Furnace What?

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Peanut

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10 or 12 years ago I had a lot of good white oak firewood for sale. One customer was an artisan village in a revitalized downtown of an old city. There was a pottery lady, a glass blower, blacksmith etc. They all share a community kiln.

The blacksmith guy told me one day he had a big furnace he’d converted to run on firewood or coal. He wanted to get rid of it but folks wanted a small fortune to haul it away.

After my firewood delivery that day I was going to meet a friend for lunch who owned a small towing company. I’d already spotted his wreaker parked on the street. I got my friend to bring over his tow truck (with a boom). We loaded this furnace on my trailer.

At the time I intended to melt down 50 or so circuit boards that came out of R&D equipment… back when I worked in silicone valley. These boards aren’t the cheap stuff from a cable box or radio. All the board edges are gold, foil runs are silver etc. Some of the boards cost 20K when they were new.

This furnace is heavy, steel and concrete with rolling lid. The last two pics are the crucible, as big as a 5-gallon bucket.

Can someone who knows furnaces tell me what I have? I’d still like to melt down all those precious metals, doable? It’s a project I never got around to and I’ve forgotten the details of how to run this furnace.

Furnance (1) sm.JPG
Furnance (2) sm.JPG
Furnance (3) sm.JPG
Furnance (4) sm.JPG
Furnance (5) sm.JPG
Furnance (6) sm.JPG
 
In the 3rd pic, on the right side just above the ground is where a 2 inch gas line entered the furnace. The blacksmith had rigged up a 2 inch pipe for a blower, forced air to keep the coal or wood burning.

The big town used to have a large foundry which closed years ago. There used to be a pile of coke the size of a house on the property behind a fenced area.

I made some calls but could never seem to meet up with the guy who had access to it. I knew the guy from high school but hadn't seen him since. I figured a few loads of coke would be handy with a furnace this size.

For those who might not know... coke is basically coal that has been turned into charcoal. Coke gives off a lot more heat in a very steady manner. The blacksmith guy told me the furnace had been designed to burn coke.

Anyway, it's been more than a decade since I got this furnace, forgotten more than a few details.
 
maybe type them numbers in and google might pop up something

Looks to me like you could turn that thing sideways, with the opening on the side
put a single gas orifice in the top
and that would make a fine forge for knives and such.

just an idea
 
@Frodo I've had that thing so long I don't even notice it anymore. This morning my grtnephews were up sorting and loading cattle a few feet from it. I had my camera with me and snapped a few photos. I thought someone here might have some ideas...

I'll google the model # if it's there and post what ever I find on it.
 
Here is the name plate pic… It wasn’t designed to run on coke like I was told. It’s a gas furnace in the 990,000 BTU range.

Best guess from the net… It was made sometime in the 60’s. From comparison to similar models it ran at about 2000 degrees or slightly higher.

I think it could be useful as long as I had a dump truck load of coal.

furnace a (14) sm.JPG
 

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