The backyard blast furnace!

a.k.a. Building a mini iron melting cupola furnace.

After awhile a guy like me get tired of just melting aluminum. And even bronze can fail
to fulfil an inner melting need. So it was only a matter of time before I set out to melt iron. So I decided to build this small portable cupola furnace to do just that. This unit is experimental and is for the most part my own design since at the time of construction I had no solid plans for such a small cupola like this. -June/20/2005 Here is a picture of the finished cupola furnace. This is about as good as it's gonna get too. This is just a slapped together thing just too see if I can actually melt iron with hardwood charcoal. I actually think it'll work (at least a little). It's about feet tall and is on a steel cart that I welded together. The bore is !" diameter. I hope to get about #$ pounds of molten iron e%ery & or ' minutes from this cupola.

This photo is of the cupola shell before refractory and painting. It is ri%eted together from some &( gallon metal buckets with a sheet metal e)tension in the center. I had to clean roofing tar out of these buckets with sol%ent and it was a sloppy* messy* disgusting* despicable job. The sol%ent (turpatine) dissol%ed two pairs of rubber glo%es and I messed up a pair of pants also in the mess. +ut the tar dissol%ed in sol%ent is a nice fuel in my waste oil burner... hot and smokeless, In this photo you can also see the she spout "platform" and part of the unfinished steel cart also. The air enters the furnace on two sides. I chose to build a sheetmetal "apparatus" to split the blower's air e-ually. At first I was going to use pipes and fittings to do this but they just offered the air way too much resistance which greatly decreased it's pressure. This air chamber slides onto intake flanges attached to the furnace.

The air enters the chamber through a passage which widens out pro%iding air to a larger portion of the coals. These wooden forms will lea%e the properly shaped passage in the refractory and burn out when I first fire the furnace. The location of the form in this photo is for illustration only. It's actually located much higher in the actual furnace.

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At this point the refractory is rammed in place and this is a %iew of the spout. I'%e remo%ed the piece of broomstick used to form the spout hole and car%ed the refractory. It took about ..& hours and I was happy as hell when I finally finished. The ne)t cupola I build will /0T ha%e a shell made from thin buckets, The shell with it's height contorts to much with the ramming process.

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1ince the refractory is in place it's easier to form the "drop bottom." This is a trap door type of thing that drops open at the end of the furnace run and empties the contents of the furnace. 2y design is just a basic pi%ot type mechanism.

Here I'm welding the furnace cart. It's made from steel rebar. I intend to cast some iron wheels for it. Iron wheels are necessary so they don't melt when the contents of the furnace are cleaned out through the bottom hole after the melting is complete. 3hile completing the welding on the frame I welded together these bott (or is it 4bod56) and tapping rods. The bot rod is used to plug the furnace's spout with a clay7sawdust mi)ture so the molten metal can build up in the furnace. The tapping rod is used to chip the bott plug away from the spout to allow the molten metal to flow into the ladle or mold.

I'%e cast this manometer (sometimes called a "8(tube manometer") for measuring the air pressure in the airchamber entering the furnace. The de%ice is simply a guage where air enter a tube with some li-uid (water and food coloring) in it. The pressure of the air pusses the li-uid and the distance that the li-uid mo%es is the air pressure in "inches of water column." I think this is how gas pressure for homes is measured also. /ow it's time for some action...

Cupola furnace built on the cheap

...Possibly too cheap.

I don't have much confidence in this cupola, actually it's the fuel I don't have much
confidence in. I find it hard to imagine that I'll be able to melt iron and keep a pool of it molten until each draining of the furnace. None-the-less I have plans to build a "cupolette" furnace for single batches of maybe 50 or 60 pounds of iron. Then hopefully the real fun will begin!... -June/20/2005

Here is a piece of scrap iron I found one day. It's actually an engine cylinder head from a %ehicle that ob%iously hit the skids years ago. It weighs about 9$ pounds and is somewhat hollow. +its of the spark plugs are still in it. I found this piece along the shore in an area that used to be a boat and scrap metal dumping ground. The area is now a recreational park but the shore is still littered with scrap iron* mainly from machines and old :ictorian home style iron radiators (a piece of one is below the cyl. head). If this iron melts and casts well I'll be more than happy to help further clean the shore by collecting more of that scrap iron, These are some oyster shells that I collected from the same Atlantic coast shore as the scrap iron abo%e. I read that both oyster shells and powdered limestone are good flu)es for iron. And since I can gather all the oyster shells I want for free then that's what I'll do. 8nfortunetly no pearls were located. I'll continue to search for them since they also ha%e usefulness* but not for the cupola* for my wallet,

I don't want to buy the modern cupola fuel (coke) so I'm using homemade hardwood charcoal. Hardwood charcoal was often used for iron melting in the olden days. These are /0T barbecue charcoal bri-uettes which are ineffecti%e for ironcasting. This charcoal is from oak* maple* ash and whate%er other wood is burned in the fireplace. I just sho%el some coals out* -uench them with water and let them dry. I ha%e access to some regular coal so if the hardwood charcoal fails maybe I can use that* or heat the coal in a retort assembly to create "homemade coke". ;oke is coal with the %olatiles burned out. +ut I intend to "perfect" the use of homemade charcoal and make my own based on a method shown here or here. Here is the charcoal and iron measured out and put into bags. There is about ' pounds in each bag of iron. I don't think my crucible would be able to safely collect a full #$ pound load from the furnace. This little cupola should melt about #$ pounds of iron at a time. It turns out that ten pounds is more scrap than I thought.

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/ow it's time to get this thing going. I start the cupola with a nice fire of paper and sticks. +elie%e it or not This photo was taken about #$ months after I actually built this cupola, I just ne%er got around to firing it up and it just sat in the basement. Therefore I don't ha%e any concerns with slowly drying the lining. This is my homemade refractory formula and It's plenty dry after #$ months,

Here you can see the blower and manometer in position.

This is a look into one of the tuyeres (pronounced tweers). <ou can actually see right out the opposite tuyere.

<ou can't tell but the charcoal is bla=ing in the furnace. I'%e therefore dropped in a bag of iron and another bag of charcoal.

I read that a cupola works best with a rather reducing flame (a bit low in o)ygen). And this is indeed reducing. I think these flames result at least partially from the carbon mono)ide burning further into carbon dio)ide.

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Here's a look into the top of the furnace. >retty hot. I can see iron glowing and the materials inside are lowering. +ut that just means that the fuel is burning* not necessarily that iron is melting. +ut hopefully I'll ha%e molten iron soon,

This little droplet is what I got from all that effort. 3hen I first saw it I was %ery e)cited thinking that the iron was dripping down about to buildup in the base of the furnace to be drained out. +ut alas* I only got a few more drops like these. 0h and get this... after a closer in%estigation I disco%ered that these droplets aren't e%en iron... they're slag, That mother fornicating..... 3ell* I feel really defeated* so I guess that's the end of the cupola e)perimentation... 1I?@, I'll try some thing different this time.

Cupola adventures part 3

The first time was just a warm up... I hope.

This is war now! I'm pulling out all the stops, stepping my game up five or six notches.
No more Mr. nice guy. And if the cupola still doesn't work... I'ma fetch the sledge hammer! -June/20/2005

Here I opened the bottom flap and let the contents drop out from the pre%ious attempt. Actually... saying that I let the contents "drop" out is a bit misleading. I actually had to stand abo%e the furnace on a step latter and ram the partially fused content out with a weight lifting barbell. I then cooled the hot mass with a garden watering can. I would ha%e called it a day at this point but I couldn't let myself gi%e up* at least not that easily. 1o I decided to fire the furnace up again. +esides it was only about 9A9$ >2. This time I ha%e a secret weapon. I intend to melt this iron with coal, The type of rock hard coal that was used to power old(time locomoti%es. Hopefully these little guys will be just the ticket, <es I know... I know... coal isn't considered good for melting iron because it contains impurities such as sulfur that can effect the iron. +ut I'm willing to o%erlook that at this stage,

Here is a comparison between charcoal created by burning wood (on the left) and this "rock" coal (on the right). The rock coal is hard* shiny and more dense. I guess this results in the increased heat and longer burning time. The charcoal is light and porous.

Here's a look into the furnace soon after pouring in the coal. I poured it in a little at a time because I heard it smokes a lot. +ut fortunately it did not. /otice the blue flames in the center. I think this is the result of the sulfur burning out of the coal.

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Here's a look inside after dumping in the iron. This is clearly hotter than before, (Click photo for larger view)

The "windbelt" thing was poorly constructed and all the seems leaked air. 1o as a last ditch effort to increase air pressure going into the furnace I duct taped all the seams. According to my manometer there was a static pressure of #7 " water column in the windbelt before the duct tape. After the duct tape was applied I read #7." water column on the manometer, Are you ready for a good laugh6 The desirable air pressure is about .( " water column,

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At least one thing is going right for me... The bod plug is keeping the furnace spout closed. I saw some sparks coming out of it and that is a sign that iron is actually too hot and is o)idi=ing as it melts. At this point o)idi=ed iron is entirely acceptable to me,

This was about as good as it got. This is not iron* it's slag. That's all that came out the furnace. And when cool it was like the slag from an arc welding rod* shiny and black in color. I ha%e no idea why nothing but slag came out. (Click photo for larger view)

Here's some slag cooling on the spout. I had to keep ramming my tapping rod into the spout the keep it cleared. The rod got co%ered with slag and I kept dipping it in water to cool it then strike it on a cinder block to crack the slag off. 0h well I guess you can be successful all the time.

+elie%e it or not I actually made a third furnace run with some less rusted iron to see it that helped. /o iron flowed out of the spout that time either. +ut after I emptied the furnace I found this mass of iron. It's ob%ious that the iron melted but was not hot enough to stay molten so it cooled showing the shape of the drippings. This is the result after I chipped out all the charcoal that was within it. I ha%en't gi%en up though... I now ha%e 1te%e ;hastain's cupola book and am building a cupollette furnace with #. or #9" bore capable of melting '$B pounds of iron at a time,,, And this time I'll use good materials (higher -uality junk), ;heck out where I sometimes go for collecting scrap iron at a sea shore