I discovered the Backyard Metal Casting Website (backyardmetalcasting.com) at the beginning of October 2003. I was immediately hooked because I had no idea this type of work could be done at home. With booklets purchased from that site as well as a lot of advice from the forum, I was able to construct my first furnace.
This furnace was built using Lionel Oliver's "The Flowerpot Crucible Furnace" booklet. I will not divulge the book's secrets, but it instructs you to use a popcorn tin and a flowerpot to build a furnace!
After purchasing the necessary supplies (it's more than just those 2 things, but costs around $15 TOTAL!) I started on my project. Less than 1 week later I was melting pop cans in my back yard.
Due to the wealth of information on the internet, I thought I had unraveled the secrets of the construction before my booklets came. Unfortunately without Lionel's information in hand, I made the furnace a little bit different than it's supposed to be and this hurts my results.
Because of this, the flowerpot inside is cracked all over and only holding it's form because of the refractory mix behind it. I could remove the flowerpot piece by piece if I wanted to!
I have retired this furnace because I have built the "2 bucks furnace" as seen on backyardmetalcasting.com and it should be more efficient and also allow me to melt more metal at a time.
