My homemade foundry furnace during early testing
Homemade Electric Foundry
This section of my website is dedicated to the construction and use of my homemade electric foundry.
My homemade foundry furnace during early testing
Disclaimer: Foundries are ridiculously dangerous. I'm completely untrained and self taught, so I can't be held accountable for anything resulting from your foundry use or the information on this page. Its up to you to use your head; if something doesn't seem right then it probably isn't!
Introduction: First a bit of personal history: I've wanted to build a proper foundry since stumbling across a page on a "coffee can foundry" a few years ago, as seen here. I was inspired by the idea of pouring metal at home, so I tried making a coffee can foundry. I had a successful casting session with it but felt that the design was too dangerous and inefficient to be practical, so I put the idea on the back burner for a while.
Then I came across dansworkshop.com and saw his electric foundry. The idea of it being electric appeals to me for a number of reasons: it's clean, easy to control, has even heat, won't explode, and can be used in my garage. I finally gave in and bought his plans, which I've never regretted. They are well written, detailed, and have lots of really useful pointers.
Construction of my Furnace - How I built the actual furnace part of my foundry.
The Furnace Element and Power Controller - The element I bought and how I built the power controller, including problems I experienced (eg. electrical explosions) and the solutions I found.
Other Foundry Components - The Crucible, Tongs, Shank, Etc.
Issues and Suggestions (coming soon!)
Videos of the Furnace - See the foundry in action!
My Hot Wire Foam Cutter - Updated 4-Aug-09 - For cutting the foam used for lost-foam castings
Supplier Links - Where I bought all my materials and equipment.
Last updated 8-Apr-09
Copyright ©2009 Alexander Sutherland