Reddit reviews The Charcoal Foundry (Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap, Vol. 1)

Greetings from /r/metalfoundry!

Using a break drum forge, probably not. Or at least, if you do reach sufficient temperatures, it will only be at the cost of massively inefficient waste of fuel.

A couple other things:

When you talk about "collecting iron with a strong magnet", I hope you are talking about random discarded scrap metal. If you are thinking about finding iron ore, then the vast majority of that is in the form non-magnetic iron oxide. Also, you may have better luck investing in even a lower end metal detector compared to just trying to use a high power magnet.

You can't just use a regular ceramic crucible. You need to use a crucible with a lid that you seal up air-tight with clay. If air gets to your hot iron, it will both burn out the carbon in your steel, and burn the iron into iron oxide and that won't do you any good. The lid needs to seal on very tightly because ideal gas law means the air that remains in the crucible is going to raise in pressure along with the temperature, and you don't want the lid to pop.

You need to use a combination of scrap iron, crushed glass (cullet) and a blend of other additives depending on what is in the scrap you're starting with to get your desired alloy. At a minimum, usually at least a little carbon (crushed hardwood charcoal) Other additives may depend on the material used to make your crucible. You need to gradually heat it up until well past the melting point of iron. You need to hold it at that temperature long enough for the carbon to distribute through the iron. You need to allow the crucible to cool at least down to forge-welding temperature. If you use a lower grade crucible (eg. modified terra cotta flowerpot, which I don't recommend), there's a decent chance you will shatter the thing when extracting your iron/steel. Also, don't expect your foundry to survive terribly long when you run it at the temperatures needed for crucible steel.

Getting back to how you would heat this crucible, The cheapest setup would be a Gingery style backyard charcoal foundry. It's something like a 7 gallon bucket lined with a few inches of refractory material (It can be made using about $40 worth of stuff from the hardware store), You make a raised mound for the crucible, a tangential hole at the bottom, and a lid with a hole in the center. You allow it to dry for a few days (more weather depending), then bake slowly using a wood fire to harden. You put your prepared crucible in place, pack the thing loosely with charcoal all the way to the top, light the charcoal. Once started, you hook up a leaf blower to the bottom hole and hit it. Now you get to constantly add more charcoal until the process is complete, and it does burn pretty fast.

Even if you do all this correctly, you can still have failures. Niels Provos has a playlist where he attempts to make crucible steel, and only has limited success.

http://www.amazon.com/Charcoal-Foundry-Build-Metal-Working/dp/1878087002/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1369891234&sr=8-2&keywords=David+Gingery

Might be a good place to start.

The Charcoal Foundry (Build Your... https://www.amazon.com/dp/1878087002?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

David gingery has a whole series starting with making a foundry and eventually making your own machine tools.

Might try checking out the series by David J. Gingery. It is 7 books that mostly build off of each other. You use metalworking techniques to build your own machining tools.

Charcoal Foundry

Metal Lathe

Metal Shaper

Milling Machine

Drill Press

Deluxe Accessories

Sheet Metal Brake

Otherwise there is always Instructables

A good book to start with if you are interested in the topic: https://www.amazon.com/Charcoal-Foundry-Build-Metal-Working/dp/1878087002

Give it a try! It's surprisingly cheap if you don't go overboard like I did. Outside of commercial refractory - I have maybe 50$ worth of scrap and welding consumables invested into mine. Hours of productive feeling work and fun involved.

Check out Gingery's books.

You need to read this book. See if your library has it; there's also a pdf of it on the net.

Another great source of info: the Home Model Engine Machinist board.

Whatcha making?