I only recently started melting metal, but my flowerpot furnace had been damaged so I thought it would be a good idea to try the "2 bucks" furnace, designed by Lionel Oliver II.
Here's a MOVIE of me curing my 2 bucks furnace today. Of course you can see it's actually a "one buck" furnace, and depending on your view you may say it's even less than that!
1/15/04 - Finally! I found some more Rutland castable refractory cement. Soon my 2 bucks furnace will be done and I can finally do some sizable castings.
1/10/04 - I've been using the one-bucket furnace for the last 2 melts. It's completely cured now and works great. Once it's heated up it makes the second melt go so fast it's almost scary.
Mid-November 2003 - About 2 weeks ago I found 3 small buckets of castable refractory cement at a store during a business trip. I bought all 3 hoping it would be enough for a new furnace. Well of course it wasn't, so now I have to keep looking for more.
The other night when I started this thing, I thought I would have plenty to do the first one and have some left over to maybe even do the bottom of the second. WRONG! I ran out about an inch from the top of the first bucket. So now I have to find some more cement but in the mean time I discovered my flowerpot furnace lid fits nicely down onto this thing, and it heats up FAST with the propane burner. I should be able to continue my learning process in the evenings with the new "half furnace", and keep looking for more castable refractory cement during the days I have to venture out of town.
11/09/03 - Today when I cured this thing all was well for about 20 minutes, then steam started hissing from several places and I got scared. I didn't want to blow out any chunks of furnace, and I didn't want to get hurt in a steam explosion either. So I shut down the burner and it hissed steam for 10 MINUTES!! Here's a MOVIE of that event. That's not wind noise on your speakers, that's hissing steam!
My first furnace
New 11/10/03
