First try at melting metal

[the artfull-codger]

Just looking at past foundry threads with regards to various ways of controlling the air supply to your furnace, when I built my first furnace with my late Dad over 40 yrs ago with very little info' around then I used an old ''snail fan'' that we cannibalised from a central heating blower, it did me for many years melting brass,bronze, alloy & iron, till I bought a bouncy castle blower which I now use & is much more powerfull[you can blast the coke out of the flue] if you want to!!! the way I ajust the air without valves,shutters, thyristors etc is to just move the blower further away from the furnace,dead easy fine control & nothing to go wrong,this is for solid fuel,I've never changed to gas[ allthough I do use one at work & very convenient it is too] 'cos we allways have plenty of coke in for the rayburn cooker. [& it comes out of the ''family budget'' he he.]