Hi guy. Recently finished my first foundry, using roughly the design on John Wasser's site, a Reil derivative burner, except instead of a coffee can, I used a galvanized bucket.
Pictures of the first melt are available at:
It did expose some weaknesses though. I used channellock pliers to lift the crucible, that worked OK, but it took a little more effort than I was expecting (lead is heavy!), and didn't seem to give me much control over the pour.
I've purchased some beefier channel lock pliers for future use. What do you guys recommend for crucible tongs? I see some on budgetcastingsupply.com, but they don't seem particularly "budget" to me!
I've also purchased some graphite/clay #4 crucibles from LA Graphite (they are having a going out of business sale BTW, lagraphite.com).
I'm baking the crucibles in the kitchen oven, first I tried 500F for 10 minutes, and that produced copious smoke. Down to 250F for 1 hour and a little less smoke. Can I just put them in the foundry with the burner as low as it will go, and let them cook there for a while?
My wife is going to kill me when she gets home today and the whole house smells like acrid burning mothballs.