Melting Metals
Thinking of making my own metal foundry at home, I started metal casting by December 2008. For a start, I made a simple cement furnace powered by charcoal. I was able to melt a good quantity of aluminum. From a cold start it would take me 30 minuets to get to the point where I can keep throwing and melting in aluminum.
image 1.0 complete set for charcoal furnace
The charcoal furnace was a good start but, it didn’t satisfy what I still wanted to do, my goal is to reach 1600++ degrees Celsius enough to melt steel and glass.
I found some good ideas from the net (especially from this website
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/). The waste oil burner, so I tried building one my first prototype was a failure (so I didn’t picture it), I tried again, learning from mistakes. On February 2009 the third prototype it was a success. A small waste oil burner but has a lot of heat in it.
image2.0 Experimental waste oil burner
The waste oil burner design, most of my burners uses recycled materials like cans. I started testing concepts cutting two hole, one for the intake and the exhaust, placing the hole alignment, height from the base, studying air flow from the blower into the burner, consulting websites and etc. finally I came up with the best results.
After getting the best results, I made a bigger version I call it the “Hot Box Burner ”, well it’s box shaped and it gets really hot. The internal of the burner is an empty one liter paint can, cut with two 2”inch holes one on top and the side and two empty cans, after which embed in cement for insulation. After the cement dries, there the Waste Oil burner, of course it’s still missing the fuel injector and the blower. I used a EDF(Electric Ducted Fan) for the air intake, and simple oil dripping contraption for the fuel injection. There we have it a complete working Waste Oil Burner, to start it, drop burning paper, wood, hot charcoal, and etc. to get the interior hot, this will take around 5 min, after which you can turn on the blower and the fuel, from this stage on just give a constant fuel intake the burner will burn.
image3.0 Hot Box Burner
image4.0 EDF of the burner
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