Found Dreaming

I have started keeping a detailed Heat log to try and troubleshoot my heat times, pouring temps, to more accuratly account for fuel to help me better price my items. the wife thinks I'm losing money.

I tried A tiny change to my furnace
I stufffed the tuyere with some kaowool

My heat time, start to pour, was reduced from 2:25 to 1:40 minutes Pretty signifigant improvement,
I wonder what I will get when I add a fresh coat of ITC 100. the interior of my furnace looks awful

V/r HT1

That doesn't surprise me at all. If your burner is properly tuned, it shouldn't need more air than it's able to take in through the burner tube, any extra air that's coming in through the tuyere is going along for the ride and cooling off the furnace in the process.

how big is that burner tube, do you have room in the Tuyere to use a larger diameter tube???, any opening that you can close off is heat that will stay in the furnace, which is heat that is going into the crucible and not the backyard where you don't want it anyway.

Where do you get your ITC from I have been thinking of making a new top hat style furnace for use with crucibles up to an A8 and I have been thinking about using fiber as I have a case of it under the shelf needing to be used up. and in a top hat style it wouldn't be subjected to the abuse that some furnaces are.

I keep a bucket of roadside red clay around for tuyere plugging. It's about one part clay to two parts sand. When I stick the burner in I pack the clay in around it.

Now I have to figure what to do about the fire coming out of the drain hole in the bottom. It's not really a problem, but it's annoying.

Richard

stick some of that red dirt road in it. I quit putting drains in furnaces, crucible bust it runs up in the burner tube, thats what rosebuds are for, melt it out. you put the drain in the side you can use the thing for a scraper .

That is a 3/4 burner, I can get 1 inch in there, and I have an as yet untried 1 inch Hybrid burner, I'm a lil afradi it might damage my furnace or the crucible. I really do not have enough room around the crucible as it is. A new furnace is in the works, but is falling to the weigh side as I'm swamped with work.

I get ITC from BCS, you know it is silly, ITC is made right here in JAcksonville, but no one here seems to distribute it, and no one at the offices wanted to talk with me

HT1

I have one furnace that I poured with Resco 3000 degree insulating refractory and the big blue pig is a combination of 3000 H/S and 2600 degree insulating refactrory. I don't you the little one much any more but the wall could stand a coating of ITC 100, how long does the stuff last before you have to re coat???

if you dont coat it with oil, of cover it with molten metal, about 2 years IAW Ron Reil. of course I have done all those things multiple times. I would think using Propane, two years would be about right, once you get past all the beginner mistakes. I have burnnt holes in 3 iron crucibles, done a bad experiment with a Diesel burner that was WAY overpowered. and I still tend to overfill crucibles so that degassing causes them to splash metal everywhere.

In a year, I used a pint of ITC 100 on furnace and steel crucibles. I suspect the next pint to last MUCH longer. I will put that info in my heat log so I have good info next year

V/r HT1

I've never used it, I also haven't burned oil in a homemade furnace either, but have burned thousands of gallons of the nasty stuff. the first furnace that I build I treated it pretty bad starting out with trying to learn how to melt iron, but it stayed with me and I can still use it, matter of fact I used it the other day to melt enough aluminum to pour a double on the flask sides which I need to do again actually three more times.

When I started out getting into the foundry hobby I started off with a crucible that I got from BCS, I buy all my crucibles either from Mifco for Silicon Carbide or Legend Mining Supply for either fire clay or clay graphite ones. I won't use anything but a Silicon Carbide for Iron I have body parts that I would like to keep so I take very good care of it. Besides they think them A 10 SC crucibles are made of gold or something.

The avator picture is the first furnace that I built and I made a lot of mistakes building it, number one that lid flipping up like that, its made of light weight brick I should of just left it where you could set it on a brick out of the way when you were going to pull the melt.

I am wanting to built a new small furnace but build it in the top hat style where the shell lifts up and the crucible comes out sideways, I have a roll of 2 inch thick 2600 degree fiber that I want to use for it but may switch to light weight brick as I have one case left which should be enough to do the top part I may have to buy four or five more bricks to do what I want. I gotta do some thinking on how to do the lift so it will raise up high enough in one movement.

DA

Now I have to figure what to do about the fire coming out of the drain hole in the bottom. It's not really a problem, but it's annoying.

Plug it the only time you need it is if things go bad, how meny times have you used it so far.
I plug my pouring spout and only knock it out when I am using it.