The practical home handyman can melt metal in the backyard hobby foundry.
The equipment required is quite simple – a basic furnace can be built, but once the basics are dealt with, are more robust and better designed melting furnace will be the aim. It is possible to build a low cost, but very efficient melting furnace from scrap metal and a few other items sourced from junk yards or recycling centres.
If you’re just beginning your backyard metal casting journey, you will have many questions to ask, and if you follow the right advice, your learning curve will be greatly reduced. The furnace is the most important piece of equipment for your hobby foundry set up. To avoid any frustration & disappointment make sure you build it right the first time.
You may have to spend a few dollars to buy high temperature resistant refractory, which is used to line the furnace walls, plus a few brass connectors for the gas feed line, if you are handy with a welder you’ll also be able to make your own gas burner. And if you have metal working skills, you’ll be able to make many of your own tools and equipment to use in your hobby foundry.
Once you have the furnace built, you’ll need to gather some sand to make the moulds so that you can pour the molten metal to create your castings. One of the most common moulding mediums used is green sand, a long time favourite because of its ease of use and predictable results. Green sand will also keep moist for weeks on end when stored in a domestic plastic garbage bin.
Green sand is the most efficient, low cost way for the backyard metal caster to make moulds for metal casting. Green sand does require some maintenance and looking after to get the best results, but it will last for many years for hobby use and the best part is that it can be used over and over again, it is not unusual for a batch of green sand to last more then ten years.
Another easy to use backyard moulding system to use is the silicate sand & Co2 Gas system. This really is an easy system for the backyard worker to use; it is frequently used in trade schools and colleges for foundry practice instructions because of its ease of use, small batches of moulding sand can be quickly made up.
However there is one thing that can be detrimental to the Co2 performance and that is excess moisture contained in the sand, moisture levels above 0.5% will give poor moulding results. There is also a rental cost of the Co2 gas bottles, plus the purchase of gas cylinder regulators required for correct gassing of the sand moulds. But if cost is not a problem, then the Co2 method will prove to be a great way to make moulds and cores.
With the right kind of knowledge and know how the backyard metal caster will soon begin to see some great results from the effort put in, many beginners are quite amazed at what they can achieve once they have learnt the right way to go about backyard metal casting.