Making a furnace suitable for alumium (and ideally brass/bronze) has been on my project list for ages. I recently had to shell out some reasonable dollars for a couple of short pieces of larger (150mm) round bar for other projects. I could have easily cast at least a solid blank for almost nil dollars if I already had a furnace - so decided its time to make a start.

My problem is there's just too much info online, and my only furnace experience was at high school - far too many years ago to remember.

My thoughts so far:
- about beer keg size.
- just LPG fired for a start, but I've got plenty of waste engine/transmission oil to fuel an oil fired burner down the track.
- sufficient to melt around 4kg of aluminium (1.5L).
- a swing lid style arrangement so I'm not having to manually lift the lid etc.

Does that seem reasonable?

The next decision is what to line it with - fire bricks, ceramic blanket, or castable refractory.
I want it to last more than a dozen firings, but if its going to turn into a $1000 build then there are probably better options.
I'm leaning towards ceramic blanket with a rigidiser coating as its probably easier to freight in the current climate.

Thoughts/suggestions??

Steve


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