Von Slatt’s gas and waste oil foundry furnace

Workshop
Von Slatt’s gas and waste oil foundry furnace

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One downside to being a big fan of a particular maker is how long it can seem between new projects on his/her site, entries of a multi-part projects journal, what they had for breakfast, anything. Certain builders, I go to their sites (or look at their newsfeeds) obsessively, and it can be maddening waiting for new content. C’mon, make something! Wow me! Entertain me! Dance, dance! And then, when a post or project does show up, it’s such a thrill, like a little maker Christmas present. I’m sure some makers feel this “pressure,” and like those of us on the consuming end, it’s probably both a positive thing (it eggs them on to start and follow through on projects), but it’s also… well… pressure, and who likes to be under that?

Anyhoo, I’ve been following Jake von Slatt’s foundry furnace build and was delighted to see a new, meaty post on the gasoline fuel ejector and blower systems. He used a Bosch fuel injector from a BMW (bought on eBay for a couple o’ bucks) and metal from an old PC server to construct the blower. I love his use of the brass lamp parts to create an adjustable air-flow controller.

And all you 555 fans out there, he used a simple 555-based pulse-width modulation (PWM) circuit so he could adjust the “duty cycle” (and thus, the fuel-flow) of the fuel injector.

I guess the next step is to introduce the waste-oil system to the furnace. I’ll be anxiously eying my RSS feeds… (No pressure!)


Foundry Furnace Part 4 – Gasoline Burner

See the whole foundry series here.

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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