I made a small furnace for casting iron and stainless steel.
It uses the same burner as my aluminum furnace but takes about 2 hours to heat up( a .75GPH nozzle is in the mail). If you wanted to save fuel simply coating ceramic blanket in santanite or Itc-100 might be better. I wanted something more robust, the refractory is very heavy and rated to 3000F. I should be able to push it a bit but the crucible won't quite cut it. I'll likely need one that's rated higher and can be capped and flooded with argon.

*********** CRUCIBLE - Purchased on EBAY -A10 Clay graphite

Fuel- Start on propane, than switch to diesel

I'm pretty happy with it and some of my castings have come out nice(video on that later) but they do rust quick unpainted.
If you have any suggestions let me know.

I got the Cast-O-lite 30 off ebay + some mizzou plus for plinths and the 2600F ceramic blanket
I made all the foundry tools with hardware store steel
The 10 gallon barrel was free and stays touchable even when the pour is molten!


This is really dangerous, the molten iron can go right through just about anything. Start with aluminum before going up to iron. The fumes are bad, the heat will melt flesh, the fuel tank could explode the crucible could rupture, the pour could hit water. You really need to be careful

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**Note about my shoes: They are made of leather, plus they can be kicked off super quick, plus I tested them by pouring some metal on them and it was not a big deal at all, so I wouldn't even need to.
Its a small furnace in an open space that's really easy to run away from in the case of an accident such as a crucible rupture or spill, and no skin is exposed so I'm pretty safe from splatters.
Also, all the clothing can be removed really quickly, witch matters most to me. Its surprisingly hard to get metal to pool up and burn through clothing, especially when you can shake around. And if it does just pull the clothing off as you run away.
This is not a professional foundry where you can get trapped and there are thousands of pounds of molten metal around you. Danger scales, like everything else. Incandescent light bulbs get hotter than this, yes they burn down houses but you don't wear a fire suit in your kitchen.

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