Oil fired crucible furnace

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Mayhem:
It looks like you are making real progress Steve. I am following with interest, as I know very little about this and hope to get into it (if I can get my burner working).

vtsteam:
Thanks Mayhem, it's all new to me as well -- thought I was reasonable at casting when it was aluminum, but iron is definitely teaching me patience, here.

I think the shrinkage issue may be solved, the main things I need to work on are bubbles and slag removal. I'm going to push my limits on what I think of as usable sand in terms of dryness and light ramming to try to get permeability up. I do also vent the sand with wire. Those are the little holes you see in the picture of the cope sand, back a ways in this thread. Cope depth has been decreased to 2"

For slag reduction and removal, I'm going to try a little crushed oyster shell as a flux this next pour, added later in the melt. I hope this will cause less crucible erosion than I had with the soda ash.

vtsteam:
Here's a pic of the radiator scrap I've been using:

vtsteam:
Here's a closer shot of it -- some pieces are relatively clean looking on the inside, and some are quite rough, with what look like sand inclusions from a core:

vtsteam:
Here's a tool I made today to help me scrape slag out of the crucible while it is in the furnace. It was made from a piece of L shaped angle iron left over from the pallet i used to make the furnace base, and a 2 foot length of 1/2" re-bar:

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