McShane Bell Foundry oil fired furnace
Posted: Mon Apr 12, 2010 2:54 am
Have you guys seen the "Dirty Jobs" episode #28 that featured the "McShane Bell Foundry" up in Maryland?
They had an oil fired furnace that melted a large quantity of Silicon Bronze to over 2100 degrees and did it quickly using "oil". The flame was really clean and clear with no visible smoke, only heat waves. They said that the temp in the furnace would get close to 3000 degrees in about an hour.
They used horse manure to bind the green sand together, the employee said that it was 3-parts fire sand from New Jersey and 1-part Horse manure. They used about a 1/8" screen to screen out the straw and it had a lot of that straw and grass stems in it so maybe it was just regular "run of the trail" horse manure.
HUM.... Horse manure, sand at about $12 per ton, waste oil... The process sounds really inexpensive to me!
It seemed to me that the temps were high enough to do iron just as well. What am I not seeing. If it was that simple it seems to me that everyone (of us anyway) would have one of these in a shed behind out shops and we'd all have inexpensive iron/brass/bronze casting laying all over the place.
Tell me about that furnace?
I figured the cost of their large 1250# bell at $25 per pound, yikes! http://www.mcshanebell.com/
They had an oil fired furnace that melted a large quantity of Silicon Bronze to over 2100 degrees and did it quickly using "oil". The flame was really clean and clear with no visible smoke, only heat waves. They said that the temp in the furnace would get close to 3000 degrees in about an hour.
They used horse manure to bind the green sand together, the employee said that it was 3-parts fire sand from New Jersey and 1-part Horse manure. They used about a 1/8" screen to screen out the straw and it had a lot of that straw and grass stems in it so maybe it was just regular "run of the trail" horse manure.
HUM.... Horse manure, sand at about $12 per ton, waste oil... The process sounds really inexpensive to me!
It seemed to me that the temps were high enough to do iron just as well. What am I not seeing. If it was that simple it seems to me that everyone (of us anyway) would have one of these in a shed behind out shops and we'd all have inexpensive iron/brass/bronze casting laying all over the place.
Tell me about that furnace?
I figured the cost of their large 1250# bell at $25 per pound, yikes! http://www.mcshanebell.com/