DIY foundry crucible furnace
Making my own foundry furnace at home for melting aluminum. I came up with this design based on what i’ve seen others doing on You-tube, both DIY and pro guys (especially Tubalcain). I’m a firm believer that you get out what you put in. This project took about 6 weeks of part time work to do. Nothing was outsourced for fabrication. Everything was designed on the computer first. The acrylic brick moulds were made in one of the shops I regularly deal with that has a CNC. This furnace was designed around the need for single person operation and portability. I also had large reservations about casting the refractory cement (which is very expensive) in one piece. This would have also made the finished furnace body unmovable by one person. Casting bricks also allowed easer/effective/controlled construction and assembly. This also makes it very easy to dismantle and clean the unit. This has also been designed for possible production, so anyone with a marketing saavy that finds this interesting should contact me.
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Tags: 8 Responses to “DIY foundry crucible furnace”
@hennyforapenny :I’ve designed this to melt all non ferrous metals. It easily exceeds my initial expectations and i believe it will do higher temperature melts quite easily. Since this vid was made, i’ve also wrapped a 1 inch thick pyromat around the furnace body which keeps in much more heat.
Hi,
Great vid and foundry I a interested in making one but I want to melt iron. Would it be possible to do that with this one? Would I need to change the burner?
@Joepowiful it takes about 15-20 min to warm up.
How long does it take to melt the metal? On average.
@squiffyboy > refractory was purchased from a local foundry supply. I also found it at industrial building supply places.
@amaedesign > could have, yes. but try and put that arrangement in the trunk my car…
good job mate where do you get the refractory from as im in the middle of building a furnace and finding it hard to get the refractory cheers
Beautiful design! You could, of course mount the whole thing on a custom cart and it’d be easy to move by one person, without the setup required.