I've been casting for a while off a friend's blacksmiths forge using coke as the fuel. It's a fairly easy process, and we haven't had any trouble so far getting up to melts of about 12lbs. of bronze. Takes
15-20 minutes to do a melt from cold metal.I also got out an old foundry text book, which has some useful tables on the energy per pound from burning coke, air consumption etc. No units given - this is a fairly old book.
My question is: does anyone know where I can find a table for the energy required to melt different alloys and metals? Not the temperature required, but the total energy required to get the melt. I'm looking at building a coke furnace, and I'd like to be able to do some ballpark estimates on how much metal could reasonably be poured.
regards,
Matt Turner Turner Racing Shells Ltd.