Build an Electric Foundry for Melting Aluminum (that Works on 120 VAC)

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Intro: Build an Electric Foundry for Melting Aluminum (that Works on 120 VAC)

I've seen many projects out there for building a foundry for melting aluminum to make castings. Most are based on cumbustion furnaces (charcoal or propane). A few are electric which has many advantages. None that I have seen are as easy to build as the electric foundry furnace I will describe in this instructable and none that I have seen work effectively on 120 VAC (they require 240 VAC to reach high enough temperatures). Unfortunately 240 VAC is not available in many home workshops.

See the attached video for a very quick overview of the project. Then read the rest of this instructable or visit my website IWillTry.org for detailed instructions.

STEP 1: Advantages of This Design

First off, this design is based on an electric furnace which offers several advantages over a combustion furnace:

  1. An electric furnace is much safer because there is no open flame and the furnace can be completely sealed. If insulated well enough the exterior temperature of the furnace need not be excessive.
  2. An electric furnace requires no ventilation which means you can use it indoors. This is a big benefit in winter.
  3. An electric furnace is completely silent.
  4. An electric furnace has no consumables (unless you consider electricity to be a consumable).

The primary disadvantage of an electric furnace is it cannot reach the same high temperatures that a combustion based furnace can, but either type of furnace is perfectly adequate for casting aluminum which melts at about 660 degrees C. An electric furnace also does not heat up quite as fast as a combustion based furnace, but the difference is fairly insignificant unless you are producing high volumes of cast aluminum parts.

This design also has several advantages over other electric furnace designs I have seen:

  1. It’s extremely easy to build. After collecting all the components, I was able to build it in about 90 minutes.
  2. It's lightweight, due to using ceramic fibre insulation rather than fire brick.
  3. It's outside temperature is quite low due to being very well insulated. It reaches only about 75 degrees C which is cool enough to touch (briefly) and not hot enough to ignite anything.
  4. It works even on 120 VAC. Most electric furnaces are not insulated well enough to reach adequate pouring temperatures if operated at 120 VAC. They require 240 VAC.

A disadvantage of my design, perhaps, is that it is a little less robust, but for the limited amount of metal casting I do it suits me fine and I think it is a good entry level furnace for anyone who wants to dabble in aluminum casting without investing a lot of effort up front.

STEP 2: Safety

To say that working with electricity, high temperatures, and molten metals is dangerous is an understatement. Different people will have different “acceptable levels of risk” based on their knowledge, awareness and risk tolerance. Just because I’m comfortable doing something doesn’t mean you should be. Please do not blindly follow my lead or anyone else’s. Understand the risks yourself and choose what’s acceptable to you. At a minimum, have a fire extinguisher handy and be sure you know how to use it.

STEP 3: Materials and Equipment

I already had all the materials and tools I needed to make this furnace. I don’t recommend buying parts new if you can salvage them but for those who wish, I have provided links to some suitable items from Amazon below (disclaimer… these are affiliate links which means I will get a small cut… thanks for your support).

Materials:

Equipment:

STEP 4: Cut Off the Top of the Propane Tank

Before cutting the propane tank, you must empty the tank, remove the valve, and ensure all propane is vented. Empty the tank by connecting it to a BBQ and cooking until the propane runs out. Then remove the propane tank valve. This can be a challenge. I was able to do it by using a large pipe wrench on the valve and a long bar through the handle of the tank for opposing leverage. There will probably be a bit of residual pressure in the tank that will be released as you loosen the valve so it is a good idea to do this in a well ventilated area.
Once the valve is off, make sure all propane has been expelled from the tank. You can accomplish this by letting the tank sit outside for several days, or blowing compressed air into the tank for a few minutes, or filling the tank with water till it overflows, and then draining it.

Once the tank has been vented, use a felt pen held at a fixed height to mark a line around the tank. I chose a height that looked right to me, knowing that the top of the tank will become the lid of the furnace and will need room to pack in about 3 inches of ceramic insulation.

To start the cut use an angle grinder with abrasive cut-off disc. This is the point at which the tank may explode if you haven't properly vented it ;-). Once the cut is started you may wish to switch to a reciprocating saw with a metal cutting blade if you have one. This will be much faster than the abrasive cut-off disc. It should only take a couple minutes to saw around the full circumference of the tank.

STEP 5: Prepare the Element

The terminals of the range element need some extensions added to reach through the wall of the tank. I used some threaded steel rod I had handy (difficult to tell from the pictures). Non-threaded rod like welding rod or coat hanger would suffice for quick experimentation but threaded rod will make it easier to properly insulate the terminals where they pass through the housing and attach an electrical cord safely (unfortunately I don't describe that process in this instructable since I haven't done it yet... more on that later). Bend a loop in the end and screw it to one of the terminals. Cut the threaded rod to length with a hack saw such that it will stick out about 1″ from the side of the furnace when the element is centered. Repeat this process for the other terminal.

STEP 6: Drill Holes in the Base for the Terminals

Hold the element 3 inches above the inside bottom of the propane tank (the eventual height of the insulation) and mark the location of holes where the terminals will need to pass through the side of the tank. Drill two holes about 1/2″ in diameter using a step drill.

STEP 7: Assemble the Base of the Furnace

Fill the bottom of the propane tank with random chunks of ceramic insulation until you’ve filled in the concave portion of the tank. Using the top of the tank as a template, cut a circle of insulation to cover all the random chunks and provide a nice flat surface on which to rest the range element. You may need to experiment with different amounts of insulation to get the element terminals to line up with the holes you drilled.

Wrap the element terminal extensions (the threaded rods) individually with plenty of ceramic insulation and pass them through the holes in the housing ensuring there is no possibility of the rods shorting out on the housing. If there is any contact it could cause a short circuit or present a risk of electric shock. This method is just a quick stop gap solution for testing purposes. For a more robust and safe design I would machine some insulators out of teflon (working temperature 260 degrees C) to sandwich the housing where the threaded rods pass through. I would secure these with a nut on the threaded rod on either side of the housing. If I take the design further I will add pictures and instructions explaining that process.

Once you’re happy with the position of the element, add a couple layers of ceramic insulation around the inside walls of the tank. Note the image shows only the first layer of insulation around the walls. Another layer is added next to the first bringing the insulation thickness to about 3".

STEP 8: Assemble the Lid of the Furnace

Weld 4 screws inside the top of the propane tank in such a way that they will hold insulation in the lid. Let the screw heads protrude a bit past the lip of the lid so that when the lid is in place on the base of the furnace the screw heads will help align the lid with the base.

Using the lid as a template, cut a circle of ceramic insulation to fit. Fill the concave part of the lid with random chunks of ceramic insulation and the cover those with the circle of insulation, tucking the insulation under the screws to hold it in place.

STEP 9: Make a Power Cord

The first power cord I tested was a salvaged 120 VAC cord that I soldered a couple alligator clips to (sorry... teaching how to solder is beyond the scope of this instructable). If 120 VAC is the only power you have available it will suffice, but performance will be greatly improved at 240 VAC. Lucky for me I have a 240 VAC outlet in my garage for a large air compressor. If you have access to 240 VAC, use a 240 VAC power cord with whatever plug type you need to connect to your power source. The attached image shows the 240 VAC power cord I ordered from Amazon to match my power outlet.

Warning!!! Bare terminals and alligator clips are super dangerous when working with 120 or 240 VAC. My primary motivation in this project was to determine if I could melt aluminum effectively with a simple range element. I wanted to determine that as quickly as possible so I took shortcuts with calculated risks. I do not suggest this is a safe or permanent solution. Duplicate at your own risk. If you do, take extreme care to avoid touching the bare terminals or tripping on the power cord or shorting the terminals to the housing. If I were to take this design further I would machine teflon insulators to secure the element terminals where they pass through the housing, and use ring terminals to attach the electrical cord to the element terminals outside the housing. I would also attach the housing to ground so any short circuit will trip the breaker, significantly reducing the risk of electric shock.

STEP 10: Make a Crucible

There are many ways to make a crucible. The simplest I know of is to use an empty soup can. The metal of a soup can is quite thin, however, and it will quickly oxidize at high temperatures, likely lasting for only a few heatings. I made my crucible from a piece of 1/8″ wall steel pipe and a steel plate that I had in my scrap bin. After welding the plate to the end, fill the crucible with water to check for leaks. You do not want molten aluminum leaking out of your crucible while it’s in your furnace.

STEP 11: First Heat

Place the furnace base in a safe location away from anything flammable. Connect the alligator clips of the power cord to the terminals. Fill your crucible with some pieces of aluminum and place it on the element. Place the thermocouple probe near the top of the crucible and put the lid on the furnace. Plug in the power cord and monitor power and temperature as the aluminum heats up and melts.

Power meters for 240 VAC can be expensive, but if you can test the power at 120 VAC, there is no real need to do so at 240 VAC. Power is proportional to V squared, so at 240 VAC you will get 4 times the power you get at 120 VAC. I measured about 350 to 360 Watts at 120 VAC, so I know that at 240 VAC I will get about 1400 Watts. Power is also equal to voltage times current. Thus current is equal to power divided by voltage. So at 120 VAC I am drawing about 3 Amps and at 240 VAC I am drawing about 6 Amps. Those figures are likely typical of most 6″ range elements.

Aluminum melts at around 660 degrees C but needs to be about 700-750 degrees C to ensure a good pour without any unwanted solidifying. The temperature indicated by your digital thermometer will be the air temperature above the crucible which will be initially hotter than the aluminum since the air will heat up faster than the aluminum. If you are operating at 120 VAC, I would wait till the temperature reads around 730 to 750 degrees C before pouring.

If you are operating at 240 VAC, the air inside the furnace will heat up much faster than the aluminum and the thermometer reading will be higher than the actual aluminum temperature. Therefore I recommend “soaking” for 5-10 minutes at temperature readings between 700 and 750 degrees C. Basically wait till the temperature reading hits 750 degrees C and then unplug the power cord. Wait till the temperature reading falls to 700 degrees C and plug the power cord back in. Repeat for 5 to 10 minutes and then pour.

If you plan to make a lot of castings, it may make sense to add a temperature controller, but for limited hobby use, you can be the temperature controller, monitoring the thermocouple readings and plugging/unplugging the power cord to maintain the desired temperature.

STEP 12: Pouring the Molten Alulminum

Heavy leather welding gloves and a pair of vise grips is all it takes to handle the crucible of molten aluminum. Remove the furnace lid and set it aside. Wearing the gloves, grab the crucible with the vise grips. Carefully pour the molten aluminum into your mold, if you have one prepared (sorry... a discussion of pattern and mold making is beyond the scope of this instuctable). I was just testing the furnace so I did not have any molds ready and simply poured some ingots for later use. A muffin pan is the ingot mold of choice for the backyard foundryman. Whatever mold you use, make sure that the finished ingot will be small enough to fit in your crucible when you want to melt it again.

STEP 13: Performance Evaluation

When connected to 120 VAC this furnace produces about 350 Watts and takes about 2 hours to melt some aluminum and bring the temperature up to adequate pouring temperature.

When connected to 240 VAC the furnace produces about 1400 Watts (theoretically... I didn't measure it) and takes only about 25 minutes to melt a similar volume of aluminum and bring the temperature up to adequate pouring temperature.

I'm uncertain how long the range element will last (it is certainly not designed for this type of application), but it has survived several heatings at 240 VAC so far and shows no sign of decay.

Considering how easy it was to build this furnace I'm very pleased with the results.

STEP 14: Please Subscribe

If you're interested in being notified when I post more projects like this, please consider subscribing either here at instructables or on my website IWillTry.org.

Thanks for reading.

19 Comments

WOW GREAT INSTRUCTIONS THANK YOU... Okay that being said I want to melt a great deal of plastic and was thinking a metal 55 gallon barrel/drum and a couple of stove heating elements strapped to the drum or just under the drum to heat the drum enough to melt the plastic inside. It seems simple, but you have made this awesome heating element thing and now I am doubting my super simple design lol. Question is can my design work or is it dumb?
Very nice. I made a much hackier one out of a party-size Helium can--I cut the bottom off as well and set an insulated tube on top of a $20 120V portable electric hotplate. It worked pretty well until my crucible (bottom part of a 1lb LPG canister) burned through and filled my hotplate with aluminum.

Yours is a much cleaner build. I like the larger diameter w/more insulation and how the carriage bolt heads align the lid. I'm going to keep an eye out for an old propane tank to upgrade.

You might bolt an electrical junction box around the terminal through-holes to protect the bare connections and maybe also provide a ground connection that could work with a GFCI.
Awesome job.
Can i get your advice?
How would you make one for melting sodacans? Where you have to keep filling it cans until your crucible is full?

Contact me via FB please
Philvg1985
the metal from sodacans isnt realy usable for pouring , the thin wall allso causes a lot of oxide to form during the melt leaving you with even less aluminium
i been looking intoo an electric kiln too and using a stovetop burner will make it a lot eazier , thank you for the idea

as for insulating the bare leads going out , ceramic beads might be a good idea to use as insulation (i'm definetely planning on using those)
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/Hoge-temperatuur-co...

i seen people making crusibles out of stainless fire extinguishers and they work fine for a few pours but eventually the metal gets atacked by the aluminiumoxide and it eventually burns a hole in the bottom pouring the content out inside the kiln or worse halfway out of the kiln over youre shoes

you might want to invest 15 dollars or so in a real graphite cruisible
https://nl.aliexpress.com/item/2kg-Graphite-Furnac...


the thing with the metal pouring out over the inside of the kiln made me kindah scared to use the heatingwire i seen use in a few designs based on a pottery kiln as the wire could short out with the moulten aluminium , with the stovetop burner it shouldnt be as mush of a problem as the pipe holding the heatingwire inside it is electricly insulated and usually made from stainless wish can stand being covered in moulten aluminium
Thanks for the post! Hows the heating element been holding up?

I totally understand the reasons you did some things. But OMG you have to come up with a lot better idea to both insulate the exiting terminals and how you are connecting them up to the home supply voltages. If either one touches the metal container, anybody that touches the contain becomes the same potential. And a mere ground path spells electrocution. You need to research such a connection that both allows the voltage to be securely applied, but also insulated form the high heat and metal container. You could use some refinery cement to secure the terminals. Also, check out a local ceramic place to see if they can build something that would work. It has to be safe first! Other people that try to build your same setup may now be so lucky. JMHO

On your response to this good idea....would it not be better to add a switch into the process that allows you to have a ground wire as well....just thinking out loud...and could it even be done using three wire process..

Despite the clear warnings I included (only bolded paragraph in the entire instructable), I expected this to draw comments.

The ceramic fibre insulation around the terminals is quite thick... you don't really get a sense of it from looking at the pictures but it would be very difficult for it to short out against the housing.

Realistically, this IS the kind of shortcut one takes when prototyping something that isn't certain to work. You focus on the unknowns and shortcut through the knowns, exercising extreme caution and being aware of the risks taken.

Now that I know the design can melt aluminum I can add refinements (if I choose to pursue the design further). I don't need to research how to make such a connection. It's not difficult. It just takes time I didn't feel was worth investing before proving the concept. It's not very clear in the photos but the two terminal extensions I added are actually threaded rod for the purpose of sandwiching a couple insulators between two nuts and mounting ring terminals permanently on the outside.

Also I now have data from the proof of concept that can inform refinements. For example, I know that the temperature the housing reaches only about 75 degrees C, so I know the electrical insulators don't need to be ceramic. Since they will be behind the ceramic fibre insulation they will be approximately the same temperature as the housing. Teflon will suffice (working temperature up to 260 degrees C) and will be easy to machine (and I think I have some in my scrap bin).

If I add them I'll take photos and update the instructable.

You could argue that I shouldn't have posted anything until adding that degree of protection, but I may not pursue the design at all. So should I not post anything? Or should I post what I did and identify the areas for improvement? I expect opinions on that may vary.

Please forgive me for ruffling feathers. That certainly was not my intention. I was just seeing a very potential danger if others followed your build. There are risks involved with every build, of course. But we equally need to inform of those risks to everyone reading a build. I think your project was informative and well designs, with the exception of the electrical risks provided. I too am looking to smelt metals and have for decades with lead. But I am now looking, reading and watching everything I can about aluminum, brass, copper and even cast iron smelting. So don't take my previous post as anything but to alert of the dangers I previewed. It was certainly not solely direct at you or your project, more so to alert others of the potential risks. With some projects, the danger doesn't allow for a do over, if a mistake happens. JMHO

No worries. While I think I had adequately warned of the risks, I hadn't included much discussion of how to design to eliminate the risks. Your feedback prompted me to do so, so thank you for that.

People tend to forget this is not a copy- paste forum, unusual ideas and solutions are acceptable, even potentially dangerous ones, however I find it prudent to give a short disclaimer on projects that may be controversial:

Foreword;
The contents of the following
Instructable represent the experiences and outcome of the author, no
guarantee is made as to suitability of the repetition of the information
presented, therefore careful study should be undertaken by those
wishing to duplicate these results, including a self- assessment of
prerequisite skills, knowledge, and understanding of the subject matter.

Thank you.

I think you have presented an acceptable risk project, and have made known all the necessary caveats for those wishing to further study this approach, ☺

I second this. And as someone whom claims to be well educated, you should know better.

I'm not sure if you think I should know better than to do it, or know better than to tell anyone I did it ;-). You might be right about the latter.

But I disagree with the former. I've worked with some very educated and talented engineers over the years. Believe me, educated people take calculated risks all the time. Being aware of the risks is exactly what makes it possible to take shortcuts and get quickly to the heart of what you're actually trying to learn.

Very streamlined build, I like that (nearly) everything could be found around the house. I wouldn't have thought a stove element would stand up to this.

Next time at least throw some electrical tape on the clips...your warnings were appropriate but humanity can't afford to loose someone with the stones to do this due a stumble ;)

Seriously though, your site is motivating me to start posting my projects, I look forward to seeing your next endeavor!

Glad you tested this because I was about to test it myself and you have saved me some time. I personally think you warned ppl plenty from what I read and you are correct about calculated risk. All of us that are wide open on things like this while dealing with normal life know that sometimes it's just part of it. Can't protect the world with disclaimers.

I think this is well done, but there are many dangers involved in addition to the possibility of electrocution. Molten metal will burn a hole in you so quickly you will be stunned. (BTW one simple electrical safety measure would be to securely earth the tank body. Any short then will/should trip your circuit breaker of blow a fuse, depending on what you have.)

However, you have given adequate warnings, and obviously if someone doesn't know what they are doing with lethal voltages and temperatures then they shouldn't attempt this. This entire site is given over to prototyping, and then describing the process. You've done that very well. Thanks.

Great point about grounding the housing. I'll add it in my warning.

Thanks for the post . I think I will try this