[Namron] lost wax Casting?

[Miles Grey]

While many might consider it a kiln, I believe people who are exclusively
metalworkers refer to it as either a furnace or a forge (depending on the
work they do).  I believe glass blowers, enamelers, and ceramic workers
all refer to their heating devices as kilns.  Blacksmiths use a forge.  I
believe that metal casters use a furnace.  Conceptually, they're all just
special-purpose, high-temperature ovens.

A gentleman named Ron Reil has developed a design for a propane burner
that will serve well in many forge, furnace, and kiln applications.  He
has a LOT of other information as well.  His main Forge and Burner design
page is at:
  http://www.abana.org/ronreil/design1.shtml

About midway down the page, you'll find the information on the Reil and EZ
Burners:
  http://www.abana.org/ronreil/design1.shtml#Reil

Lionel Oliver's Backyard Metalcasting website has a lot of information on
various furnaces (and other things):
  http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/index.html

I've been working on building a flowerpot furnace for quite some time and
have all kinds of excuses for why I haven't finished.  None are very good,
because it's really easy:
  http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/book_fp.html

The flowerpot furnace us usually fueled using charcoal.  Yes, charcoal,
the stuff used in backyard grills to cook hot dogs, hamburgers, and
steaks.  He recommends using cheap charcoal rather than something like
Kingsford.  It's cheaper than using propane, but messier.  If your goal is
to remain period, charcoal is very period.

He has used his flowerpot furnace to melt brass.  Most bronze alloys melt
at about the same temperatures:
  http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/brasscasting01.html

A 3" bell is rather small and will tend to sound rather "clangy" even with
a good bell bronze alloy, but it will provide good practice.  Bronze
(copper and tin) rather than brass (copper and zinc) is the usual choice
for bells.  Bells aren't easy, so the caster has my best wishes.  Bells -
at least the big ones - are usually done in 2-part sand molds using a
master form rather than lost wax, but I can't imagine that lost wax
wouldn't work.

I hope this helps.

  Miles Grey

PS - there are a LOT of bronze alloys, some of which don't use ANY tin.


Jacq Ball wrote:
> Here's my 2 cents:
>
> Kiln is the right word I think, though there are all kinds of kilns.
> Ceramic kilns don't seem to work so well for working with metal, but
> there are lots of kilns made specifically for metal. This article on
> the Lapidary Journal has some info for the curious.
>
> http://www.lapidaryjournal.com/feature/kilns.cfm
>
> As the previous poster mentioned, you might be able to get by without
> such specialized hardware for simple stuff, though 3" sounds a bit
> large to me.
>
> Another thing that might work is metal spinning. I don't know if they
> make bells that way, but I know that's how they make Zildjian cymbals.
> Seems like that would have the advantage of allowing you to use a
> sheet of a given gauge and end up with something that has no weird
> irregularities in thickness that might reduce the bell's acoustic
> quality.