Just a quick update on the “furnace project.”  We built a very small charcoal furnace.  We connected our vacuum to blow air into the coals and build a small steel crucible to hold the aluminum.  We were a little too impatient in getting the charcoal going so it ended up taking longer than we wanted and we ran out of time.  We did manage to get a small amount of molten aluminum however.  Jake took a bunch of pictures, I’ll post a slide show soon.  So bottom line is that it looks as if we will be able to pull this off.  We may attempt to melt some more again tomorrow.  Next up…Mold making.

I haven’t written anything since that first post.  I guess it’s time whether I have anything to write about or not.  It is spring time now it is fairly nice outside.  My grass is growing and we built some square box gardens.  My brother, Jake, moved to Pullman and my son, Andy, broke his leg.  That’s it in nutshell, a really small one.

I’ll go back to the part about Jake moving here.  He and his wife, Carolyn, and his son, Noah, moved to Pullman last month.  We are super excited to have them here.  They live in our old apartments that are only about a mile away.  Jake is a project guy.  I am too but I need someone to do the projects with.  I used to have someone a few years ago but he moved away.  I haven’t really done anything since.

Our first real project is going to be casting aluminum.  We are going to try to build a furnace to melt the aluminum this weekend.  Once we get that down we’ll try to make some molds so we can make some cool stuff.  We might eventually try to cast other metals as well.  We’ll see if we hurt ourselves this weekend.  I’ll try to post some pictures.