Thanks for having me.

Thanks for the suggestions Sir! FIRST OFF, Great poodle! I have a Christmas tree lamp with light up ornaments I am sure was made in the same shop .
SECOND, "cheap kaowool" is an oxymoron... thankfully i have enough. My lid is about 8 or 9 inches so maybe 4 layers of wool pinned in with mig wire, then coat once or more? I'm willing to give this a try. waiting on said "peanut gallery" to change my mind.

 

Kaowool is dirt cheap compared to a bag of Mizzou. You can bulk up your lid for pennies compared to using heavy refractory. Light weight is just a bonus!
I agree, my box of kaowool was 100bucks. But here I am a few years down the road and I have so much left over, I cut pieces off it to handle 1700degree shells.
I need to make a pair of gloves out of the stuff.

That's not my poodle btw, it came from google. My grandmother had your christmas tree lamp however.... It was a thing back then. Here is my attack garden gnomes hiding in the bushes
near my front door. I'm too embarrassed to put them out where someone might see them and we get hail storms here too...
These 4 have seen some serious hurricanes through the years. They were my inheritance from my grandparents.

 

Doug,
Building a fuel efficient propane fired furnace requires keeping the internal dimensions close to the crucible size. Your shell is very tall, both the body and the lid. For my A10 furnace the body should have been 15" tall. I had cut it twice and still left it two inches too tall and had to make up for it with extra wool in the bottom.
Before you go any further, it would be wise to cut your shell down to a correct height. It looks like the lid could be cut to about the weld line and the shell should be cut off too. I know...you'll have to cut your hinge off and reduce the top part of your hinge to fit the lid but it will pay off in the long term.
With a domed lid the top of the crucible can be 1/2" below the top of the side walls. Height of crucible, + 1/2", 3" plinth, 2" wool on the bottom should give you the height of the shell. Pack some dirt in the domed bottom of the shell to level it out, wool over that.
Correct internal dimensions plus the wool/Satanite hot face makes an efficient furnace.
The other convenience to a properly sized shell, you don't have to lift the crucible so high to get it out.

 

That's MY problem! Dangerously close to my wedding tackle! can you still say wedding tackle?

 

Here's another tip, don't weld the lid back on until you have the Satanite on. The way to get a good seal between the lid and body is to spin the lid around as you apply the last layers. Cut the wool off at the top of the body,same with the lid. The two Satanite coatings will sit on each other and make a seal.

 

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it! I am sure you are 100% correct, but the idea still makes my stomach churn... Almost rather turn this one into an end table and start over from scratch. How about I trim the bottom XX" and weld on a heavy plate with casters kind of like Jason has here, but heavier?

I could bring it up as far as necessary to get the inside volume I am looking for, and not mess with the hinge, plus the plate would act as a counter weight for the lid.

 

The ends on my tank are still "stock".... I removed a big section out of the middle. Part of it ended up welded with tabs to the bottom. I still think it's a sexy design even if most don't like my simple lid. It works great for me and was dead nuts simple to construct. Open/close. Non of this up, swing, down foot pedal stuff. I got no time for fancy.

 

I understand your reluctance. Yes that would work, another option would be to add extra layers of wool to the bottom. Mine has four inches in the bottom.
You'll probably lose the dome shape on the lid adding the extra layers so the crucible will need to sit lower than the half inch I mentioned. Fill the lid first and see what you get.

 

You might take a look at my Grab & Go tongs made from bent pipe. I have no problem grabbing the crucible in the furnace and doing a pour, tapping the tongs on concrete with the crucible completely upside down to remove junk and putting it back in the furnace.

 

Hi Jason. when I first read this a few weeks ago, i'll be honest. Was like "what the hell is a plinth? and wth is a tuyere? lol. was thinking of using some of my satanite for this project. will the satanite work ok for the plinths? Also, when making my tuyere hole, should I line it with a thick stainless pipe all the way into the furance or no? Sincerely. Thanks for the help... oh and the "BURNER ENVY"...

 

No doug, satanite is a thin coating applied to the surface of stuff. I suppose if you wanted to use some firebrick as a plinth, you could go that route. For added style points, you could coat it with satanite too. I did the kaowool thing with mizzou refractory cement over it for my furnace.... While at it, I cast some plinths out of the mizzou.

You don't really want metal inside your furnace. The tuyere pipe is welded on the outside of the tank. The trick is shaping whatever you use on the inside to continue the hole. I used a piece of PVC pipe stuffed through my exterior hole and rammed the cement around it. Once dry, I took a torch to the pvc and removed it. A cardboard tube doesnt work too well unless it gets coated with something like cling wrap to keep the water off it from the cement. Some guys here use those concrete sono tubes to create a nice even bore for the furnace. They burn those out when the refractory is cured. I went thin sheetmetal pop riveted together and ground the rivet heads off and out it came. It's not perfectly round, but it doesn't leave the ground so who cares.

I've been really busy lately with work, did you nail down what you are using for materials inside your tank?

 

Your Grab & Pour tongs are really neat. I’m going to try to make something up like yours.

 

Great looking tool Sir. trying this method now. Thanks Gary!

 

Mine were made with 3/4 bent pipe but I think 1/2" pipe would have been plenty strong enough. I realized recently my crucibles are A16 size not A10 so when full they are quite a bit heavier.