/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>627195
using general purpouse concrete for refractory(worked before, put about 4-5 aluminium melts and 4 bronze through it and it still held togethor), plaster of paris for moulds and that box on the left for the mould of the furnace

>>627196
aaaaaand i forget the pic
off to a great start

>>627197
the "rough" size/measuring devices for my furnace

>>627198
the cardboard box cut open and layed out

stop me if im getting too technical

>>627199
2 minutes of work and a trip to the toilet

>>627201
this suspicous object is going to be my air vents

>>627205
suspicous object curved and in place

>>627206
after much consideration i have decided to downsize to a smaller bowl

>>627207
you lost me

>>627208
for the inner chamber

>>627209
In action

>>627211
Mozart doing his part

>>627212
Were almost ready to start mixing

>>627213
And by almost I mean I cant be fucked developing a way to make sure the lid is a solid fit so fuck it, mixing time

>>627215
Something tells me i shouldn't be doing this in the kitchen

>>627217
Base poured with oregano and basil stopping the vent from rising

>>627219
Time to slowly fill in the sides and hope the cardboard doesn't lose its shit

>>627221
Well /diy/ crisis has struck. I've ran out of concrete and hardware stores are shut. So ive decide to stick two sticks of steel in and call it a day. Will be finishing it off tomorrow after work.
In the meantime ill post some of my previous "work"

>>627225
This is the angel I carved months ago out of wax, will be my first melt with the new furnace

>>627226
My first furnace
Roughly half the size of what im making now

>>627227
My second attempt at casting a gear
Why? Because I have a fetish for gears

>>627228
Well thats it for tonight, ill check in tomorrow

>>627230
Actually might be able to finish pouring in the morning before work
We will see

Pic is the two fans I might use as air supply

Moar.

>>627195
sounds cool anon, I'm going to try my hand at doing the metal casting thing this summer. Have you ever tried casting your crucibles ? I'm a poorfag and trying to start from scratch. I've got an old gas clothes dryer with a good burner assembly and blower taken apart and ready and I have a salvaged bit of vitreous clay tile I'm going to try to use for my furnace. But I'm trying to find a decent crucible for non-ferrous casting and not having much luck being on the super cheap. Any suggestions?

>pic related

Thanks for posting. Look forward to seeing how things go tomorrow

>>627261
What I used to use were 4 dollar steel milkshake cups from the supermarket. The problem with those is that they lose heat really fast so you had to pour quick and they only last a single melt. Not sure what I'll be using this time round, will have a look for something better

Decided to use the name Ivan so you guys can tell the difference
Just about to head off to work, will post again when I come back

Holy. Fuck.

OP I did the exact fucking thing last weekend, but i didn't take a picture of the process. Used concrete as well, and made a cardboard scale thing in the middle, but i bought a cheap pot from walmart for the outside cylinder.

I took apart a vacuum so it blows instead of sucks and used charcoal as fuel, what did you use for the air intake and fuel?


pic related, mine running with some sticks at first to warm up the concrete for first use.

Also OP, are you/did you buy bronze ingots or did you melt down stuff you had? Awesome work man!

>>627547
Here's the only build pic I took, as it was drying

>>627424
I use a stainless steel drink shaker for the pours.

Can you explain more of the mold making process though? Because all i've done so far is some shitty brick-wall looking pattern i had from a chocolate-making mold

>>627547
For fuel I used bbq briquettes and a hair dryer for air. For bronze I cut up some copper piping mixed with solder (60/40 tin, lead), cant remember the ratio I used to mix it.

>>627548
By mold I guess you mean for the castings. I tried sand casting a lot at the start which didnt work well with lost wax castings. Now I use plaster of paris, fairly easy and brings out a lot of the details; to dry it I put it in a box filled with foil heated by a hairdryer but now that ive got my own place I'm just gonna chuck itin the oven at 110 C for a few hours. First bronze casting I didnt melt enough and the next two I didnt add enough exhaust vents so it basically turned into a volcano spewing molten bronze. I actually havent made a single proper casting that came out perfect however ive got a good feeling with this one, just gotta make those vents bigger. Ill be posting the mould making process after I finish the furnace. Finished work early soim on my way home now

Pic is the way I used to make gears, took over an hour and a single crack meant you have to start over again

>>627552
So you make the wax first and then just put it in the plaster of paris? Or how does that process go if you don't mind explaining.

>>627564
Took another bag and it still didnt fill all the way. Gonna need another bag to make the lid but we still have time for that later. Inner chamber is slowly deforming under the weight so ill have to regularly push it back in to place. This things gonna weigh over 60 kilos when its done.

>>627564
I'll do that next and show you the process aswell

>>627570
Just need a moment to fix it. 40 degree weather has deformed it as well as falling of my desk a few times

>>627573
That oughta do it. Now to make some long sticks of wax for vents

>>627575
Alright will post progress so far while I wait for the wax to cool down

>>627592
Make sure to bridge those small gaps. You can saw off and file the excess

>>627593
Almost finished the mains

>>627594
Alright mains are up, bridged up all areasthat look hard to reach now I going to you matchsticks coated in wax for exhaust vents so its easier to pull out (of course having wax rods would literally turn this job in to half an hour max. Ive been at it since my previous posts). Another idea would be to use string with multiple coatings of wax which you could pull out later, but I dont have any thick string so fuck it. Quite hard.

>>627607
Time for a brief intermission

This shit is too cool man. I am now inspired to give this a shot. Please carry on.

I've wanted to give this a go for so long. It looks far easier than I imagined.

I have a bucket of aluminum blocks downstairs that I might be able to use too...

Having some posting issues

>>627624
http://youtu.be/nH_bkHBvsow
This is what happens when you don't take classes children...
Back to work

>>627625
Alright im fairly happy with that, time to mix plaster

>>627626
Apply your first layer with a brush, making sure to get inside all crevices and gaps, pouring plaster around it wont fill them. It also keeps your wax vents in place; theyve came off a few times in the past while pouring plaster around it

>>627628
Well im going to make some dinner until that first layer dries up. Will finish pouring after.

Might fire up the furnace tomorrow, will see if I can sort out air supply by then. Make sure to always fire your furnace with wood for a few hours the first time otherwise it might explode.

>>627548
>Can you explain more of the mold making process though?
I'll help if I can.
this anon>>627552
has one thing right... lost wax and sand casting don't mix. Plaster of paris is best for "lost wax" methods.

I've been thinking of trying to cast a crucible out of refractory cement. As you mentioned the steel crucible looses heat way too quickly and your pour ends up cold.

>>627629
>Make sure to always fire your furnace with wood for a few hours the first time otherwise it might explode.
amen, temper, temper, temper. you gotta drive that moisture out of the equipment slowly lest it escape explosively due to rapid heating.

On break at work atm.
http://youtu.be/wdTM5rSSJjk
This video is where I got most of my process from. Although my methods arent as advanced as his....

>>627930
Are you a carpenter OP?

Seems pretty cool OP. I've been wanting to gather up scrap metal from my dad's wrecking yard and melt some of it down as an effigy to jobs that were harder than they should have been. I wanted to use iron and steel from problem cars specifically.

>>627986
Nah, labour for bricklayers. Me and 2 brickies just finished loading 7 1/2 thousand bricks on to second story scaffold, still better than being a roof tiler. My other job during weekends is cooking for a small cafe.
Anyway, gonna drop by the hardware store on the way home so I can finish thelid.

>>627994
Thank you for this thread op. I've been Blacksmithing and working with metal off and on for a few years. Recently decided to start casting but seemed rather daunting until now.

>>628016
I actually put off making my first furnace for months. After checking metal casting forums for ages I finally said "fuck it lets just make it out of concrete". Only took 30 minutes and it turned out alright. I'd love to start blacksmithing once I have my own place (currently renting) and canafford the proper equipment.

>>627987
For steel and iron casting you should look into getting a proper crucibal (50-60 depending on size last time I checked) and also for that matter make a proper furnace. Once I jump on the computer ill post a picture I saved on a recipe for refractory that could handle iron and I think glass aswell

Large dump incoming

>>628050
That first coating nice and dry (kind of like the texture, might make a plaster statue sometime...)

>>628053
Make sure the walls arent too thin or it might crack. Remember liquid metal is still very heavy and the mould might crack once it heats up (you dont want liquid metal flowing to your feet which is why I recommend casting with the mould in a baking tray)

>>628055
Half way there. Make sure it doesnt touch the bottom or else your going to pour right through

>>628057
Well leave this overnight
I actuall lost one of the match stick ventswhile pouring. Should've plastered that part aswell

>>628059
Now to unwrap what the easter bunny left for us

>>628061
Well the inner chamber bulged quite a bit so thats it for Mr.Bowl

>>628063
Ofcourse you could avoid this problem if you spent more than a minute making it ie packing inside with dirt or sand. But its not a hard problem to fix

>>628064
After a bit of chiselling were done. Ill burn the cardboard tubes out later on when I fire it up. Tried moving it a bit before and its bloody heavy, might put the next one on wheels...

Anyway ill see if I have time to make the lid and sort out the fans after dinner

>>627987
heres the recipe for you

>>628069
Ferrous Metals are a totally different beast to Non-Ferrous Metals. It's not just a matter of saying "my furnace can reach this temperature, Stainless Steel melts at that temperature".

>>628069
Sorry its been a while between posts, fairly busy at the moment.
So now the plaster mold has hardened we have to drive all moisture out of it aswell. My first aluminium casts had imprints of pockets of steam because the mould wasnt dried properly.
So next, preheat the oven to 110 C, line a baking tray with foil ( to catch the wax) and place the mould upside down making sure there is space underneath so the bottom can dry aswell

>>628845
This usually takes hours but you can see and feel the difference once its ready. Or in other words I have no idea how long it really takes but my guesses have worked out quite well before

I'm interested in getting into casting, but in this day and age, induction or microwave melting seems like it would be both easier to make work properly and less limited.

>>628961
> induction or microwave melting

Don't forget Arcing - nothing is more fun than melting with force lighting

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNYe8ApIbK4

Microwave would be more expensive (you need either SiC blocks or a fuckton of Ceramic fibre wool) and Induction needs appropriate skills. When it comes down to it nothing is simpler than solid fuel forced air furnaces.

>>629165
Force Lightening even

>>628847
Any progress? Did you cast anything yet?

>>630591
Mould seems dry, going to leave it in the oven tonight aswell just in case. Expecting heavy rain tomorrow so I might have the day off work or only half a day, if that's the case ill be firing up the furnace. Just waiting to see if my boss put Saturdays pay through on the weekend or if hes going to bundle it with this weeks pay. If I get paid tonight I can visit the scrap metal dealer tomorrow otherwise might be Saturday or monday depends if they're open weekends

>>628070
Come on. Once you've melted aluminum, it's not that hard to move up to ferrous. You might fail the first time or the second time, but so what? That's learning.

It's hell on the equipment though.

>>629166

Possibly even Force Lightning.

OP, normally refractory concrete is used because normal concrete traps water and explodes when you heat it up.

What kind of spalling / cracking did you see in yours when you got it to aluminum temps? I'm dumbfounded that this works at all!

I've been welding, blacksmithing, casting, etc for a while, my furnace is made of 3000degree refractory concrete. It really doesnt cost that much.

>>631033
>not that hard to move up to ferrous

Not that hard to move up to Cast Iron. Cast steel needs a refining process. Check the list: low carbon. medium carbon, high carbon Steel, Stainless Steel - the casting process for those is more than just high temperature and choice of refractory.

>>631094
No damage at all for aluminium temperatures however when melting bronze it would get a bit powdery at the base where it was the hottest. I've left in the rain for months at times and it still worked fine. I was surprised it didnt explode aswell....

yeah i'll give ya a bump m8