This video has been in the making for over half a year now so I really hope you can appreciate the amount of work that I've put into it! The first half of this video is quite dull in my opinion but the 2nd half is really exciting and contains lots of new stuff for me so check out 11:00 if you're impatient.

Good to see an update to this project and glad to know it holds up with time. Also good to know the steel crucible does well

Just remember, "A grinder and paint, makes me the welder I ain't!"

You're the most legit foundry channel on youtube. Seriously. Thank you for all the information you put in your vids. I'm getting close to being able to build my own foundry setup. And thank you for not succumbing to posting memes for views. Keep it classy!

I love your DIY Electric Foundry, I watched all the videos five times!!

I work at a copper foundry in Belgium and seeing you granulate the copper in a plastic pitcher did raise my eyebrow :D when we are 'tapping' from the foundry we granulate some liquified copper in a steel cannister with water and newbies tend to pour a bit too quickly, causing tiny steam explosions, launching the cannister straight up into the air, much to our amusement ofc. Great work nonetheless, you are a very knowledgeable and inventive guy.

I plan on going to welding school and starting to forge metal at home once I have my foundry set up, it's people like you that inspire me.

Dude you make awesome content, I always love the videos you put out regardless of the irregularity! I'm slowly making my way into metal casting/working and your ideas and designs have been incredibly helpful for me, keep up the good work!

Last night I saw this video and today went out and made something entirely based on your idea. I had 4 of those bricks already here from my waste oil furnace build and just cut them in half, used a straight cut router bit in the drill press to cut the chanels very quickly, ran a one meter length of 5000w wire stretched out a bit into the chanels, connected mains cable and melted 1kg of Ali in exactly 4 minutes. I actually couldnt believe my eyes having been used to spending ages using my other furnaces that use waste oils. I'm so gobsmacked that Ived ordered another coil and I'll get some full size bricks in, having said that I have half a roll of ceramic blanket in the loft that might try out as an alternative or even consiver making a coil for a my existing furnace. The problems thus far is A: I keep blowing 13amp fuses. B: The mains AC wires are getting way to hot and the plastic sheild is starting to melt. But, what with knocking up a complete running furnace in an hour ( I used normal welding wire wrapped around bricks for temp test ) I am as stated amazed at the speed. Ive just ordered a temp PID thing and a probe from Amazon and another coil. I did put an SCR inline to control the inbound AC but unfortunalty blew it up later this evening in another experiment. Might get another dimmer control. For small 1kg jobs its an amazing tool. Having watched you spend 3 hours doing copper I think maybe a syphon nozzle will stay my prefered route for that as its still much faster than the electric. But hey, hats off to you! Really impressed with the sheer speed, the joy of no flames, no messing around, switch on and go. Really enjoyed today. Thank you.

I've been working on my own 120v version for a few weeks, I love seeing that you've added a new video to the series

This is one of the best projects I’ve seen from you so far. Amazing effort in this video. Thanks I’ll be thinking about this method for my own project!

It's been a joy to watch your videos over the years and I'm glad you're finished with your exams. Have a great holiday and can't wait to see what you've got planned for when you return!

honestly, don't fret about the welds being ugly. to quote AvE: "Grinder and Paint make me the welder I ain't"

I love your videos and I was inspired to build one myself. I used a paint can instead with plaster and sand. I finished it last night and I've been messing with it all day. Thanks for the great videos!

Really good job with these kiln vids - thanks for all the work that went into them.

great video. have been watching your foundry videos as a guide to making my own, have been so informative. your water cast art pieces look amazing.

fantastic project. I will be making a similar one in the future for my own projects. Thanks for the video and all the hard work.

Your voice has changed! My how the time flys! Good job mate. Keep creating and learning.

Lots of great info. Thanks for sharing. And yeah....I’m sure there’s a lot of effort involved with everything you posted. Thanks again.

This couldn't have come at a better time. Me and dad are making our own copy of your foundry. We've just finished the hexagonal frames to hold the interior bricks together and we were pondering the best way to make a base and lid, so we can incorporate these upgrades into our project from the beginning. Perfect timing!

Feel like you've been away for ages... Great vid. I enjoy watching you learning.

You are not going to have any problem getting into uni, you are very intelligent and mature for your age, keep it up lad and your going to go far

Congratulations you have entered... THE BRONZE ERA!

well done yet again hope you have good results in uni!

And i thought it couldn't get any better

another very interesting and informative video. You are one very talented young man .

Great work, keep up the fantastic films.

Dang I have been watching your videos (Just started a couple days ago) but it is insane to see your welding improve so much.

wow good work love the vid, i always love checking this channel to see if there's a new upload

Great video, this must have taken you so long. I wish I could support you on Patreon you deserve so many more views and Subscribers. Congrats on 200k

Love your videos man 💯💯

well done mate you put a lot of time and effort into it and I t works great

Good job really appreciate the effort

You are awesome. Thanks for a great video.

your a funny boy. really good pace chock full of info. really good job there

Good job!

I FINALLY FOUND UR CHANNEL AGIAN IVE LOST IT 1.5 YEARS AGO YES FINALLY

nice video man :) would be a nice project for me aswell, ive build myself a propane foundry but net yet an electric one! keep up the great vids

great job man! big fan

love this channel!

Quality over quantity, no matter how often you upload the videos are always awesome and very interesting to watch. I'm only a bit concerned with the clearance of the coils to the crucible but in your first foundry video you mentioned you turn it off every time you take the crucible out so i hope that'll be fine. Also i can't wait for that lathe video, just seeing from the little preview, stuff like bokeh from metal shavings and seeing a smudge of copper get turned into a shiny machined piece right infront of you is amazing.

One smart lad 👍👌

Ooooh, I didn't knew this was your new video!!!

Awesome video! The best one of all foundry. You should probably use some welder glasses because all of the IR and light.

your first video on this kilm inspired me to build my own oven. i actually wrote my own arduino temperature controller and stuff. the first 3 heating wires i bought were no good and melted within the first few minutes of turning the thing on. but kanthal type D seems to work fine. i calibrated the heating wires to draw 3KW of power, so it's a bit more powerful than yours. the main purpos is heat treating knives, therefor the chamber is very long, thin and flat to accomodate long knives(up to 45 cm). i will post the arduino code somewhere if anyone is intersted, but all the controlles are german and the codequality is extreamly bad, so don't get your hopes up. we also came up with wire staple independently, since i had the same problem of my heating elements falling out of their slots.

i love you're calm voice xD in all of you're videos

omg new video finally :)

Fantastic

ur vidios are the best

great job awesome foundry cant wait to see what is possible with this foundry and what items you can cast with it just be careful pouring molten metal in water because it can cause a steam explosion

holy crap your a great engineer

You could squish the copper tube in the vise to flatten it. This way it is easy to bend back and forth and break off. Faster than a hacksaw and no copper loss as saw dust.

Cool stuff! I even used mine the other day for annealing a 3D printed plastic part at just 100C or so. It's so much more accurate and stable than a traditional oven. Copper is fun to pour from a few feet above the water. Pour slowly so it's just a trickle of metal and you end up with what look like copper Corn Flakes. :)

Nice video bro

Great vid.

for a different cooling liquid use what blademakers use... peanut oil or transmission fluid for the copper cooling. you can probably even use used fluid OK. i remember seeing your vids years ago and you've matured into some great interests and useful manskills. keep it up!

You are the best!

nice video buddy

Excellent video Artof... I'm still impressed with these things you do and how you happily jump from one tool or machine to another. It's pleasing to see how your welding skills are growing too. However, I think I spotted a redundant Earth wire in your mains lead, which suggests that you haven't earthed the metal work... Might be a good idea to rig something up - just in case. Where will your ideas take you next?

Great video! Kanthal. BTW

Hey, could you make a quick video about the tools you have in your workshop ? There's a lot to learn for a newbie like me ! Congrats for your job!

I enjoy watching your videos. Just wondered whether you'd added any safety feature as you're adding conductive metals to the crucible whilst it's live? Cheers.

Yo man been watching since ur squeaky slingshot vids (no offense) but yesterday u thought ur channel was dead but now the your channel is back i lived all ur vids my favourite vids are u rambone slingshot videos and i really want to see more of your channel in my feed again keep up the good work i acutely btried to make your forge but failed and i made yor bowie knife and rambone slingshot design 🍌

Good project; very clearly explained. To help you understand why your nichrome element burned out, here's a useful calculation. I'll make some estimates: let's suppose your coil was 500mm long before you stretched it, and the coil diameter is around 6 to 7mm. Each coil is then about 20mm, so the total length of wire, were it straight, would be about 10000mm. What is the total surface area of the wire? If it is 0.8mm wire then the total surface area is about 24000 square mm, or 240 square cm. Now divide 1800 watts by 240 square cm to get 7.5 W/sq cm. That's too high; the wire should be emitting around 3 or 4 watts per square centimeter if you want it to last a long time at aluminium melting temperatures. Your kanthal solution will likely have both a longer wire and a larger circumference, so it will last longer.

Super inspired by your handy-work! How many feet of the 16g Kanthal wire did you use in this build?

That last Aluminum pour you could call that London during rush hour

Awesome! You can melt copper now! I get copper pretty easily here. America is fulla scrap metal. lol

TAOW, really enjoy your videos and the effort you put in to being very succinct while remaining instructive. I have one question though. I have watched you make large holes by using small drills and then filing. An acceptable practice for sure, but why not use hole saws? Look forward to your future projects.

Thanks for the pointers. Here's some ideas I have. 1. I don't like the way the elements are wired. Theyre too close to the metal frame and could bump and short there causing an electrocution off the frame. The proper way I think is an insulating porcelain plug the wire passes through to insulate the metal frame from the element. Think mushroom shape with a hole down the center of the cap and stem. 2. If you want readings over the max out temp. a harbor freight 11 function multimeter will display "a" temp. It's not rated in the manual to display a temp. over a certain temp. but it will display a temp. I haven't double checked it using a control meter like a pyrometric cone to gauge accuracy above its stated temp. but it looked pretty accurate where I topped out at 2193F. The actual probe the meter comes with would need a ceramic insulator or would need to be replaced with a probe that has ceramic insulators. Just cut back the insulation to expose enough of the probes wire. then replace with a few links of ceramic tubing. 3. having the busted firebricks laying around. I would have casted those into the lid and floor to create porosity. Better yet I would have added a burn out material such as styrofoam granule(3.7% by weight) or blendered leaves(44% by weight, I achieved 28% ). I have tested both and they seem to burn out at camp fire level temps and have created porosity similar to the firebrick with no discernible preference over either burnout material. I have not tried this with plaster as the ceramic tho. But assume it would work, just a poor quality ceramic choice for a temp. shock resistant material. A better recipe would be 50% clay and 50% coal ash. The coal ash quality im not sure about. It seems to be determined by eye for acceptable unacceptable based on the coal source and thus ash produced. Here's a primer on my hypothesis on that material selection recipe, this may be more cost efficient than the recipe I am currently using: www.researchgate.net/publication/316192663_Research_into_Coal-Clay_Composite_Ceramics_of_Sichuan_Province_China

yay new video

you can weld stainless with steel rods or mig wire, the welds can rust but Ive made furniture and machine parts that are still as strong as ever and havent rusted.

great video, the thing that worries me with an electric kiln is touching the coils with the crucible.

Nice

Nice, you could use for the isolation ceramic wool 🤔

Interesting design and great workmanship! Thanks for sharing your work. Would be curious to see a thermal image of the kiln in action. Where does most of the heat escape from etc. How about running costs? Lets say to melt aluminium, 1kg or so... How many watt/kilowatt Hours for example? How would the design need to change to allow 'duel fuel' electric/gas firing? Very surprised the welds on the steel crucible holding under high temperature(suppose I just did not know its temperature tolerant enough)

nice one fella! a good format of video, the right pace and good information. clay graphite would be my choice for the crucible as they are very high temperature and very durable. as you have a lathe why not cast cylindrical ingots in a bean tin full of sand packed around a wooden former as ready made lathe billets? nothing so much fun as pouring metal! good work

curious so when buying this different types of kiln wire do they give you the max resistant ratings so you can work out the 240 volt/ 33 ohm where did you get the 33 ohm rating all else is easy to compute from there. Also how do you know what power rating works well with what size/shape kiln your building ? How many kiln wire coils do you need for a given size volume kiln and given power rating to heat the chamber to desired temps in reasonable amount of time.

right, this thing. i bought a few meters of heating coil when i saw the first one of these videos, but never actually built one myself. i just couldn't find any heat resistant material to make it out of. but i do have a big bag of plaster, maybe that'd work mixed with some sand?

Have you had any problems with the element deforming/sagging into the centre and shorting out through the crucible? I recently started making a furnace to your design, haven't had a chance to experiment with it much yet though. Thanks for the videos!

It's a cool upgrade, how do you minimise risk of electric shock with the larger crucible? One thing you could try is making a head cast, have you thought about using a welding mask for the brightness, or yoj could hand make a leather one and use two camera filters, either variable neutral density filters where you could adjust the brightness exposure, or using infrared filters, maybe a low rating of 720nm

you know you have to preheat the crucibles. Nice to see you back is it aloud to welled at home?

Very nice work! I am also going to make an electric furnace, can you tell me, please, how long does it take for you to get to the melting point of aluminum? Thanks in advance, and thank you for the inspiration! Thanks! :)

graphite crucibles have the highest operating temperature, but they are intended for use in inert atmospheres

hi there the heater coils in a dyer . it is prefect i think. al you hav eto do is sat them in place and run the wires.... tell me what you think... my dyer got wet so i had to can it.. so i think it will work..

If you melt brass, you might want to consider a respirator do to zinc oxide fumes that boil off of the brass.

Have you thought about running Argon (or even Nitrogen) into your furnace to prevent or reduce oxidation? Obviously it isn't airtight, but you could reduce the free oxgen fairly easily. GREAT job on the project BTW - I've enjoyed it and may build one for heat treating metal.

He must be talking about Kanthal wire. If you have trouble finding it, it's basically a trademark FeCrAl (Iron-Chromium-Aluminium) alloy. So you can search for that instead if you have trouble finding anything. Be aware that Kanthal is well known for being the highest quality FeCrAl alloy out there, so alloys not branded Kanthal might not reach the same temperatures or last as long. They'll be significantly better than NiCr wire though.

wow. great result.. i also have final task about electric foundry. it takes almost 3hrs to get 700°C. when the temperature goes to 400°C, increasing of the temperature goes slowly. do you have any idea whats wrong with that? thanks for your kindness

Great job, How much the electric consumption in kw ?

I've been watching your videos for so long and love your stuff. I say that so you don't think I'm just trying to be mean or troll you just suggest some stuff. 1. In the timelapse sections that have long periods of not talking you should throw in some music. KZfaq has a music section with royalty free stuff you can download and put in your videos. 2. There is a ground hum on your mic up until about the 6:30 mark. In your country that's a 50Hz tone. I'm guessing something electrical was happening while you were recording the voice over for those parts. Experiment a little and figure out what it is so it doesn't get into the videos. Thanks again and I hope you took this as a helpful suggestion and not me complaining. Keep it up, you're doing great!

The iron in the steel and the carbon will leach into your molten Al a little bit. This will change the properties of the final castings and could make them brittle. Add a little copper in each batch and it will change the alloy to a stronger type. Do the reverse, add a little Al, when doing copper, bronze, or brasses.

Amazing project I'am traing to do somthing similiar. I have heard that the nicrom resist up to 1200°c. how do you write the name of the new resistence material? I think i will not find it in my country, but any way I will try. Thank you! and congratulations for your project!

can also use 316L stainless steel wire as a heating element as it has a high melting point and resistance to corrosion.

when it comes to graphite crucibles u need to run them through a min of 2 heating and cooling cycals be for using for melting to fully cure the graphite and close any pors in the material same gose for ceramic

I wonder if wrapping koawool on outside of the fire brick cage would help with reducing the thermal leakage, to speeds up the preheating and reducing the exposure of rapid temperature changes to extend the life of the fire bricks. Just a thought to share.

You could also use tungsten wires in three phase. They're expensive though.

You may also look into induction heating as the circuits are ridiculously low priced.

Hi there I like watching your videos but there is 1 thing that I would like to ask and is that can you melt car battery cells in this as I have tried every thing and just can not get the lead to belt please let me no what you think thanks x

Since electronics are not my strong point, when using a PID I guess you still need to take the resistance of the coils and how long they are into account so that the amps don't go high enough to trip the fuses right? UK here also. Also, great videos and guides, made the entire process really easy to understand.

Kanthal A1 is also nice.