Homemade Metal Foundry

[Alucard_II]

  Hey!

For those of you who have been able to run some missions with me, you know I can be a bit crazy at times 
But few know that I'm more of a pyromaniac than I am crazy. (well, I guess they're the same thing huh...)

I've got a few questions and a story or two to tell about making a Homemade metal foundry. So if you can answer some of the questions, great! I'd love some help.

I've been melting metals for a while. Kind of a hobby of mine, other than playing games.
I built a little homemade foundry when I lived in Helena, Mt. a few years ago. And it worked great! I could melt anything from aluminum products, to silverware, to money (canadian, dont freak out) (for those who dont know, if u live in US, melting US coins is illegal.) Sorry Pipz 

But I built it in about less than an hour. Heres what I made it of...
-A shovel to dig a fire pit, and a vent to blow air in.
-A small fan (any will do)
-Firewood/something to start a fire.
-A steel pan (something with a really high melting point, this is ur crucible)
-A steel rod/ruler to hold the crucible above the fire.
-Products to melt 

Thats it. It will take less than 10 mins if u no ur setup. Then you can get to melting things!
Also, you can make rough molds out of just the dirt around u, just make sure no burnable things nearby.

Questions
Now, I built my makeshift foundry a few years ago when I lived in Montana. Now, I live in Detroit, Michigan. And I'm pretty sure that its illegal to start fires in ur backyard here. (IDK, im too lazy to find out)
But, I've seen people melt soft metals like Aluminum and some foreign coins on a simple stove. A STOVE! Thats pretty cool. Just pop in some material and you can melt it apparently.

But, before I do this, I wanna ask, would it be safe? Melting metal inside on a stove seems kinda iffy to me. But ill do it eventually.
Also, I have a gas stove, so can a conventional gas stove get hot enough to melt anything?

Thanks, hope u enjoyed 

OH WAIT, SOME PICTURES!
(This is what im going to try, it looks a bit iffy tho...)


(Oh yea, you can also melt metal on a grill too, get grillin guys!)


Metal is just one of those things that just so amazingly fun to work with. Have fun melting some metal!

[eagl]

Lots of people who hand-load ammunition have setups to safely melt and cast lead.  Not nearly as high of a temp required but they ought to have good ventilation to avoid lead ingestion or contaminating the room/building/HVAC ducts/etc.

[FLOOB]

Technically that's a furnace.

This is a foundry.

Build yourself some mold frames and get yourself some tampers and then get yourself some molding sand and a big box to keep it in. Then when you tell people that you have a homemade foundry you'll be able to look them in the eye.
 

[FLOOB]

Dennis the menace on ritalin.

[Yankee67]

Neat.  About a year ago I saw a show on TV about a village in Africa that made iron from raw ore out of a clay-lined furnace by burning homemade charcoal.  Can't remember the name of the program.  Maybe Nova.  But they definitely made iron out of rocks.  They took the iron from the bottom of the foundry afterwards and basically blacksmithed the bejuses out of the nuggets and made ceremonial knives out of them.  Real iron age stuff.  Neat program. 

I'm an engineer that somehow ends up in crazy places.  A few years ago I ended up in the heart of an electric arc furnace at a Gerdau steel mill.  I was there to look at rerouting some utilities, but the main arc furnace was down and the electrodes were being replaced.  The short cut the plant guys were using to take me back and forth between melt shop and maintenance area was right through the furnace.  Awesome piece of technology.

I can appreciate your hobby.

[pipz]

Its a outrage!!!!!! No more rides on Winstons back for you!!! 
That's a neat hobby. I bend metal for a living. Hajo use to melt metal on a industrial scale!

[The Fugitive]

check this out...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hHD10DjxM1g

[mbailey]

To echo what was said earlier, I'd just watch for the off gassing of the metals melting them inside a structure.  That and burning the house down, but then again your homeowners insurance covers that. Just make sure it's paid up  Best of luck   

[Hajo]

Foundries use molten iron to cast such things as Steel Moulds, Railroad trucks, knuckles axels and axel housing.

The first blast furnaces that smelted iron ore were fueled with charcoal, later with blast furnace coke.

Iron melts at 2222 degrees F.  Copper and others melt at lower temperatures.

Someone mentioned beating the bejesus out of iron ( called sponge iron, popularly known as wrought iron).

Before the technology to get something hot enough to melt iron ore the older furnaces made what was "sponge iron".

The front of the furnace (blast furnace) had a door that was dugout, and the ball of iron was removed and beaten into the shape needed.

A basic home oven won't melt anything worth while.  You need lots of heat and a carbon based fuel.  And a brick lined firebrick furnace

that can withstand the high heats needed to smelt. BTW, one of the byproducts of smelting iron is a significant amount of CO.

People charging these older furnaces, usually built on the side of a hill, used to fill them with wheelbarrows.  More then a few in the distant

past have actually been overcome by the CO, and fell into the furnace.  Some disappeared without a trace because no one knew what was

happening or were not there to witness the incident.  In other words unless you are melting lead with a hand held gas torch outside, don't try this at home.

This is nothing to play with.  Proper safety attire (hands ,eyes, face and body) should be used.  Reactions because of water or a wide disparity in

temperature between the tools being used and the molten substance being handled can cause violent reactions resulting in severe burns, loss of vision,

and fire. 

[zack1234]

You can own a machine gun but you cannot have a bonfire in your back yard

I have been watching Lewis making straight razers on youtube.

I was thinking about making a furnace.

I presume some colonial makes mini forges.

In the UK we make a awesome big macs and fries, and Rolls Royce jet engines when they dont set in fire whilst flying.

I am going to make  forge and make pipz a shackle for Winston.

That African program was me in Uganda.

[Alucard_II]

You can own a machine gun but you cannot have a bonfire in your back yard

^ Yea, ikr its crazy 

Well, I went ahead and did it on the stove. I managed to melt down the tops to aluminum cans, the little tab things. Those melted easily on high, only took about 10 mins.
The canadian penny I had thrown in there refused to melt for some reason. Dont know what its made of but I presume its copper. Its dated 1964, Queen Elizabeth got the crazy hair lol.

After about 15 mins, most of the aluminum had melted, but my smoke detectors went off, so I had to stop it. Lol.
My house smelled like metal for about 30 mins, dont know if thats dangerous but... its too late now.

It would have been cool to have some weird copper-aluminum blend. But I'll stick to melting things in the garage. Thanks!

[Alucard_II]

Oh yea, forgot to mention...

The flames on the stove turned Neon Green after about a minute. While it was really, really cool, it was also scary because ive never seen flames do that before. Looked like some weird magical flames or something 

[mbailey]

     God i pray my company doesnt insure your home.

[zack1234]

Oh yea, forgot to mention...

The flames on the stove turned Neon Green after about a minute. While it was really, really cool, it was also scary because ive never seen flames do that before. Looked like some weird magical flames or something 

Did milk curdle in the fridge and a black cat appear?

We need the Witch Finder General!

Yes the Queen did have crazy hair, it was the 60ts, Hendrix and Pink Floyd

[Meatwad]

^ Yea, ikr its crazy 

Well, I went ahead and did it on the stove. I managed to melt down the tops to aluminum cans, the little tab things. Those melted easily on high, only took about 10 mins.
The canadian penny I had thrown in there refused to melt for some reason. Dont know what its made of but I presume its copper. Its dated 1964, Queen Elizabeth got the crazy hair lol.

After about 15 mins, most of the aluminum had melted, but my smoke detectors went off, so I had to stop it. Lol.
My house smelled like metal for about 30 mins, dont know if thats dangerous but... its too late now.

It would have been cool to have some weird copper-aluminum blend. But I'll stick to melting things in the garage. Thanks!

I sure hope you are using a respirator or some way to make sure you are getting a constant supply of fresh air while you do that. If you are breathing that smoke in, who knows what other harmful particles you are taking in.

Otherwise do it too much and you will be in DERP mode for the rest of your life