Make A Trash Can Metal Foundry

Hello, how are you? It is the time of the year in which I feel like working with metal again.

So I ordered a new melting pot on Amazon

but apparently I chose the wrong one because this thing is really gigantic and far too big for my small melting furnace.

This I saw as a good opportunity to make a larger metal melting furnace with a larger metal bucket

and some decent refractory material so that it lasts a little longer.

You can of course buy a large bag of refractory cement and mold it, just as we did last time with a mix of sand and plaster,

but this time I would like to try out kaowol.

This stuff is a very flexible ceramic mat, and although it looks very fragile as if it easily catches fire

it is extremely temperature resistant.

In fact, it is so well isolated that if I put my gas burner right on it

I can hold the other side without feeling any heat through it.

So this is what we are going to do today: We take this metal bucket, we cover it with the wool,

drill a number of holes for the gas burners so that they fit nicely,

and finally cover the lid with the insulation material so that it can cover the bucket.

The goal of today’s experiment is speed, convenience and an entirely new melting furnace

that can handle extremely high temperatures and thermal shocks. Let’s start!

Actually I would have to wear a face mask for this, but I am going to take a risk by cutting very slowly and carefully.

If you work with Kaowol, there are a few things you need to know. First of all, this stuff is very fibrous, so when you start cutting it, the entire room will fill with kaowol dust, which is bad for your lungs.

As you can see, I used scissors to cut a circle of kaowol with an approximately 5 cm larger diameter than the lid itself.

The intention is that it gives us a little extra space to cram into the lid so that it stays better.

We will see if it works.

Hmm, it still seems to work too!

Haha!

I’m going to press it a little better now

and I think we’re done.

So, the lid is now completely finished

so let’s start now with the bucket itself.

So this is what we have done in the so far:

we have covered the lid with kaowool,

we have aligned the bottom and sides of our steel bucket

and we have cut some wool in shape and put it in the bucket, which will serve as the basis for our melting pot.

At this moment we only need to drill some holes.

So let’s do that.

See you!

Okay everyone, our melting furnace is now ready for use!

We have two holes in the sides to put our gas burners in.

As you can see, I made two small holders of two boards with a groove in the middle

to keep the gas burners in place.

When you look into the bucket you see that the two burners are not right on the wall

but in a corner so that when we light them they create a tornado-like flame which will make this thing extremely hot.

At this moment we are as good as ready to melt some metal,

But there is one more thing we need to do first and that is the hardening of our crucible.

Let’s summarize what we have done today:

First, we discovered that you can take any steel bucket, cover the inside with Kaowol

and can make a melting furnace for high temperatures in your backyard.

We also saw that this stuff is easy to cut into shape and is incredibly light,

because this entire set-up weighs less than four and a half pounds.

We have also learned that Kaowol is toxic when inhaled

so it is wise to wear a dust mask if you ever have to work with it.

Moreover, it is horrible when it comes into contact with the skin, so I would wear long sleeves if I were you.

That’s about it for this project,

I’m curious how well this thing will work in future experiments with liquid metals.