Bootharh Foundry: Welcome to the blog site for Bootharh Foundry

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Disclaimer: I am not a qualified foundry person and all material on this site is presented as information that has worked for me, and any use of such material is strictly at your risk. Foundry work is fun, but proper safety precautions should be observed at all times as with any hobby, and it is your responsibility to decide if the information is suitable for your application, and what safety precautions need to be taken

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History

First a little about how I came to get started in home foundry. I always had an interest in melting metal, and started many years ago when I was still at school. A mates grandfather had a small hand operated forge in his shed and my mate and I started by making sinkers. We would pick up coal to use from along a railway line that ran past his place into town. Later on I tried melting aluminium using a fan from an old VW that my brother in law made into a blower. I made a few castings using china ornaments for patterns and the sand from the side of the road. I can't recall using clay in the sand, I think it was only damp.
After a while other things took over and I gave up doing any casting. Quite a while later after I started working I had access to old truck brake drums, and decided to make a forge using a brake drum and a hand blower I acquired. Although I finished making it, I never set it up and it sat at home for years. A few years ago my mate bought a furnace and he and his friends would cast aluminium, brass and cast iron. He offered to do some bits for my classic cars but we never got around to doing them. Then early in 2013 I decided to have a go myself and dragged out the old forge I had made and set it up as a furnace to see if I could melt aluminium. And that is how it all started!!! I have done a lot of reading and internet research and adapted what I learned to suit myself. I decided to name my foundry after the local area where I live. There used to be a railway station at Bootharh which was on the line where we used to pick up the coal as kids. It has long since been removed and the line pulled up.

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My Furnace

This is my furnace when I started out. It was originally going to be a forge before it became a furnace. The blower is a heater fan out of an old car and was mounted where the hand blower would have gone. I added the top to the brake drum to make it deeper using a Hilux rim. I cut a door in the side in case I wanted to use it as a forge to heat long metal but I have never used it other than to put wood in. I cut the legs down to make it easier to get the crucible in and out. I cut up an old car rim to fit in the bottom and an old hot water tank to form the inside. I then filled the brake drum and the cavity between the Hilux rim and inner liner with a slurry of crushed termites nest. I believe this was used in the old days for lining forges etc.It seems to work well but does need supporting when it is fired, hence the steel lining. As it was going to be a forge, the air inlet is in the bottom. I used a steel plate (lawnmower base plate) with holes drilled in it to spread the air over the bottom. The air is brought into the bottom via standard 2" pipe fittings. The blower has 3 speed settings and I added a 2" gate valve to the bottom (where it had a cap to let out any ash that fell down into the air pipe) to further regulate the airflow by opening and closing the valve. I have found that the first speed is OK for aluminium and don't have to use the valve normally. I used a 12v car heater fan for my blower as where I live I do not have mains power and rely on a solar system and generator for power. This means I can use the furnace without running a generator. I have since changed the gate valve and put in a T piece with the gate valve on the side and closed the bottom of the T with some plastic and a hose clamp. This was done after my stainless steel crucible sprang a leak twice and blocked up the gate valve with molten aluminium - not an easy task to remove. Now if this happens the metal will run down the T piece and melt the plastic and escape without blocking up the gate valve. My furnace is a bit out of the ordinary as I am using wood at the moment for fuel. As I live on a rural property, wood is plentiful and cheap and I have had no problem melting aluminium and have even melted brass using it as fuel. The only disadvantage is it produces a fair amount of flames and if the wind changes you tend to lose some arm hairs if you are too close!