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A small simple homemade furnace for melting aluminum. Do-it-yourself aluminum melting furnace: types, manufacturing features and reviews Gas-fired aluminum melting furnace

This article brings together many different step-by-step instructions to help you make a great aluminum melting crucible. It only takes a couple of days and some money.

DENIAL OF RESPONSIBILITY

In the process of melting aluminum at home, you will encounter fire and molten metal. Do not neglect safety equipment and overalls. Responsibility for any resulting injury lies solely with you! I have nothing to do with this.

Step 1: Materials and Tools





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In retrospect, I can say that although the list is large, all these materials are not difficult to obtain. The most expensive was the burner. I tried to save money, but to be honest, this is a very useful purchase.

Other materials for the smelter:

  • Fast setting cement mortar. I took a bucket of 9 kg for 500 rubles.
  • The container in which we will mix the solution
  • A device to stir the solution
  • Large coffee jar (15 cm)
  • Small coffee jar (10 cm)
  • Hacksaw for metal
  • Drill (or other tool for making holes in metal)
  • 0.4 kg gas cylinder (make sure it is empty)
  • A steel rod, e.g. from a printer, about 30 centimeters long (you can buy a 20 cm steel rod at your local hardware store)
  • Marker (or any other marking tool)
  • adhesive tape
  • Cardboard
  • A short (5-7 cm) iron or steel pipe into which the end of the burner enters. (Not necessary)
  • Round mallet (any other will do)
  • Some propane (I buy in a tourist shop, 250 rubles for two 450g bottles)
  • oven (optional)
  • Vise (optional, but very useful)
  • Small baking dish (optional, you just need something to pour the aluminum into)
  • Some cheap wire (no more than 3 mm, but strong enough to support a small weight)

Step 2: Making the crucible





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So, I took an empty gas cylinder and clamped it in a vise. With a hacksaw, I cut it along the weld and cut off the edges. If you look at the bottom, you will see 4 holes. Use a marker to mark out the lines on a level with them.

Use a hammer to beat off the metal where the line is. Thus, the nose will appear. (this can be tricky, but when the spout is ready, pouring becomes much easier).

Now draw lines up the sides of the holes near the spout. Back off 6mm from the top, mark a line and drill it on both sides. I used a drill, but any other drilling tool could have been used. Make sure the holes match the size of the metal rod.

Put on a pair of leather work gloves. Now mark the center of the rod. Heat it up over a burner. When the metal turns red, bend it in half to make a sharp corner. (see picture)

Dip the metal in water and heat the ends one at a time. Bend them so they face each other. Dip the ends in water and reheat the center bend. Tilt it back and unfold it so that the ends you bent fit into the holes in the propane tank.

Cool down the center bend and make sure your new handle moves freely in the holes.
Now you have a perfect crucible.

Step 3: Making the Horn





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Working with an aluminum melting furnace is quite complex, so we will do it in several stages.

  1. Cut a hole in the side of the large jar about an inch from the base.
  2. Make sure the pipe goes in there (can be measured with a piece of paper or cardboard)
  3. Using a knife, cut a hole in the bottom of the small coffee can in the shape of a mouse hole (make sure the pipe goes in).
  4. Wrap a small jar in cardboard (this is to make it easier to get it out) and cut the same hole in the cardboard in the shape of a mouse hole.
  5. Dilute the concrete solution. I used 11 cups of cement and about 2.5 cups of water.
  6. Pour the solution firmly into the bottom of a large jar up to the level of the hole.
  7. Place the pipe in the hole, and place the small jar in the large one, connecting them with a pipe through the mouse holes. Try to center the small can.
  8. It is advisable to set the pipe diagonally. This will help create the flame spiral. (see picture)
  9. Fill the walls with concrete and tamp tightly.
  10. I let the solution sit for a bit, then put the jar in the oven and set it to 200 degrees.
  11. After 30 minutes, take it out and take out a small jar wrapped in cardboard.
  12. Return the bowl to the oven for 2 hours. This will help eliminate moisture.
  13. Use oven mitts and take the jar out of the oven. Bring it to your workplace.
  14. Prepare the burner and insert it into the pipe.

I recommend using eye protection. The first firing is necessary to eliminate moisture. You can see steam coming out of the cement. Let it burn for about half an hour, then leave it to dry overnight. At the end, we put a crucible in there to burn it from the old paint.

Step 4: Melting the Aluminum







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Casting aluminum at home is very dangerous, so keep water with you and wear thick leather or welding gloves, goggles and make sure the area is well ventilated.

Preheat the oven and place the crucible in it. I waited until the bottom of the crucible turned red.

Start with small pieces of aluminum. (I had old tubes from the doorbell). You can use cans, but they tend to have a lot of slag in them. I would wait for some aluminum to build up before I start melting aluminum cans.

You will probably find it difficult at first, so take your time. Once you get enough aluminum, it will be able to maintain its melting point and you will be able to melt large chunks in seconds. In the garage, I found an old frame from a scooter, which has already worked out its own. Now this frame will turn into something new.

I have found that it is possible to cover the crucible with the top of the gas cylinder. This allows you to better retain heat and melt the metal faster.

I had a problematic piece of scooter that couldn't get the steel screw out of it, so I dipped it in a pool of molten metal and it never came back. The hammer helped to cope with difficult pieces of metal and precipitation in the crucible.

After the crucible is full or the aluminum runs out, you need to scrape off the slag. The slag will float on top and look a little different than the metal underneath.

An unnecessary piece of metal is useful to remove slag. We used the same scrap metal and made a hook out of it to lift the crucible, and another part that fits into holes in the bottom of the crucible to make it easier to empty. You can use a small screwdriver for this.

Make sure you have something to pour aluminum into. I'm going to leave it for the future, so I form aluminum into small briquettes - they are small and melt comfortably in a crucible. You can just use a hole in the wet sand or something like that. It is most convenient to use cupcake molds, however, they can no longer be used for their intended purpose.

Pour the metal into molds. It's very hot, so don't forget to use hand and eye protection!

Because I'm impatient, I don't wait for the aluminum to cool down, but throw it into cold water. In this case, the water may boil violently. It's spectacular, but very dangerous. Be careful!

Step 5: What's next?

We now have a lot of ingots. You can save up for a small lathe, for about 10 thousand rubles, and make various interesting parts out of aluminum!

A homemade melting furnace can be made from graphite, cement, mica, or tile. The dimensions of the furnace depend on the power supply and the voltage of the transformer at the output.

A homemade melting furnace heats up gradually, but reaches a significant heat. For this design, it is necessary to set a voltage of 25 V to the electrodes. If an industrial transformer is used in the design, then the distance between the electrodes should be 160-180 mm.

The process of making a homemade melting furnace

You can make a melting furnace with your own hands. Its dimensions will be 100x65x50 mm. In this design, 70-80 g of silver or other metal can be melted. Such opportunities for a homemade melting device are very good.

Materials and tools:

  • brushes from a high power electric motor;
  • graphite;
  • electrode rods used in arc furnaces;
  • copper wire;
  • nails;
  • mica;
  • cement tiles;
  • brick;
  • metal pan;
  • carbon graphite powder;
  • thin conductive wire;
  • transformer;
  • file.

To make a melting furnace with your own hands, brushes from a high-power electric motor can be used for electrodes. They have an excellent current-carrying wire.

If you cannot purchase such brushes, then you can make them yourself from a piece of graphite. You can use a rod electrode, which is used in arc furnaces.

On the sides in this rod, it is necessary to make 2 holes with a diameter of 5 mm, then, to give strength, carefully drive a nail of a suitable size into it. To improve contact with graphite powder using a file, it is necessary to make a mesh notch on the inner surface of these electrodes.

For the manufacture of the inner surface of the walls of the stove, mica is used. It has a layered structure and can therefore be used as a good heat shield.

Outside, the surface of the structure must be covered with cement or asbestos tiles, which have a thickness of 6-8 mm. After mounting the walls, they must be tied with copper wire.

A brick must be used as an insulating stand for the device. A metal tray is installed below. It should be enameled and have sides on the sides.

Then you need to make carbon graphite powder. It can be prepared from unnecessary rods. Work is best done with a file or a hacksaw for metal.

When using the stove, graphite powder gradually burns out, so it needs to be topped up sometimes.

To operate the device, a step-down transformer with a voltage of 25 V is used.

In this case, the network winding of the transformer must have 620 turns of copper wire, which has a diameter of 1 mm. In turn, the step-down winding should have 70 turns of copper wire. This wire must have fiberglass insulation and a rectangular cross section of 4.2x2.8 mm.

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How to make a transformer?

If you can't buy a transformer that has a high enough power, you can make one from several transformers of the same type with a lower power. They must be designed for the same voltage in the network.

To this end, it is necessary to connect the output windings of these transformers in parallel.

Can be made. To do this, it is necessary to prepare L-shaped metal plates having an internal section of 60x32 mm. The network winding of such a transformer is made of enameled wire with a cross section of 1 mm. It should have 620 turns. In this case, the lowering winding is made of a wire having a rectangular cross section with dimensions of 4.2x2.8 mm. It should have 70 turns.

After installing the furnace, it is connected to the transformer using a copper wire having a thickness of 7-8 mm. The wire must have an outer insulation so that a short circuit does not occur during the operation of the furnace.

When the oven is fully ready for operation, it must be well warmed up. In this case, organic substances in the composition of the structure should burn out. During this procedure, the room should be well ventilated.

The device will work without soot. After that, the operation of the furnace is checked. If everything works fine, then you can start using the device.

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How is metal melted in a furnace?

Metal melting is performed as follows. With the help of a small spatula (in the center of the stove) in graphite powder, you need to make a small hole, put metal scrap there and drip it.

If the pieces of metal to be melted are of different sizes, then first of all a large piece is laid. After it melts, put small pieces.

In order to check whether the metal has already melted, you can shake the unit a little. If the powder sways, then the metal has melted.

After that, you need to wait until the workpiece has cooled down, then turn it over to the other side and melt it again.

This procedure must be repeated several times until the metal takes the form of a ball. In this case, it is considered that the melting of the metal is of high quality.

If it is necessary to melt sawdust or metal shavings of inexpensive metals, it is necessary to pour them into the hole of the powder and carry out the usual melting.

More expensive or precious metals should be put in a glass ampoule from under the medicines and melted together with this ampoule. In this case, a film of glass is formed on the surface of the molten metal, which can be easily removed by placing it in water.

Metals that melt easily should be placed in iron dishes. If it is necessary to perform an alloy of various metals, then the metal that melts worse is placed in the furnace first. After it melts, fusible is added. For example, to obtain an alloy of copper and tin, you must first put copper into the powder, and then tin. To obtain an alloy of copper and aluminum, copper is melted first, and then aluminum.

In this device, you can melt metals such as tin, iron, copper, aluminum, nickel, silver, gold. After melting the metal, it is forged. It is forged on an anvil with a hammer. In this case, it is often necessary to heat the workpiece red-hot on fire, and then again forge it with a hammer. After that, the metal is placed in cold water, and then hammered again until the workpiece acquires the required dimensions.

In no case should metals such as lead, magnesium, zinc, cadmium, cupronickel be melted, since, when burnt out, they form a very toxic yellow smoke, which has a detrimental effect on human health. Silver contacts from relays and other devices should not be melted because they contain up to 50% cadmium.

To make a muffle furnace for aluminum melting on your own, you need to familiarize yourself with its main elements, after which you can proceed to the selection of materials, the preparation of tools and the assembly itself. But first, it is worth considering its purpose in order to understand whether it is suitable for fulfilling its goals.

Brief Description of Muffle Furnace

The main purpose of the muffle furnace is to heat the metal. Using such a device can help melt metals such as aluminum or copper, as well as other non-ferrous workpieces. In addition, it can be used to successfully carry out the operation of firing ceramic products, to dry them. You can also do cremation. It should be noted that there is a wide variety of muffle furnaces. They can be electric, gas, air and some other types. They also differ significantly in the type of construction. They are standard vertical or horizontal, as well as tubular.

The main difference between a muffle furnace and a conventional do-it-yourself aluminum melting furnace is that it has a special section called a muffle. This area allows you to protect the metal that is being processed.

Basic structural elements and materials for assembly

The main element is, of course, the heater. It is best to choose electric. Its biggest advantage is that it is very easy to manage. In addition, there are details such as a heating chamber and a special heat accumulator. In order to successfully melt aluminum, it is necessary to provide heat control. This will help make the process continuous.

In the event that you have to melt several different materials, then aluminum itself should also be subjected to the process not once, but several times. In this mode of operation, it is necessary to make sure that it also performs the function of a regulator. This is necessary in order to maintain the desired temperature of aluminum after melting.

In order to make a furnace for melting aluminum, you need to prepare the following materials:

  • grinder, wire and metal bucket;
  • bricks in the amount of seven pieces;
  • goggles construction type, a few unnecessary metal pieces;
  • hammer and other standard tools.

Start of assembly work

Assembling a homemade aluminum smelting furnace begins with the following:

  • It is necessary to take the prepared 7 bricks, which will play the role of a temperature accumulator.
  • With the help of a grinder, a compartment is constructed on each side of the brick. The result should be a space that will be used for an electric type heater. To increase the strength of the structure, you can take the wire and wrap the entire structure with it.
  • A metal bucket that has been prepared can be used as a fireproof chamber. If there is no suitable one, then you can make a camera on your own.

Case assembly

Even a simple aluminum melting furnace - such as a muffle furnace, for example - requires an enclosure. In this case, it can be made from a piece of an unnecessary sheet of metal, the thickness of which will be from 1 to 1.5 mm. It is worth noting that a layer of rust is needed here. Another important point concerns the height of the bucket. This parameter should be with a certain margin, since the working chamber will be mounted on a layer of bricks plus thermal insulation. Next, you have to roll the metal sheet into a pipe. This process is quite problematic, and therefore it is recommended to use special reinforcement rings.

Finishing the furnace assembly

To complete the design of an aluminum melting furnace with your own hands, you must do the following:

  • The prepared rings are put on a twisted sheet of metal and connected in a circle.
  • The bottom for the furnace body can be assembled from the same sheet of metal that was already used for the pipe. It is mounted by welding to the lowest ring.
  • It is necessary to make a special hole in one of the bricks through which it will be possible to place an electric heater directly inside the working chamber.
  • For the convenience of laying out, it is worth immediately numbering the bricks, and then start laying them out. They need to be very close to each other. The resulting design of the aluminum melting furnace, made by hand, must be very stable.
  • A heating coil must also be attached to the bricks.
  • To install a spiral heater, it is necessary to make several grooves and install bricks along them.
  • Also, the grooves can be cut in the right places with the help of a grinder. During operation, it is recommended to use eye and respiratory protection.
  • Most often, the material for the spiral is either nichrome or fechral.
  • The spiral must be wound very carefully and in such a way that the turns are not far from each other. The distance is necessary in order to avoid a short circuit.
  • The entire structure should be coated with a solution.

Thus, you can make a do-it-yourself muffle-type furnace for melting aluminum.

small oven

The versatility lies in the fact that in this case the mini-oven is assembled from improvised means.

A tin can from canned food, soup or anything else will be used as the body of the stove, that is, it is actually ready, unlike the previous type of device. The only thing that is important is to choose a jar, the metal in which will be as thick as possible. A hole is made at the bottom of the jar through which, using a pipe, it will be possible to connect a hair dryer, which acts as a heating element. The diameter of the hole must be exactly equal to the diameter of the pipe. It can be square, but then there will be heat loss, and therefore it is better to tinker a little, but make it round.

As mentioned earlier, a household hair dryer is used as a heater. It is important that it has at least two speeds of operation. Using adhesive tape, you can attach a pipe to the hair dryer, which will be inserted into the bottom hole of the can. It is important to check that there is no air loss at the docking site. It is also worth noting that the cold air supply button must be pressed all the time. To do this, it can be fixed with the same adhesive tape.

People using these types of ovens were satisfied. Judging by the reviews, the stoves are quite compact, they are easy to assemble with your own hands. An electric heater helps to raise the temperature to the desired level. Muffle furnaces are also good because they can melt a large amount of aluminum at once.

Aluminum alloys have low melting point and good machinability details. And on the farm there is always a lot of aluminum scrap.

Therefore, aluminum is often melted at home to replace non-standard or small parts of mechanisms: a blank is cast, and then processed on a lathe. Sometimes souvenirs and small interior items are made from aluminum with their own hands.

Melting furnace device

Homemade aluminum melting furnaces consist of a body - metal cylinder (2), lined with refractory (chamotte with sand or concrete). Inside the mine is charcoal (8) serving as fuel. It is installed crucible (3)- a container in which the metal will be melted. The crucible can be a thick tin can, teapot or any stainless steel container.

At the bottom of the mine (6) made air inlet (7) across lattice base (4), which allows you to maintain combustion and regulate the temperature in the furnace.

A hair dryer or vacuum cleaner pipe is used as a supercharger. Flap (5) needed to remove excess air.

For furnaces with a capacity of several tens of kilograms, cover (1) for fast and uniform heating of metal. In small ovens, you can do without it.

Furnace elements should not deform and melt when heated. Therefore, the use of aluminum cases, tubes and crucibles is unacceptable. It is best to take to build a structure steel or cast iron details.

Reference. Also used as a fuel for aluminum smelting natural gas or electricity.

How to make a furnace for melting metal?

Creating a small unit that allows you to melt a few kilograms of aluminum scrap is a simple task. For laying out the oven in the garden you will need the following materials:

  • red bricks - 20-25 pcs.;
  • high tin can - 1 pc.;
  • grill grate — 1 pc.;
  • drying hair dryer - 1 pc.;
  • piece of pipe, in diameter suitable for the outlet of the hair dryer - 1 PC.;
  • roll of electrical tape;
  • section steel wire length 30-50 cm;
  • coal for ignition (the amount depends on how much aluminum needs to be melted).

The bricks will be both housing, and fireproof coating furnace, a tin can will act as a crucible. At the top of the jar are made two holes opposite each other, and through them wire is threaded. For it it will be possible to lift and pull out the crucible with the melt from the furnace. Air will be supplied from the dryer switched on in the cold air mode. To the outlet of the hair dryer, you need to tape or tape wrap a piece of pipe- this will be the air duct.

Such simple circuit The furnace is convenient in that tools for its creation are actually not required, everything is done by hand.

Important! Do not use elements with zinc coated, because when melting aluminum, toxic zinc fumes will be released.

Brick well installation plan

  1. Giving all the best one row bricks in the form of a rectangular well. The internal dimensions of the hole should be approx. length and width of one brick. On one side two bricks laid out so as to form a corridor for the duct. The width of the corridor is tube diameter for air supply.
  2. On lined row grating is installed. Instead of a grill grate, you can use any metal cover or plate with holes for air supply.
  3. Laid out on the grid second row bricks, already without a gap for the duct.

Photo 1. Finished brick well for the melting furnace. The edges are reinforced with metal strips, the air duct opening is visible.

  1. Created duct. To the hair dryer with tape or electrical tape a piece of pipe is attached. To ensure the strength of the structure, the junction wrapped in thick paper and then connects duct tape. Insulating tape is a more elastic material compared to adhesive tape, so it is more convenient to work with it. Also, the button for supplying cold air is fixed with tape on the hair dryer. Ready the mechanism is brought to the bottom row bricks.
  2. In the furnace well on the grate poured and melted coal for ignition. The hair dryer is turned on, which activates the combustion process.

Advice. The air flow rate can be adjusted by changing hair dryer mode, as well as distance between pipe and window for air duct.

  1. Tin installed to the top row bricks for the wire threaded into it. Like a pot over a fire, it hangs over a grate.
  2. After kindling the furnace and installing the crucible third row are placed two more bricks so as to get a square hole from a rectangular hole. This will fix the jar inside the case and heat up the oven space faster.

After heating the jar into it scrap can be loaded for meltdown. A sign of warming up the jar is its redness.

The principle of the device and operation of such a furnace is very simple and does not cause difficulties. However, you should always remember safety precautions:

  • work in fireproof gloves;
  • avoid getting water into the melt;
  • do not use materials containing toxic substances.

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Two can design

Another type of homemade aluminum melting furnace is the design of two large jars. One of them serves corps, in which a hole is cut for air supply, and bottom second cans with holes serves as a divider.

A crucible is placed inside the jars.

Such an apparatus very compact, and small amounts of metal can be melted even in a ventilated garage. However, the design does not differ in stability and fire resistance and will last only a few cycles.

Possible problems and solutions

Carelessly assembled apparatus causes the oven to operate inefficiently and makes it dangerous to use. Here are a few points to pay attention to:

  • Cracks and gaps in a brick building. They can be formed by chips on bricks or loose fit of refractories to each other. The gaps reduce the efficiency of the fuel, reduce the intensity and temperature of combustion. Aluminum in the crucible may simply not melt.

Therefore, after laying out each row, a visual check for the presence of holes is carried out. holes smeared with sand-clay mixture or covered with refractory material.

It is recommended to use a concrete solution only in the case of a stationary unit that is not planned to be disassembled. But asbestos sheets and chips should not be used in places where the furnace is heated, because this material is a carcinogen.

  • Level violation the buildings. Skewness reduces the stability of the structure and creates conditions for uneven distribution of coal. As a result - uneven heating of the crucible and the metal in it.

Laying out each, especially the bottom row of bricks level controlled. You can also check the horizontality placing a jar of water on the grate. On a flat surface, the top edge of the water will be parallel to the edge of the can.

For those of you who follow my blog, I'm happy to say that I'm continuing to work on home production and I'm making some progress.

This time I will tell you about my third aluminum melting furnace. The first one was . In it, I successfully melted aluminum, but in small quantities. It became my second stove. In it, I managed to melt an almost full cast-iron aluminum pot (about 4 liters). The casting turned out to be 5 kilograms, but to smelt such an amount of aluminum, I spent about two buckets of coal, which is a lot if you calculate everything in a smart way.

I completely rebuilt the coal smelting furnace, made it more compact, welded a metal frame for it and bought a cast-iron grate, started making a normal fan pressurization, built a canopy and made a 5-meter exhaust pipe, as well as a hood like a forge. But due to errors in the calculations, the exhaust system did not work correctly, and I was a little depressed.

And then he took it and decided to build a furnace for melting aluminum on gas! This decision was due to the desire for maximum efficiency, minimum cost and ease of use. A gas stove, unlike coal, does not need to be lit. She doesn't need a hood. It is compact and portable. In addition, heat losses in it are minimized due to the tightness of the structure.

I did not begin to aim at a blast furnace with a production of hundreds of liters of melt, but decided that up to 1.5 liters of aluminum (4 kg) would be enough for me. The main thing is to melt quickly and cheaply. 1 liter of gas now costs 18 rubles. I read somewhere that having spent 12 liters of gas, you can melt up to 40 kg of aluminum. It turns out that 1 liter of gas should be enough for 3 kg of aluminum, i.e. 6 rubles per 1 kilogram of aluminum.

The gas furnace for melting aluminum in my performance is made from a 24-liter hydro-accumulator tank. It can be easily bought at any store with pumping and heating equipment. The price is about 2000 rubles. We carefully cut off the top cover with a grinder - we still need the cover. I consider the upper part of the hydro accumulator to which the inch inlet is attached with screws. I unscrewed these screws and took out the rubber balloon.

In the lower side of the tank, we drill a hole Ф50 mm, offset from the center by about 25 mm, and weld a metal pipe Ф50 mm into it. We will insert a gas burner into it. The displacement is necessary so that the flame enters the working chamber of the furnace for melting aluminum tangentially, and twists into a spiral, bending around the melting crucible.

I coated the entire inner surface of the tank and the lid with a layer of gypsum 1 cm thick. I mixed the gypsum in small batches with the addition of a couple of pinches of fiberglass, which should give the gypsum some reinforcement. This fiberglass I accidentally noticed in a hardware store. Sold in small plastic containers (like seaweed) at a price of about 300 rubles per jar. Expensive, but the hardened gypsum leaves the mixing tank with a solid crust, which means that the fiberglass is working. Why did you cover everything with plaster? I thought that it would give some heat-insulating effect. I spent all the asbestos on a muffle furnace, and it is a carcinogen - an infection! And gypsum is environmentally friendly. It's time to think about health

While the gypsum thermal insulation coating was drying, I started crushing fireclay bricks. I was lucky because I got a free-flowing lightweight one. The solid refractory brick that came across to me I crushed with great difficulty! Then I tried to crush only lightweight! Why did I even start crushing bricks? The fact is that I wanted to get a perfect rounded surface of the inner chamber of the melting furnace. The point is that the flames smoothly go around the chamber, twisting into a spiral. The more irregularities on the inner surface of the chamber, and the further it is from a rounded shape, the more difficult it will be for the flame to spread in the working chamber. Although some people stack bricks with a hexagon and tie / pour them, and also successfully melt. But I was not too lazy to crumble bricks, so I did it

So, the crushed fireclay brick is ready. We take an ordinary sewer pipe with a diameter of 100 mm and insert it into the middle of the tank. We knead a special refractory mixture for laying stoves and fireplaces to the state of liquid sour cream (you can pour a cap of liquid glass into it), and add crushed brick there. The final concrete should turn out to be quite steep so that it no longer flows, mixes with difficulty and even looks slightly dry. We begin to throw this concrete between the walls of the metal tank and the sewer pipe. It is necessary to interfere in several passes (because such concrete cannot be mixed properly at a time), and each subsequent layer is quite intensively rammed with a wooden block. I also found this mixture in a hardware store. It was called that - “Refractory mixture up to 1600 ° C”. Also, this mixture is sometimes sold under the name “Fireclay Mortar” МШ- and some numbers, but I did not find this.

After pouring concrete, this mixture will dry for a very, very long time. For the first couple of days, it’s not particularly noticeable that something dries: the mixture is still plastic and slips with a finger. The packaging says that it hardens after 36 hours, and completely dry after 14 days. On the third day I could not stand it, and dragged the raw to burn. Fired with a gas burner. I tried it on the lid first. Grel-grel. Look, it's starting to light up! Hooray, the water is evaporating! I tried it with my finger - it became quite hard. In general, I burned the entire stove at once, both outside and inside - nothing cracked or crumbled, but on the contrary, it hardened pretty well.

And about the gas burner you need to write a separate post! The thing is that assembling the burner is very simple, but getting it to work correctly is another task, especially if it is a burner for a gas furnace or a smelting furnace, where combustion takes place in a closed volume. So here's mine. Study!