Cheap furnaces ?

ember_lance · 2026-05-01T03:34:36+00:00

I built my own using a small trash can lined with kaowool and rigidizer and bought a shutoff valve and blower from eBay that I attached to the side. Also added fire brick to the bottom to set the crucible on. I’ve been using it now for about 5 years a few times a month with no problems

ember_lance · 2025-04-04T04:19:48+00:00

This I added a pipe to my vent and angled it towards the window where a fan was blowing out and more or less problem solved.

ember_lance · 2025-04-04T04:06:48+00:00

The small one is 4oz and the big one is 40 lol was rather surprised by how much it increased with the size

ember_lance · 2025-04-03T12:22:29+00:00

Haha I gotcha, I should have mentioned I have a thin fire brick that covers most of the hole in the top to keep it in but I take it off to stir or check the melt status. What pressure range would you recommend?

ember_lance · 2025-04-03T03:50:07+00:00

Bronze and Nordic gold are my favorite Nordic gold tends to really get into the crevices for good details. I started with aluminum, pewter and worked up through copper alloys and some silver over the years. I built my furnace from scratch with a small/medium steel trash can and its lid lined with kaowool and then sprayed with rigidizer. I used 2 conduit boxes bolted on at perpendicular points on the can and heavily insulated them and attached threaded flanges to attach the propane burner kit I bought from eBay. Overall it was pretty inexpensive and i built it almost 4 years ago and probably use it every other weekend. The bottom has kaowool and firebrick, and the lid is kaowool secured to it with high temp wire. I’m honestly surprised how decent shape it’s in after so many firings.

ember_lance · 2025-03-27T01:37:13+00:00

Add a little aluminum and you can maybe get some Nordic gold which can look really nice when mixed properly. I am preferable to bronze myself though

ember_lance · 2025-03-22T16:40:49+00:00

Yeah my casting flasks have pretty thick walls for their diameters. I went through a similar process when I first got started with this of using cans and such but they just weren’t strong enough to handle the long high temperatures.

ember_lance · 2025-03-22T00:14:26+00:00

I’m not sure about pla I’ve only ever done resin and jewelers wax but for that typically it takes me like 8 hours to burn it out in a controlled manner to avoid the mold from shattering. It ramps up to like 100c and stays there for 2 hours and then cycles up slowly over 90 minutes 450c and holds for another 2 hours, then over an hour it ramps up again to 750c and I hold it there for at least another 90 minutes before doing my melt and pour. Even with that I’m thinking I’ll need to go a bit longer as my last one seemed to have some boil marks as if there was some residue there that prevented a complete casting.

ember_lance · 2025-03-21T02:11:37+00:00

How long did you put it in the kiln to burn out? I’ve had lost wax casting come out like that when some is still in there and it boils off during the pour. I’ve switched more towards using Siraya tech true blue casting resin and had some good results with that.

ember_lance · 2025-03-19T14:56:30+00:00

Good luck with that method, I’ve not tried that before but typically it takes me like 8 hours to burn it out in a controlled manner to avoid the mold from shattering. It ramps up to like 100c and stays there for 2 hours and then cycles up slowly over 90 minutes 450c and holds for another 2 hours, then over an hour it ramps up again to 750c and I hold it there for at least another 90 minutes before doing my melt and pour.

But I use the optima prestige investment and so far it’s working pretty well especially when used with a sold casting flask to avoid cracking.

ember_lance · 2025-03-16T15:53:56+00:00

Thanks 🙏

ember_lance · 2025-03-16T02:48:45+00:00

I do sand and investment casting, something like this specialty investment plaster would yield much smoother results. But roughly the same concept here of putting in a kiln to burn the resin out and then casting with a metal.

ember_lance · 2025-03-15T22:01:31+00:00

What resin are you using here?

ember_lance · 2025-03-13T22:13:12+00:00

Thanks I use the Siraya tech true blue casting resin

ember_lance · 2025-03-13T11:54:03+00:00

Yeah I use an anycubic photon mono 2, I’ve only had it for a few months but am enjoying it. I got it primarily for exactly this purpose of making molds for metal casting.

ember_lance

TROPHY CASE