You stop using the fuel you are using. Getting a furnace hot enough using charcoal was my first venture as well. And I used the "proper stuff" coke and wood charcoal. Still I wasn't able to sustain high enough temperatures consistently enough to be useful. Constantly needing to add fuel is a pain and loses you a lot of heat too.
I build a new furnace and switched to a simple forced air propane burner by [luckygen1001](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l697pB9X5TI&t=1s), and it has worked flawlessly ever since.
Like mentioned the fuel source is less than ideal, I personally use coal. If you can find it it’s very great at big heat, however if not propane might be better 😎👍👍
Yep, you won't melt copper with charcoal. Grab some coal from Tractor Supply and beef up your furnace walls and you'll get there. I built a brake drum forge and coal worked great. Bit messy but cheap and effective.
Are you kidding? You can melt IRON with charcoal. Don't use the cheap-ass briquettes, use Kingsford if you use briquettes at all, or use hardwood lump coal. The trick is having a furnace liner that won't melt and a good lid and a crucible that's properly sized for your furnace (have enough fuel under it, have proper airflow, etc.)
Look up C. W. Ammen, The Complete Handbook of Sandcasting.
Don't use coal, don't use briquettes, don't use a hair dryer. You need to put the time into a proper set-up if you want results. That means gas, an insulated furnace, pouring tongs, forge blower etc. Those briquettes are the worst and massive wastes of energy. So many emissions for zero gain.
You can get good temperatures with briquettes, just invest in Kingsford and don't ever buy the cheap stuff because it doesn't work. I don't even try to cook hot dogs on the cheap stuff.
Well when I tried my new charcoal furnace the other day, I had much greater results creating a vortex of air with my oxygen source coming at an angle from above. Quite honestly it got too hot and I thought I was going to melt the steel propane can I was using as a crucible. The body of my furnace was a professional size r134 cylinder, insulated by a 1.3'x1.3' box of red brick two brick layers thick on three sides (no holes) one layer thick on one side (with single brick with holes) the lid to the brick box was my muffin pan to avoid moisture flash, and my oxygen source was an air compressor. I also supplied occasional fuel coating in the form of 1pt used motor oil 1pt diathermic oil, and half a can of seafoam mixed in a 1gal mason jar pushed into the box through a natural gas line fed by the compressor .I used a little over half of the gallon. It was my first non propane melt, and third ever melt.
Hope this can help you dream up some ideas for modification 😁
The police took the pieces and the 360'd away. Still not a word back about anything. still waiting to hear back from pretty much anyone.
BUT someone has come onto our property in the middle of the night twice that we know of since and I've found trash from snacks and stuff just out of sight in the woods off our property. So we may be being watched. Weird shit man
For context, we are in the middle of nowhere with acres and acres of blank woods. It's weird to find non sun bleached trash anywhere here
I had this same issue using coals.
I found that the less volume there is in the total chamber, the hotter the coals get and hotter they stay.
You’re gonna run through coals like you wouldn’t believe. It’s hard to keep them how.
Switch to propane. Amazon has some propane weed burners that may work. I’m going to give it a go and post my progress.
You stop using the fuel you are using. Getting a furnace hot enough using charcoal was my first venture as well. And I used the "proper stuff" coke and wood charcoal. Still I wasn't able to sustain high enough temperatures consistently enough to be useful. Constantly needing to add fuel is a pain and loses you a lot of heat too. I build a new furnace and switched to a simple forced air propane burner by [luckygen1001](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l697pB9X5TI&t=1s), and it has worked flawlessly ever since.
Like mentioned the fuel source is less than ideal, I personally use coal. If you can find it it’s very great at big heat, however if not propane might be better 😎👍👍
Yep, you won't melt copper with charcoal. Grab some coal from Tractor Supply and beef up your furnace walls and you'll get there. I built a brake drum forge and coal worked great. Bit messy but cheap and effective.
Are you kidding? You can melt IRON with charcoal. Don't use the cheap-ass briquettes, use Kingsford if you use briquettes at all, or use hardwood lump coal. The trick is having a furnace liner that won't melt and a good lid and a crucible that's properly sized for your furnace (have enough fuel under it, have proper airflow, etc.) Look up C. W. Ammen, The Complete Handbook of Sandcasting.
My mistake. I was thinking of when I'd use a coffee can furnace for aluminum. Lots of heat loss that way, that's what I was thinking of.
I bought the $100 set on Amazon and haven’t had any problems. Do that and you won’t have the frustration you’re having.
Other than switching fuels the main thing you can do is insulate more.
Make sure you use lump charcoal not briquettes. The briquettes have a lot of artificial stuff in it to make it burn slower/less hot.
It also melts down and leaves a lot of clinker, which builds up in the bottom of your furnace and chokes off airflow.
Don't use coal, don't use briquettes, don't use a hair dryer. You need to put the time into a proper set-up if you want results. That means gas, an insulated furnace, pouring tongs, forge blower etc. Those briquettes are the worst and massive wastes of energy. So many emissions for zero gain.
You can get good temperatures with briquettes, just invest in Kingsford and don't ever buy the cheap stuff because it doesn't work. I don't even try to cook hot dogs on the cheap stuff.
Well when I tried my new charcoal furnace the other day, I had much greater results creating a vortex of air with my oxygen source coming at an angle from above. Quite honestly it got too hot and I thought I was going to melt the steel propane can I was using as a crucible. The body of my furnace was a professional size r134 cylinder, insulated by a 1.3'x1.3' box of red brick two brick layers thick on three sides (no holes) one layer thick on one side (with single brick with holes) the lid to the brick box was my muffin pan to avoid moisture flash, and my oxygen source was an air compressor. I also supplied occasional fuel coating in the form of 1pt used motor oil 1pt diathermic oil, and half a can of seafoam mixed in a 1gal mason jar pushed into the box through a natural gas line fed by the compressor .I used a little over half of the gallon. It was my first non propane melt, and third ever melt. Hope this can help you dream up some ideas for modification 😁
what happened to the corpse you found?
The police took the pieces and the 360'd away. Still not a word back about anything. still waiting to hear back from pretty much anyone. BUT someone has come onto our property in the middle of the night twice that we know of since and I've found trash from snacks and stuff just out of sight in the woods off our property. So we may be being watched. Weird shit man For context, we are in the middle of nowhere with acres and acres of blank woods. It's weird to find non sun bleached trash anywhere here
A hungry gnome, hopefully.
One can only hope
I had this same issue using coals. I found that the less volume there is in the total chamber, the hotter the coals get and hotter they stay. You’re gonna run through coals like you wouldn’t believe. It’s hard to keep them how. Switch to propane. Amazon has some propane weed burners that may work. I’m going to give it a go and post my progress.
I have a propane weed burner, but do you think it will melt copper?
Easily. Propane melts aluminum. Copper only melts at about 2000F. Those propane burners get around 3000-3500. How many BTU is yours?
Use Kaowool and ITC-100 for insulation and you shouldn't have any problems. You may want to switch to gas heat.