fire bricks

42 1/2 bricks to build this furnace ,except lid. Buoght these from local Olympic Concrete supply . these are 3000 deg. fer. fire bricks.

frame

support in place

setting up

small pieces are from the bricks that were trimmed off for the angles.

end view

top view

View for the top of assy.

burner hole

inside view

in place

Bricks are in place for visual

lid in place

Lid is in rolled back mode.

rear assy.

rear lifting assy in down mode

front lifter

This show it in relaxed mode

prototype

.this was my first try at a lifting front of lid. It has changed alot but the same idea

lifting handel

liftig handel is make out of electrical tubing and handel is about 8 in long.

little biger

originel hole too small

burner pipe

Had to cut hole a littler larger due to rubber tape measure but we got it.

wire

I wrapped wire around bricks to keep them and small pieces in place. I put masking tape on bottom bricks to keep the perlite from leaking through

sheet metal

metal has been installed on 2 sides. This is where a bender would be niceinstead of 2 by 4 and a hammer to make bends.

burner tube

Square tube for round burner, but hey it works. This is the location for burner after sheet metal has been installed.

first blower

About all I can say about this in that in barley worked but definitely not a keeper.

Perlite

Installed perlite for insulation. Worked great, after 5 melts in one day the sides were only warn to the touch. 45 min for first pour from a cold fire up 30 min for hot fire up.

Crucible

first steel crucible

plan "C"

This is the first version of the high capacity vacuum cleaner motor. It was unstable and I kept tripping over it.

Brass

This is what happens when you skimp or rush welding up a crucible. there is about 5 lbs. of brass down there glowing.

Square crucible

This is the new crucible, the round one had a welding problem, it leaked after about 4 Brass melts. Never skimp on welding rod because this will happen.

Plan "D"

Installed view of plan 'D'

Plan 'D'

This vacuum cleaner motor produces 96 cu ft per min. Its to large for this furnace, mabey a wvo burner.

1/4 in. vaines

this produces a lot of air pressure.

Box

The portion on the right is the intake side, the portion on your left is pressure side. what is not sown is the intake holes on the side board with 2 1 1/2 in. holes. Would strongly recomend the you put a bug screen over the inlet holes. I found out the hard way that bees (yellow jackets) like to make nests inside, You turn on the blower and they get very upset.

Plan "E"

This is the latest, still to much air pressure, I'm only opening this gate valve a little bit to get the right flame.