The Charcoal Foundry

Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap #1

by David J. Gingery

If you can build a sand castle or make a mud pie you can make a sand mold to produce castings for your metal shop projects. It really is cheap and easy with a simple solid fuel furnace. Here are plans to build the melting furnace and instructions for basic pattern making and molding to get your shop project under way. Charcoal is the fuel and aluminum and zinc alloys are the metals to cast. None of the pulsation or roar associated with gas fired furnaces. Build your own molding bench and flasks. Make your own melting pots and most of the simple tools required. Discover how cheap and easy it is. Even if you already have a lathe and other equipment this simple foundry setup will greatly expand the capacity of your shop by providing you with a supply of cheap castings for your projects. Discover why so many shop hands say "Metal Casting has opened a whole new world of shop experience". Heavily illustrated with many photographs that will show you step - by - step how to build a foundry.

Genres: Reference, Nonfiction, Engineering, How To

80 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1980

Reviews

[David]

Great book and a great price on google play books. I can't wait to get started on building my own machine shop.

[Joe Beeson]

first in series of how to make machines from scratch using a charcoal furnace to melt aluminum

[Kim]

Inspirational for sure.

[Gallagher]

Pretty cool.

[Tim Violino]

The first entry in Gingery's DIY metal working shop series has elements of motivation and inspiration, but fails to self-evaluate why the design of the foundry is the way it is. I find it hard to learn from an engineering book when every single detail of the design, down to the measurements of parts, are given as bible, rather than general concepts. The idea of creating a machine that can create the rest of a shop itself is genius, I just feel that Gingery doesn't create enough space for personal creativity in the equation.

[Dan]

The premise is fantastic, the execution slipshod, and the potential is high. Unless you already know what you're doing, and are a dedicated junk-hound, you are up for a lot of trial and error. This is to be expected, of course (that is sort of the premise, here), but it's not quite the from-scratch guide it makes itself out to be.

There are, however, a few fine souls who have trod this path before you. They have put their experiences and clarifications out there for you to see. If you're interested, flick your scroll wheel for the patron saint of hyperlinks, and check these out:

A set of videos on YouTube.
This really ought to be included as errata.
A great list of links to similar pages.

See http://www.lindsaybks.com/dgjp/djgbk/... for the rest of the series.

[Eric Brosch]

I love the premise of this book series: Starting with sand, clay, charcoal, and scrap metal, build your own machine shop. Though I'm unlikely to tackle anything that adventurous, I love the idea that I could. Also, since my great-grandfather was a moulder, I appreciate having an slightly greater appreciation for what he did for a living.

[Jeff R Hawkins]

So inspiring!

I first saw this book in the 80s, from Lindsey Publishing. I've always wanted to read it. Now that I have, I want to read the rest of the series and I want to build the machines!

[Mills College Library]

671.2 G4924 1963