How to make an ELECTRIC Furnace (Foundry) for metal casting Part 1 by VOG (VegOilGuy)

hi YouTube my name is Jeff and I'm the vigil guy a few weeks ago now I promised you an electric foundry build and here it is great 28 insulating fire bricks homemade candle coils push button temperature control nice big of well insulated lid plenty of room for my Asics crucible and I could squeeze in a 7 in there as well but hang on a minute that's a bit of a tight squeeze how do I get the crucible out there's no room for a crucible tongs a simple electric hoist nice easy and safe not bad for home construction and fairly basic tools I'm going to be talking you through how I built this step by step from there you could build one yourself or maybe incorporate a few of the ideas in your own design this project is more involved than I expected so to show you everything I need to get across I need you to split the video into parts sorry if this bothers you but I don't want to skimp on any of the important stuff right so wine Electric foundry well for me I have to say it's all about convenience I can work indoors and plan my time with much more accuracy it's clean and it's quiet but it's not fast if you want fast stick with oil gas or solid fuel but if you're the patient sort probably the biggest plus of an electric foundry is efficiency you can dial in an exact temperature and get there without wasted energy but it can take a few hours when it comes to the design I want to say a big thanks to town this amazing young man was amongst the first to share an electric challenger build I would have built towns exact design if it hadn't been too small for my needs but it was very inspirational tell made excellent use of limited resources constructing walls from just four great 24500 plus a few cut-offs unfortunately there was no way I could fit my Asics crucible inside this so I needed to come up with something different this is it it uses a lot more blocks but it does almost double the foundry capacity and importantly laying the bricks on their side rather than their age maximizes their insulation capabilities I purchased 30 great 28 fire bricks and put 24 using an electric miter saw and a water soaking technique which I've already shared with you in another video if you're gonna do the same thing just remember not to use your best blade cutting in this fashion gave me a lot of off cuts which I was able to make very good use of as you'll see later on the 30-degree cut on each end should create a perfect hexagon which when stacked four rows high should look like this this is an indoor project and a stationary one so having cut my blocks I set about making a sturdy wooden table it's fixed to the wall and is solid enough to take even my hefty weight it's not strictly necessary to build a table you might build straight off the floor but it makes sense when dealing with dangerous temperatures to work as comfortably as possible so whilst this table is quite short it's custom made to be a comfortable working height for me loosely arranging the bricks on the table inspired me to make the first use of my offcuts as I decided to double the depth of my base I drew a pencil line around the shape and arranged some of the offcuts in a similar pattern there's a lot of air gaps but air is an excellent insulator the gaps are quite small and overall there's plenty of strengths to support the upper layers I decided to bond these in place using ordinary expanding glue now this wouldn't survive any moderate heat but this is very low down in the foundry and so far it's proven to stay perfectly cool down there and I'm very pleased with the result when I purchased the bricks I also bought some appropriate fire brick mortar and this is a must when applying the next layer of bricks the actual base of the foundry this is applied very thin to both surfaces and can literally be scraped on and off while later found that the best technique when watering these bricks is to make a very runny coat by simply adding water this then we painted on with a brush the absorbent surface of the brick slaps this up and you may even want to immediately add a second coat but do keep it thin mortar can then be scraped on and off the surfaces are pushed and mushed together to ensure it could fit within needs this is virtually bonded once this layer was finished I left it twenty-four hours to go off the next day I wanted to ensure the base was very flat and my hands told me their imperfections I tackled these with the combination of a rasp and some coarse sandpaper stuck to a board a large flat board indicates there's no rattles and everything is nice flat and true there's a fair bit of welding in this project and I'm no welder I'm still learning and both my equipment and my welding talents are on the cheap side but it is possible even for me so don't be afraid to have a go if you've never done this before I took some angle iron and ran this around the perimeter with a marker pen in a straightedge I was able to mark out the angles and cutting these were easy enough with an angle grinder and a thin blade the chop saw or hacksaw would do the same job using a wooden block to protect the soft bricks and a couple of large clamps I was able to secure the angle iron in place whilst I welded it I then flattened off the worlds with my grinder as this metal frame will hold and support all the bricks above it's necessary to extend it a little towards the middle I cut these sections of strength bark at 60 degree angles and welded these in place now I rushed this a little and I'd paid the price later so I'd encourage you to take your time and be more precise here than I was with these well didn't grind it back I added another row of angle iron in the same way this is well bit secured to the frame below adding considerable strength my thoughts originally were to have this frame rise and lower dollar ectly onto the blocks but I changed my mind as you'll see in a moment I then filled in the center void with two more bricks making sure everything was nice and flat it at this point that I noticed I was already starting to lose sort of the corners on these very soft bricks this meant that the frame onto the brick plan was going to need to change so I made this a slightly smaller hexagon from slightly smaller angle it fits nicely but not too loosely inside the larger frame and its purpose is to prevent further chipping initially this frame was obviously smaller than the perimeter of the base so with its centralized I was able to use a marker pen and draw around the inside this showed me how much I needed to cut away it's only a small slice that needs taking off and he can be done with hand tools a saw a rasp or even just sandpaper I actually used a router with an old straight cutting bit help and mask is essential there as there's a lot of dust with the edges cut to size the top is marked to the shop plate this marked area needs to be removed just a little deeper than the thickness of the angle line again I used the rout of this job the frame can now be watered onto the bricks pushed on firmly and made flush to the surface take time to fill in all the gaps whilst this was drawing off for 24 hours I returned my attention to the larger frame I knew I needed some brackets heading and I made these functional hanging aligned by laughs drill and cook these rounding the edges with my angle grinder I needed eight in total with a 10 millimeter hole in each four of these are welded to the frame each in the center of each side to make life easier I numbered the sides and you'll see these markings throughout the video I also made eight larger brackets and I knew these would be separated by two lengths of inch box steel though I wasn't certain about the size at this point so I made use of some scraps to help me position these and I welded them to the frame I gave the frame could clean to remove all the welding splatter and I gave everything a coat of rust killer the next day returning to the base the large frame lowers nicely over the metal rims bottom unfortunately thanks to welding the frame has developed a slight warp the weight of the bricks will easily cope with this but the frame needs to be held down with straps for the time being but before that the first row of bricks needs attention the shape of the frame needs to be recessed in each brick as I wasn't very careful with my framework I needed to make individual patterns for each brick this is easy a Norfolk charcoal and paper with a router and a straight cutting bit it's simple to resis the depth of the outer frame though this could also be done with a rasp or a file returning to the charcoal patterns each is placed on the block and marked with a sharp blade it's worth rotating the pattern 180 degrees as is in fact a mirror image of the frame with this done I glued some coarse sandpaper to lengths of flat bar and used this to send away the depth of each recess whilst we're working on the blocks it's time to recess the location of the coils and coils are a big topic so let's digress for a while and talk about resistance coils this is a resistance call I made myself it's in clear lengths of wire wrapped in tight circles to shorten its overall length the length type and thickness of the wire determine hem which electrical resistance the wire carries generally the thinner or longer the wire is the higher its resistance similarly the shorter and thicker the wire is the lower its resistance when electrical resistance occurs within a wire heat is generated if the wire is capable of handling it for prolonged periods and the conditions just right it's possible to make the wire close red hot and that's what a resistance heating coal element is the power of the coral is measured in watts with a thousand Watts beam one kilowatt now he is a night chrome coal I bought off the internet and here's what I make myself mine is made of thicker and many would argue superior camphor it's much taller and most importantly it's made to measure using a simple trick that I've already she ate with you and that's the advantage of making your own coils you get exactly what you want but to do this you do need to understand the electrical requirements and restrictions involved let's start with voltage this is likely to be the mains voltage in your part of the world here in the UK for example mains voltage is 230 volts in the US and Canada I believe it's 120 whatever you're reaching you need to know this if you're going to make a coil nexton to me most crucial is current remember it's currents are not voltage that kills you so getting this right is critical you must decide what sort of current levels you want your coils to draw it's very important to determine the maximum output of your outlet again using the UK as an example the average electrical outlet has effused outputs of 13 amps as most entries can to be plugged in at UK outlet I obviously needed a coil that would draw less than 13 amps drop into 12 is still a little close to the mark for me so I chose to draw only 10 amps of power staying 3 amps below the threshold but that's a personal choice the closer I get to 13 the more likely I am to blow fuses and have electrical failures the further that I go from 13 the weaker my foundry will be because it's current that drives your foundry so you must have identified the current output of your outlet guys and then drop it down two or three amps for safety with that done you can do little math since here much apparel you might get potentially a 230 volts and 10 ohms I could achieve 2300 watts or 2.3 kilowatts of power which isn't bad for a domestic appliance don't be tempted to use more than one outlet to drive your foundry this is a bad idea unless you have a dedicated high current line installed it's quite possible that you could exceed the power rating of the mains cable that supplies your outlets devoting your voltage by the current will calculate the resistance required by your coil in this case 23 ohms thicker wire generally has lower resistance than thinner wire but thicker wire is generally more durable in a factory environment so by thick wire if you can but keep in mind the resistance you're trying to achieve resistance wire should state the resistance rating per unit length in this case 1.73 ohms per meter as the rate per length gets lower the columns get longer and if the coil gets too long it won't fit in your foundry so keep this in mind I was able to calculate that I needed approximately 13 meters of wire to achieve my required resistance of 23 ohms in my core making Juke video I mentioned that I've got a free cold calculating page on my website and that can help you determine the exact length of the column you need I also give examples of the necessary maths and the formulas for those who would like to do a bit of number crunching themselves rather than one coil of 13 meters I decided to make two coils of 6.5 meters each that would be joined together to make a single coil the coils must be stretched before use this is easily achieved by gripping each end and gently pulling until the desired length is achieved generally it's advised not to stretch them more than three times the original length the coils also need tails these are easily made by unraveling a short length at each end and twisting in two or more lengths of wire if you're careful you can do this with a drill but don't over tighten or over twist as the tails will snap the continue tails in this manner creates a better fixing point it's also reduces the resistance of the tails and thereby helps them to stay cooler than the coil itself it's best at this stage to leave the tails fairly long as the excess can be cut away later and that finishes off coils and brings us back to resetting and a common problem in electric vendors is creep a condition caused by repeated heating and cooling where the coils sag from their grooves thinking on this I decided to create circular grooves with an opening large enough to let the heat out but not the coils I achieved this for the most part with my router however it can be done by hand with the round file the bottom row of blocks requires an upper groove the top row requires a bottom groove and the center requires both the blocks in position to don't require a full groove this is where the coils will start and finish so leave an inch or so with this uncut this will prevent the core lanes coming together and shorting out before the blocks are fitted it's a good opportunity to install some small bolts as connection points for the electrical contacts I did a simple experiment with car body filler two-part poxy adhesive and this metal putty stuff to see which responded best to heat I don't expect they'll ever get this hot but the winner by far was this metal pudding this is the bottom position to block a hole the same diameter of the bolt is drilled to a depth of maybe three-quarters of an inch the dust and debris is cleared from the hole and then the put is mixed very little putty is needed this is pushed into the hole but you shouldn't try filling it completely leave some room for the bolt as the bolt is pushed in it's turned so that the grips the thread any excess putty can be firmed down or removed then it's just a matter of waiting ten minutes three of these pots are needed to in the middle block and one in the bottom block a small channel needs to be made for the tangles and these can be carved with a saw blade on the top of the blocks and only don't cut away too much keep things nice and tight a hole is drilled all the way through the bottom block to accommodate the thermocouple which is a thermometer this comes with a bolt fitting and it just happens to be an eight millimeter thread so I decided to carve away an opening to accept an eight millimeter nut which is very easy in these nice soft bricks the metal put is used to bond the nut in place and a piece of threaded bar is used to hold things in place whilst the fitting drives this also prevents the thread from getting clogged with putty once dried the 3d file can be unscrewed and the thermocouple can be test fitted you can see it's just shy of the inner wall of the foundry and this will be fine as I keep saying to my wife it's the tip that's the most sensitive part I've also enlarged the hull around it a little and here at the bottom of middle blocks with their connections fitted one last thing on the subject of shaping these bricks they can be quite forgiving here I ran the groove on the wrong side of the block the shape in a slice of scrap material was easy and it bonded a treat with the mortar so you can patch the odd error if you have to return into the base now I smooth down something polythene and tape this in place I want to bond the bottom row within the frame but I don't want the mortar to stick to the base so this thin bag will form a protective layer the frame is placed over this and the wobble is still evident and needs sorting a few screws are partially screwed into the table ordinary cable ties are then looped around these and through the brackets when these are pulled tight the wobbling the frame is removed once the white of the bricks is present this shouldn't be an issue again I dry fitted the bottom row to ensure the grooves lined up nicely with the frame I then placed a thin coat of mortar on the bottom of each block and also made sure there was some water in every groove don't overfill the grooves but do leave enough room for the mortar to ease out and fiddle those voids take your time with this row and get it right it needs to be firm flat and level to support everything that follows it's probably best to give everything 24 hours before moving on to the next round it's here that the first of the coils needs to be fitted and this can be a little bit fiddly but with patience it can be done for now leave the tail sticking out of the channels with the second route personally I've bonded each of the ends of these blocks to each other with mortar but I did not bond the bottoms this is important as it may be necessary to remove the calls in the future so we will need to be able to raise the blocks in truth I'm not convinced that mortar is needed from this stage onwards if your cuts are nice and true and there's no discernible corner gaps it's probably best just to dry fit everything you'll see why in a moment with the second rail fitted the second claw can be inserted as before the top row can be added and again now mortar between the rows once the top row is fitted if he'd used Malta leave things for a good week just for good measure the tails of the calls can never be connected to the studs this is a little fiddly to show in situ as the gap is quite narrow but here are the bricks as they were on the bench looking at the bottom block imagine there's two tail sticking out these obviously connected to the bottom coil the right tail is connected to the bottom stood it's looped around any excess is trimmed away and then knot is tightened held but don't over tighten it's not necessary looking at the studs on the top block now these are obviously connected to the top coil again the right hand tail is connected to the stood below it the two remaining left tails are connected to one another on the remaining stood this in effect joins the two calls together making one long coil hopefully you can see these connections in place here personally I split some high temperatures leaving over the tails first this insulates the wire and helps retain the heat it's cheap enough and a worthwhile time investment using a multimeter at this point I'm able to take a reading across the coils but roughly 25 ohms now this is a little more than I wanted so I clearly wasn't very accurate with my core links but I'll live with it for now it should give me about 2.1 kilowatts and I'm happy with that with the main body of the brick we'll finished it's time to add yet another frame made from the same angle line as before on to this welded the four remaining brackets that are made earlier and these correspond with the brackets below some 10 millimeter threaded bar is cut to length and this connects the top and the bottom brackets with a couple of nuts hand tight plus quarter turn with the spanner is tighten off over tightening meloni crush and crack the Briggs as this video is already getting a little long I think we'll call that the end of part 1 but don't worry the rest coming very soon just a couple of days should see it finished so please look out for it in the meantime please look out for my other videos on my youtube channel please subscribe if you haven't already and send me your comments and your questions so that's it for now guys thanks for watching

Channel: VOG

Views: 145,476

Rating: 4.9453621 out of 5

Keywords: electric foundry, metal casting, casting, aluminium, foundry, metal melting, backyard foundry, metal working, diy, electric, resistance, forge, kiln, electric arc furnace, arc reactor, arc furnace, smelting, vegoilguy, taow, furnace, vog

Id: XypmI38IKAw

Length: 22min 33sec (1353 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 03 2018