This project goes over the build of a convertible waste oil-powered aluminum foundry/forge made out of recycled materials. Waste oil-burning does get more than hot enough to melt down aluminum, which has a melting point of about 660.3 degrees celsius.
STEP 1 : MATERIALS REQUIRED
The materials you need for this project are old 10-gallon propane tank for the foundry, an air compressor tank for the waste oil burner, a blower from a car, a three-eighths inch hose, and a brake line for feeding waste oil from a bucket, a 12V marine battery for powering the blower.
STEP 2 : THE AIR INTAKE
We take a car heater blower and house them inside an old tin can for the air intake. This is soldered to a soup can and and quarter-inch schedule 80 pipe. This feeds air into the burner vessel.
STEP 3 : DRIP FED FUEL SOURCE
The fuel source which is the waste oil is drip-fed from a five-gallon jug with a brass gate valve. It is connected to the blower pipe through a three-eighth inch hose and a metal brake line.
STEP 4 : BUILDING THE OIL BURNER
The waste oil burner is from an old air compressor tank. It has a two-inch cap on the top where we start the ignition and light the system. The pipe from the blower goes half an inch into the burner at an angle. This generates a cyclone vortex effect. We want to make sure that the oil and air are very well mixed together. In order to sustain combustion on something that’s so difficult to ignite like waste oil, we have to have a source of heat so it can actually atomize, and turn into a vapor where it will burn very easily and very effectively.
The outlet from the burner is connected to the foundry propane tank through a three-inch piece of axle welded with a rotating coupling piece. This can be rotated independently so that the foundry can be rotated to a forge mode with the help of a lever.
STEP 5 : THE PROPANE TANK FOUNDRY BUILD
We mark and cut the top of the propane tank that essentially forms the body of our foundry. Next, we are going to need to put a lining on the inside, probably about two and a quarter inches thick. This acts as an insulator. Here we use a 50% mix of plaster of Paris and play sand. The propane tank is filled with the mix and the air compressor is submerged in the center to form a mould. We let the tank sit for 24 hours to cure before we remove the air compressor from it.
The next step is to create the hole in the side of the tank that will be the outlet of our waste oil burner. The hole is cut at a height so that the aluminum won’t run down and backflow into the oil burner tank. We place a three-inch axle through the hole that is welded to a rotating coupling. This coupling attaches to the outlet of the oil burner.
STEP 6 : CONVERTING INTO A FORGE
On the other side of the propane tank, we add a small lever system with a latch to manually put the foundry into a forge mode.
A one-inch water pipe is connected to the tank. Inside of that one-inch water pipe is this bit of one-inch shaft with a hole drilled in to accept a three-eighths inch bolt. Rebar with a latch mechanism is welded vertically to this pipe. The latch is pulled and the foundry is rotated into forge mode.
The foundry sits on a cradle during the forge mode. The cradle is made out of the two-inch flat bar. The frame is constructed from one and a half inches by one and a half-inch angle iron that I had laying around.
To start the system, we use a little piece of rag cloth and poke it down into the inlet of the ignition port of the oil burner. We apply a little waste motor oil and start the ignition. Once the flame begins, we apply power to our blower motor by connecting it to the 12V battery.
Image Credits : Randomn |
