Does anyone know how to bulid a homemade burner for a kiln?

Question

I'm building a furnace at home to melt metal, fire clay, and melt glass. My dad recomended using an LP weed torch as the burner, but I don't really want to pay $35 if it may not work. So if anyone knows how to make a burner, or a really cheap one, I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Answer 1

Anything you build will probably cost a lot more that $35 and any money you save building it, you will spend many times over for fuel. To get at all hot, like 1200F or more, the heat has to go in faster than it goes out, and you pay dearly for all that goes anywhere.

Building one furnace to do all those things is also not a real good idea, each of them has needs that make a furnace for one thing not good for another, and a furnace to melt aluminum, would be different than one to melt bronze, and pottery is a dozen more different needs, depending on what you are doing.

If you just want to experiment, I would suggest that you keep a sharp eye out for a small electric ceramic kiln. A lot of people get started with molded pottery, and give up on the idea when there house is full of the finished pots and there friends are threatening them If they give one more for a present ;-)

In any case such electric kilns are often very much cheaper than new because the people just want to be rid of them.Another advantage is that an electric kiln is much safer and simpler to run.

You can melt aluminum, and fire pots to modest temps with a fair amount of ease, and in the meantime learn a lot about what you are doing.

One word on melting glass, tiny pieces like little gems less than a half inch in diameter are generally ok, but as you get a little bigger, things begin to get a lot more dangerous.

If you want to learn about glass be sure to go to a school for glass blowing, or at least one that teaches what you are looking to do

Unlike metal and pottery, glass is very hard and brittle. If it is heated to melting, and cooled too quickly the outside gets hard while the inside is still molten. As it continues to cool the inside shrinks, but the outside is still hard so it cannot shrink.

This sets up tremendous forces in the glass that can let go quickly, or even several years later, exploding like there was a firecracker in it. Obviously if someone was nearby when it did, they could be injured badly.

I have seen it happen.

Answer 2

Fire. dig a hole in your back yard and look for better directions on the internet. sorry i can't be more of a help, but I don't know the tecnique well enough, as I only learned it in a high school art class...

Answer 3

form your shape with black pipe from lowe's or home depot and drill holes in the pipe to make the flow even... couplings and elbows and 1/2 inch pipe should get you there for less than $20

Answer 4

I would go with your dad's recommendation.