Lost and Foundry furnace?

[Sandiapaul]

Anyone have any experience with this furnace?


http://foundry101.com/search.htm

[RONALD]

Rather strange that they do not show the capacity. The first thing that should be listed is capacity, operating range and physical size.

[rowbare]

I found it somewhat indirectly. It comes with 2 large crucibles and they hold 12 lbs.

bob

[steamin10]

Not to throw rocks, but how high is UP?

The usual way of stating size on a founding furnace is by crucible number. Know this means diferent weights at 'full capacity'. Pewter, Brass, and Aluminum, will be 3 diferent weights.

Smaller vessels for jewelry was either stated in weght of metal like silver or cc. of volume.

Look up Mc Englevan crucible furnace, or Speedy Melt. They were both common in school and lab shops. I have both. Tehy are both blown furnaces capable of higher heats, on bottle or natural gas. A copycat furnace can be built for small money, with a venturi burner, like a Riel design. Easily it will take a #8 bilge crucible, I max out around #16.

[BAdams]

The webpage states 12 pounds of Bronze for the large crucibles.

[RONALD]

Almost all crucibles are numbered according to the weight of Aluminum they can hold, and that also applies to the furnaces MIFCO makes.

Brass is about three times as dense hence, if the crucible holds 12 pounds of brass, it would be a #4 crucible.

As can be seen in the attached chart, my older model MIFCO Speedy Melt #B-30 (now B-301) can melt a max of 30 pound of Aluminum or 90 pounds of Brass. My #B-70 (now B-702) is 70 AL and 210 Brass.

If you fill a #70 crucible full, you really need a crane, part of which can be seen in the photo below of the B-30 Furnace and a #30 crucible. The B-70 is covered up in the background.

[steamin10]

Thanks for the hard numbers, it really helps to illustrate the diference between a toy and good hobby furnace. Do you use synthetic sand, or Green sand? Or something else.

[RONALD]

Dave, a long time ago, when I started into metal casting, I used the green sand shop of the school, and that can be seen in the photo I recently posted, right next-door was synthetic Petro Bond shop. After a while I switched to using that shop. My use of those shops, after regular school hours was by special permit. I also made up lots of my own sodium silicate bonded sand, using sand I purchased and stored in their basement storeroom. CO2 sand of course, is only used once.

After the whole setup was eliminated, I took my stored AFS 105 sand home ( about 6000 lbs), along with other equipment, and switched to Petro Bond II. Petro Bond II works fine for me, and I still make up CO2 sand when needed.

In the photos below are the first and last time we poured. Big difference in temperature when you pour aluminum or brass. The Petro Bond really burns when hit with the +2000 degree metal.

I intend to pour again in a few weeks; too many other projects have higher priority.

[Sandiapaul]

Thanks for the responses guys...what I want to do is investment casting of pretty small parts only, 1" scale journal boxes, small detail parts, etc....

The appeal to me of a ready to go furnace is is to get me actually doing casting work. Yes I can build one...I have a LONG list of things I can build. What I have come to realize is that buying something like a belt grinder got me a working belt grinder, not a "I'll make one one day"

So I'm just looking for a decent furnace or even a kit version like this one:
http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/hmkit.html

Thanks,

Paul

[RONALD]

Paul, sometimes we tend to run a little off the topic. Obviously, you don't want a MIFCO 210 lb Furnace, nor to build your own, and you only want to do small castings, so the Rio Grande site I mentioned in the post on Kerr Electro Melt is the way to go for lost wax casting information, and maybe purchase.

There is another forum you could post on and get their opinions, they have lots of good ideas, but sometimes have some suggestions that may be real dangerous for casting metal:

http://www.alloyavenue.com/vb/forum.php

[hammermill]

It is good to see the upgrade of safety gear. Between photo,s

[RONALD]

If you tried to access that AlloyAvenue Forum, you get all kinds of error messages. I only go there about once per month, but apparently something is fouled up with the software and there is no explanation as of now; (that was in the Blog section which was the only part accessible.)

Let's hope it's nothing contagious.

+++++++++

Proper safety gear is important whether you are pouring from an ElectroMelt or a #30 Crucible. Yes, in the first photo we did not have the proper attire. Shortly after that we bought what is used in the second photo, but because of visibility problems, Ean who was controlling the pour, chose a face shield instead of the whole head shield I have on; that was his decision.