book recommendation?

Home enthusiasts discuss their Foundry & Casting work.

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JohnHudak
Posts: 1140
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 2:18 pm
Location: Ohio

book recommendation?

Post by JohnHudak »

Hi All, There are many books on the market on how to start a small home foundry, can anyone recommend one that they like? I think I'd like to give charcoal a try...
John
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Harold_V
Posts: 20232
Joined: Fri Dec 20, 2002 11:02 pm
Location: Onalaska, WA USA

Post by Harold_V »

John,
Lindsay offers some books on foundry---including one for building a charcoal furnace.

I've built and run several furnaces through the years. I can't imagine one that is fired with charcoal----although I know they work. I'd be concerned about the the inability to insert a crucible at will, but maybe I don't understand how they work. Bottom line is I'd recommend you explore a gas fired furnace if you're serious about having a small foundry. If you have natural gas at your disposal, I can't think of a better fuel source. While it's a little beyond what you're considering, here's a picture of a tilting furnace I built for processing precious metal wastes. It had no safety features, so you couldn't run it unattended. I has an igniter built in. A very similar design would work for foundry, or a plain crucible furnace could be built even easier.

Harold
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Tilt furnace #2.jpg
David_toledo
Posts: 147
Joined: Sat Jan 04, 2003 11:57 am
Location: Toledo,Oh

Post by David_toledo »

Mike Porter book on Furnaces. I think it is called just Furnaces and burners. I don't have it in front of me. My lost wax teacher has it. About $ 25 dollors
David/Toledo
dorin
Posts: 606
Joined: Thu Nov 28, 2002 5:24 am

book

Post by dorin »

I have yet to order and read this one...but it is still on my mind.

http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/book_fp.html
Elijah
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri Sep 21, 2007 9:04 pm
Location: Idaho

Post by Elijah »

Probably the best book to start with on charcoal fueled metal furnaces is the one by the late Dave Gingery, offered by Lidsay Publications.
http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/char/index.html
This will give you everything you need to start making castings.

Keep in mind that charcoal burners are limited aluminum, pot metals, and brass; to melt steel, you would have to upgrade.
sawracer
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:06 am
Location: orange ca

Post by sawracer »

Charcoal gets expensive quick. I use a very inefficient pottery kiln on natural gas. In 15 minutes I have an easy 10 plus lbs of molten aluminum. I generally just prototype at home so it works fine for that. The gingery books are a cheap way to gain a ton of knowledge. Check your local pottery supply house for a used kiln, that is where I got mine. I paid 300, but I didn't get my hands dirty either. Here's a pic of my old short lived charcoal setup in action, and a part I made with this cave man technology.
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I own a bridgeport series one mill and a sheldon lathe.
sawracer
Posts: 57
Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 3:06 am
Location: orange ca

Post by sawracer »

a kiln pic, like I said it's a waste of gas, but for one offs it's the cat's ass. It has three burners on the bottom that I opened up to suit natural gas instead of propane.
Image
Image
I own a bridgeport series one mill and a sheldon lathe.
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