I cut this 4"dia hole for the oilburner output port
This is a form that will give me a nice round chamber in the furnace.I made this by ribbing two 6" chimney pipes togetter to make a 8" pipe.This was a bad idea because when it came to pull it out of the furnace it was very hard to take it out of it.
Here is the form for the oil burner hole in the furnace.This will give the burner a nice contour in the furnace to help spin the flame around the crucible to give it a even temperature around it.
The drain plug is put in and the set screws are screwed for the form.to help hold it in the middle of the furnace body,when it time to put the cement in.now it's ready for the refractory
Now it's time to mix up the refractory.
I used the recipe from bymc.com this recipe can withstand up to 1800*Degrees far above aluminum melting temps
The portland,sand and perlite are ready to be mixed up.
I mixed it all up and added the fire clay and mixed it all up and added water to the mix
I put the refractory in,now I wait for it to dry
Now while I am waiting for the furnace to dry.I will start the lid for it.
First I cut a strip of sheet metal about 3"Wx50"L and bent it into a circle and ribbit together.I added rabbit cagging to help re-enforce the lid(which was prefect for the job).
The refractory was put in the lid and now I have to wait for the furnace and the lid to dry.
Why do cool things take so long dry?
The furnace and lid are done drying(It took one week to dry out in a heated basement)
Today,I fired the furnace.I cut up some small chunks of wood and started alittle fire in the furnace.The refractory cement must be fired slow or you will get lots of cracks in the cement.
so I let the small fire burn for and hour or so.I then filled the furnace completely full of small chunks of wood and put my blower up to the oil burner hole.Then the blower was truned on low for 15mintues,then put the blower on high for the rest of the time untill it ran out of wood.so the whole fireing was about a 2 hours(which is fast for this).but it turned out great.I had a nice hard refractory walls.
This is my crucible it is an 1qt stainless steel(it was stainless ontill all the stainless stuff burned off)cooking pot thing.
more to come....
