Hello friends!

Today I will write a guide about building a forge to melt aluminum, copper, silver, bronze and even gold.

On the internet are a lot of guides to do this but each version has a some good points and bad points.

To do this guide I experimented with 3 ways

The first forge I made from from a simple iron container and a butan gas flame

As you can see it is working but is very slow and you have to wait a long time and the gas will eventually ran out.

The second way was building a mini forge from plaster...but this was a mistake as I will explain down:

This is what I did :

Ingredients were :

• plastic bucket, big and small
• metal bucket
• plaster
• metal net
• sand
• water

Method:
Put 1/3 parts of sand, same amount of plaster in the same amount of water and mix them until the mixture will be omogen (one color)
Now just put the mixture inside the bucket and in the middle slowly put the smal plastic bucket.

Now take some pliers and remove the bucket by twisting it from the midle towards the center and then lift it up.

And now let us make a lid for our forge with the same materials and we just add 2 nails. So I bended 2 nails and created really fast a form for my lid:

I just poured the mixture iside my form and put the nails, after that I put a bottle (2l) of water in the middle to create the hole.

At this point I was thinking that everything is perfect and I almost started to put the fire but the I had the Ideea to test the plaster....and the result was explosive....My goodness...it was a bomb....a real bomb!!!

I was upset and happy in the same time ....upset because I asked at the store if the plaster resist at 1250 degress ....and the so called expert told me it will.....What I found was that it does ressist at that temperature but...it explodes...
I find this by just putting plaster in a fire and boom ...small bomb.

Now the method was correct but my mistake was only the plaster. For this type of forge you will need PLASTER OF PARIS.(ROMANIAN- PRAF THE SAMOTA-MORTAR SAMOT)

At that point I was tired...I tried to find some plaster of Paris but no luck ...but then I remembered that that plaster is between the briks that we make the fire ....more exact....it is clay and stone...

I had some clay in my garden ...so let us do this again!!!

This is the corect way of making a simple mini forge!

First we take out the old plaster....

Now I had my brick (made from plaster of Paris age 17 years) the bucket water sand and metal net.

I put the net and clay bricks at the botton and then cover all with clay and sand

Now I made a long pipe that was made from steel at the tip and hard plastic from the middle up, at the top I put a hairdryer the blow in the flames.

I put my crucible inside and cover it with charcoal and I start the fire and then start the hairdryer .

The aluminum was starting to melt

I must say it was amazing!

I carved a shape in a smal clay brick and then I put the melted aluminum inside .

Now I just put the ingot in the cold water...

Secrets and tips when using a forge like this:

• the more strong the ventilator is the faster is the process
• the ventilator or hairdryer can be replaced with a propane gas pipe
• the air must hit the crucible from the middle towards down for a faster process

Metals that you can melt with this mini-forge:

Now of course there are other metals but those I find are better suited for bringing some income without serious risks.

And boom I am done for today! I am Cynetyc and I approve this message!

If you have questions put them in the comment section bellow!Cheers!