Being short on cash and time I decided not to buy some industrial refractory and decided to try my hand at making my own. This refractory is completely free as long as you have a shovel and a wheelbarrow. It contains only clay and sand. I dug the clay out of the ground myself from the unused land behind my house and the sand is out of a sand pit. I am still working on the formula but it does harden like rock when it is baked. I have not tested this in a furnace yet but once our first generation furnace is designed I will be lining the inside with this. I will post it holds up to heat/expansion stress.
Thursday, 24 May 2012
Dirt Cheap Refractory
Being short on cash and time I decided not to buy some industrial refractory and decided to try my hand at making my own. This refractory is completely free as long as you have a shovel and a wheelbarrow. It contains only clay and sand. I dug the clay out of the ground myself from the unused land behind my house and the sand is out of a sand pit. I am still working on the formula but it does harden like rock when it is baked. I have not tested this in a furnace yet but once our first generation furnace is designed I will be lining the inside with this. I will post it holds up to heat/expansion stress.
Wednesday, 23 May 2012
About the Blog
We started the blog to record and share are progress and successful designs as we start making our home foundry. We have never done any foundry work before and being a bit short on cash we are trying lots of cheap, home-brew alternatives to expensive commercial equipment. Our goal is to have a functional foundry, capable of melting everything from aluminium to iron, by the end of the year. An ambitious goal for sure but in the words of some long dead architect who's name I can't remember. "To accomplish great things all that is needed is a plan and not quite enough time.
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