better than flat laying wool into a lid. And, next time I will definitely make a dome shape as a flat lid has to deform as it heats and that will push the lining around. A domed lid will also expand but it will not put the horizontal portion of the lid under so much stress. With a hammer and some patience a lid that begins somewhat flat can be hammered into a dome shape. There are lots of YouTube videos showing the technique. And I understand that the OP does not (yet) weld, but bear in mind the attachment of the dome portion of the lid to the vertical rim could be made using steel pop rivets that would join tabs of the dome to the rim every couple/few inches. That join need not be water tight. The metal of the lid just maintains the form of the wool.

    Denis
     
    Last edited: Mar 23, 2020
  18. Tobho Mott

    Tobho Mott Gold Banner Member

    How I made my domed lid using the top of the well tank with book stacked strips of insulation as Denis suggests (plus some screws) is shown in this post. So far it is holding up great.

    Jeff
     

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