My pile of soda cans and pet food cans in the backyard is overtaking my storage space so I wanted to make something to mass melt the cans down into ingots which when I reused them would have far less dross....or at least I hoped so. I decided to try and make a reverberatory style furnace out of one of the freon tanks. I saw a nice one made from a propane tank on BYMC and I sort of copied the style. The main function is that you directly heat the scrap aluminum not a crucible...there isn't one. You make a basin in the reverb furnace and filled with scrap you blast with your burner directly onto the materials. In heaven it melts down, and you pour some nice clean ingots........

I started by cutting a freon tank from end to end lengthwise as shown.........I used a cutoff wheel on the grinder...lots better then a hacksaw or sabersaw...

I cut out a V shaped space to weld in a piece of angle iron I plan to use for a pouring spout. I cut a larger sqaure hole in the top part of the shell . I will add scrap through this opening as it melts down and keep it covered with a thick firebrick while it heats. A thick firebrick fits snuggly into the opening so most exhaust should exit through the spout...

I installed another piece of 2 inch pipe into a hole I cut into the shell near the back. This pipe will be a holder for the burner. I calmped it in place with a hose clamp and as you see it extends into the interior of the shell. It will become embedded in the refractory when it is poured into the top.

We're recyling the original furnace angle iron top to build the reverb frame.

I bolted a couple pieces of scrap steel tube to the sides of the bottom shell, these bolts will also be captured in the refractory pour. I gorilla welded some of the angle iron to the nasty old rebar frame I had, making two uprights at the front of the furnace. I wanted the tipping point to be far enough forward so I could pour the contents of the furnace into a mold place in front. In this picture I have the rea held up with a piece of pipe but soon I add a standup support.

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