Hello all! New to the foundry world, as of yet I am in the process of gathering all the components I need to build my first foundry. I have watched a lot of videos and browsed a number of web sites to see what direction I want to go early on so I don't have to start over. My goal is to eventually melt and cast, cast iron. I have a cylinder large enough to handles for what I believe to be a #10 crucible with plenty room for insulation. I will construct it with the kaowool and satinite and use a fire brick for a plinth to set the crucible on. For the burner I will go with a 40lb regulator and a forced air system. I will be fabrication my own thongs and pourer. I will also be fabricating a forge that will use forced air with ribbon burners. I joined this group to learn as much as I can before setting things in stone and then to share my progress with other like minded craftsmen.
Hi George, welcome to the forum. Wool/Satanite furnaces are very practical and efficient. If your aim is really cast iron, you may find they lack the durability for iron. On the burner, though iron is certainly possible with LPG fuel, everything needs to be just right and most iron casting hobbyists end up with a diesel or oil burners to reliably achieve the necessary temps. If you do build a ribbon burner, you may want to ensure your furnace design can still easily accomodate an oil burner or traditional LPG burner. Though many hobbyists start out with the notion they want to build for casting iron, if iron isn't your primary/only aim, you'd likely be better served starting out with lower melt point alloys and gain some experience while you develop all the other processes and equipment it actuallys take to successfully mold and cast. Best, Kelly
Good advice, yes my ultimate goal is cast iron, but I do want to get my feet wet on aluminum, copper and bronze. I don't have access to a lot of waste oil, so it would have to be kero or #2 oil. From what I can see, fire brick is good to certain temps and the high temp ones that I would use for cast are , to my surprise, very expensive. Cast is a long way off and this bit of advice will definitely be one of my considerations.
