How To Make a Smelter

To All:

It's easy. YOU CAN DO IT.

The basic idea is to line a steel drum or barrel with refractory
material such as fire brick, mortared together with fire-clay, sand
and refractory cement. That will get you a BIG smelter, one you'll
probably NEVER USE.

So start with a SMALLER steel drum. Get yourself a 'boat' --
something in which to mix your refractory CEMENT. You aren't going to
use any fire brick... except mebbe for the bottom.

You want the bottom to be about two inches thick and solid refractory
material. Pumping up a good flame, the temperature will approach
three thousand degrees Fahrenheit. And that is one hell of a fire,
pard.

Get yourself some CARDBOARD. Quite a bit of it. You are going to
ROLL the cardboard until it has the OD that you want. The OD must
match the OD of your CRUCIBLE plus about two inches per side. So go
find yourself a crucible. But keep in mind, if you're smelting
aluminum you DON'T want it in contact with any iron or steel. It will
be 'poisoned' and turn out brittle (!) (Yeah, I didn't think so
either. Trust me, it'll crack like glass.) Now you CAN use iron or
steel... so long as you DIP your crucible in a refractory COATING
before you charge it with lumps of aluminum. Just mix up the
refractory coating about the same as pan-cake mix, then dip the pot in
it, let it drain, then dry, the BAKE to cure it. All cured? Then dip
it again. In fact, dip it about three times. Last time is the
charmer. Make sure it has no cracks and that you haven't scraped
through the dip at any point. Now you can bake it. Pretend it's just
another piece of ceramic art. It won't be, because you'll have a
couple of tangs stick out through it which you have CLEANED OFF every
time you've dipped it. Then put it in the furnace to bake. Patience
is your pal. Go do something else whilst baking your refractory mix.

What's a good mix? I used fire-clay and a patent 'refractory cement'
-- some black sh.... stuff that you mix with water. I added fire-clay
to that and ended up with a thick, grey slurry. I dipped and let it
air-dry twice, then threw some charcoal into the furnace, light it
off, got the charcoal going good then propped the crucible over the
coals. I didn't pay a lot of attention to the inside of the
crucible. It was a solid, seamless coating. I made the pot out of
steel tubing 4.5" in diameter and about 9" high. The bottom was a
piece of 3/8" thick steel plate, MIG'ged to the pipe. I cut a couple
of bolts down to 1" length measured from under the head. I made two
sets of tongs, one to lift the crucible in & out of the furnace (lid
is off, the thing will flat FRY you unless you are protected by at
least two layers of leather... and more is better). Furnace has a 2"
hole in the side down low; lid has a 2" hole in the middle (was a tin
can until I poured in the refractory stuff, mixed with lotsa fire-clay
and #80 silicon sand.

You see some guys using tongs six feet long and you laugh. Don't.
Not until you've had a pot full of molten metal in your grip.

You got goodd shoes? And I'm not talking K-Mart. Good LEATHER
shoes. Plus leather OVER them to act like a rain shield, in case you
slip and spill a little.

Once you pull the pot out of the furnance you'd damn well better know
what comes next... you can't stand there hold it with one hand while
scratching your ass, trying to figure out what to do.

Mine, I gotta sit it down. So I have a Sitting Down Place.
Concrete. Dry. Pouring Tongs just beside it. Sit down the crucible,
pick up the Pouring Tongs, pick up the crucible, move mebbe six
inches... prolly less, there's the flask, ready & waiting. Pour.

Hell of a note.. Steam. Smoke. Fumes. Flames. You're inside of it
all, standing there, pouring. Nice & steady. Pouring. That's your
job. Pour the molten metal outta the pot into the flask. Pouring.
At just the right speed. Fill it right up. Fill up the mold and the
tower and the top of the flask. And you'd better have made damn sure
you got enough metal to fill the mold.

All done? Okay, swing the crucible over HERE and pour any excess into
those ingot molds. Shouldn't have any excess but some is better than
none. Now swing the crucible BACK to the Sitting Down Place. Sit it
down. Put down the Pouring Tongs, pick up the Lifting Tongs, put the
crucible back into the furnace. Close the lid. Now you can think
about other things.

Lemme give you a hint. If you've never cast nothing in your life
before, DON'T start with this. Start by casting some fish weights
outta wheel balance weights. Start with casting balls for your cap &
ball rifle. Start with anything OTHER than a bucket fulla aluminum.
Because there's a lot of little details that can scar you for life.
And you only get the one chance to learn... that FIRST time. It helps
if you got someone there who'se done it before, kinda breathing down
your neck.

FIRST time, do something EASY. Rudder pedals. "VP-II" cast right
into them suckers!

-R.S.Hoover