I built my own foundry last year for melting aluminum. Here's the parts list:
Steel bucket (5gal)
2x buckets firebrick mortar
12" piece of steel pipe
PVC butt joint
PVC pipe
2x U-bolts
A wide mouth bucket for molding the lid
A section of rebar, cut into 18" sections
A hair dryer from Goodwill
And then I picked up crucibles and stirring sticks from Amazon.
And then it's just tongs, gloves, etc. I spent about $300 total for all the parts, and had a blast putting it together. It's basically an inch and a half of mortar painted onto the inside of the bucket, 1/4" at a time. Set up the hole in the side for the pipe, and mix a little water with the extra mortar and pour it into another bucket to make the lid. Add the U-bolts for handles, and then set the rebar across the top to hold the lid.
It's fired by charcoal briquettes, and gets up to about 1900°F. It'll melt most of the precious metals, aluminum, copper, lead, whatever you need. Seriously, the crucible glows red when I do it.
I'm firing it up tomorrow to melt some pop cans and make ingots, I'll share the results tomorrow!
Sweeeet! But i hear they break down pretty fast? Seen a vid where they layer steel like brillow pads in the morter mix so it lasts longer
It does degrade over time, yes. Once it warms up, I'm probably going to buy another bucket of mortar and fortify it again. But the price is certainly right!
And you're thinking of kaowool, which is incompatible with charcoal. You'll have to use propane if you go that route.