gas plumber's furnace

[Ronbo256]

A friend of mine "loaned" me a plumber's furnace that seems to run on white gas or something similar, he said it need a "kit" installed. It's been sitting outside for a while after he had a house fire (electric wiring, not casting related), does anyone know where I can find parts for this, or should I just go with a turkey fryer? All I can read on the furnace is Champion.

[raymil]

look at this site http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/ and look at Coffee can furnace is this the type of torch you have
ray

[Ronbo256]

I'll put up pics tomorrow, it's already dark here and I'm tired from moving a bucket of WW and actually melting a few pounds of it down into .45 acp boolits and molds. This furnace works like a coleman stove with a pump and generator, right now it's rusted shut so there may not be any fixing it. Since I have over 100lbs of WW to melt down I think I'll go borrow my brother's fish fryer tomorrow. He also loaned me a very nice melting pot with two bottom pour spouts and an extra long handle, it's the pot for the plumber's furnace. I also snagged his ingot molds and another cast iron pot, they were just sitting outside rusting!!

[jsizemore]

Rust is your buddy. It helps to release your ingots from the mold.

I took my time soaking the parts I wanted to take apart on my gas plumber's furnace. Ed's red, kroil, wd-40 whatever you have that will penetrate the rust. A favorite of the old timers is kerosene which is one of the ingredients of Ed's red. I was fortunate that all my parts work. Take your time and don't force anything. Good Luck.

[Bret4207]

Soak it good and get things moving. There's a good chance you can save it. If you do a little research here on "plumbers furnace", "gasoline furnace" or "clayton lambert" you should find the info you need. These are outside toys and do work like a Coleman- only with a dense 2" wide 8" long solid blue, jet like flame going straight up. VERY impressive.

Be advised, all the internet commandos will tell you "THEY BLOW UP!!!" and that you'll die if you try and use it. Hogwash. It's a vertical blow torch, no more, no less. I'm a certifiable idiot and I've been using my gasoline furnace and blow torch for year with zero problems.

[W.R.Buchanan]

Bret: You're too modest, they don't really certify idiots do they?:kidding: I know several that could benefit from an extra rag hangin on their wall.

I looked for along time in junk stores and surplus stores, and old tool houses for a plumbers furnace, I only saw one and they wanted $100 for it. whihcis too much.

They are a good tool to use for smelting lead, as you can get some Coleman stove like pleasure out of using it.

As far as blowing up goes, they were the standard for 100 years! Ithink they probably work pretty well and are reasonably safe.

I would watch the thing for leaks as they are what will get you. They use white gas or Coleman Lantern fuel. and and run just like a blow torch or a Coleman stove.

I'd still love to have one because it is alot easier to find gas than propane most times, and they will run on pump gas also, they just need to be cleaned more often.

Randy

[Bret4207]

I use straight lowest priced pump gas in mine. Never had much of an issue. Tossing some Sea Foam or Berrymens B12 in every now and again helps. I've also run 50-1 chainsaw gas in mine in an attempt to help with the rust issue. Mine has a steel cable in the coil that is pretty rusty. That's why mine flames out every now and then. I just keep a small propane torch handy to relight.

[Ronbo256]

I'm using my brother's spare turkey fryer, this is on the back burner (pun intended) for now. The non moving parts are still soaking in penetrating oil on the off chance I'll get back to working on it, but this weekend is my monthly club IDPA match, I'm more concerned about lubing, sizing and loading rounds for Saturday!

Thanks for all the help, I'm sure I'll eventually get this running, and I want to see the jet of blue flame!

[Bret4207]

Try it at night sometime. VERY impressive!

[jsizemore]

Bret, I have one local gas station that sells 100% gasoline with no ethanol added. That could be the reason for you flame out. Buying Coleman fuel costs too much and I could live with the torch being handy.