Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesBrown
Interesting, there is a guy on there who has a furnace that burns waste oil, it appears to be made out of a keg (undoubtedly lined with some sort of ceramic) and an old vaccum cleaner. Pretty cool.
|
A friend of mine has built one of these waste oil furnaces. It gets hot enough to cast iron, (which he has done). There are only a few hobbyists who ever attempt casting iron. This is an order of magnitude more difficult and dangerous than casting aluminum. For aluminum casting a propane furnace is clean, convenient, and not overly expensive unless you plan to do a lot of casting. Some folks use a charcoal furnace, which is easier to build from scratch, but does have additional drawbacks. The waste oil furnace is relatively expensive to build, quite large to store, and requires a fairly large, open, and dry yet fire-safe area to operate. A location suitable for casting with a propane furnace is generally easier to locate. You might try checking the cost of just a used stainless steel keg sometime to see how quickly the parts start to add up.