I have been doing some experimenting with the aim of being able to cast some metal components. I have cut up some old gas cylinders to use as a furnace as shown in the photo. Air is being blown into the furnace using a hair dryer via the pipe on the side to the cylinder. Charcoal is being used as fuel.
I have been given a number of handles off some old uPVC windows for my first experiment. After about 20 minutes of heating, the handles had become a large pool of molten metal.
After removing the slag from the top of the molten metal I poured the metal into a yorkshire pudding tray leaving me with some ingots of clean metal for future use.