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Propane Tank Furnace/Forge

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vtsteam:
Well, you could, if you follow Rob's instructions and used a suitable high temp refractory. But not with plaster of Paris (if you were considering it). And my suggestions were only based on melting aluminum w/ charcoal briquets or propane. I, like Rob, also just run the tuyere near the bottom and straight in vs. angled up. I do angle it somewhat tangentially -- more for propane than charcoal.

I know you're worried about spills running down the tuyere, but with small quantities of aluminum, I think the hazzards can be exaggerated in online reading. And if you're over a good bed of sand I'm not sure having the aluminum solidify in the well is preferable to having it run out into a sand basin.

The blast pipe on mine is aluminum tube, and I doubt a serious leak of aluminum would make it to the blower, and a slight angle on the blast pipe is enough to guarantee it won't. Otherwise, with a steep tuyere as you show, the blower has to be situated and angled down from above, which is awkward.

The tuyere on mine is maybe a half inch above the bottom, which if you multiply times an 8 inch bore, is a fair amount of containing volume anyway, and most leaks from a metal crucible are relatively slow. I guess if you shattered a ceramic version it could go fast, but hard to imagine how that would happen with such totality.  When new to casting, fear of the unknown tends to exaggerate concerns, but really this is a tiny amount of metal compared to even small scale commercial practice. I'm not trying to minimize caution, but if reasonable, things will go well.

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