How not to build a Foundry Iron-Melting Burner

[the artfull-codger]

You should research the history of iron founding , and in particular the life of Abraham Darby. The amount of charcoal required to produce a ton of iron decimated the forests of England and Wales.
The impurities in coal , particularly sulphur , meant that it could not be used as a smelting fuel until Abraham Darby discovered how to use coke in his blast furnace.
This is recognised as one of the factors that started the industrial revolution , or as some might say the beginning of the end.
If you are ever in the UK try to visit the Iron Bridge Gorge where the remains of the original blast furnaces can be seen.
Incidentally my first forays into metal melting some 60 years ago used coke as a fuel , it was readily available as almost every town had a gas works.
A 10 foot stove pipe provided all the draught required to melt brass or bronze with a pleasant quiet of operation that was almost therapeutic.
You would be hard pressed to buy coke in the UK now.
Dan.

Yes coke is not so easy to get now, like you I built my furnace 50 odd yrs ago fired with coke,we always had a couple of tons in for the Aga Rayburn the only info then was B Terry Aspin's book, i still use coke [burnt a few furnaces out along the way] I built a propane furnace but it's expensive,,coke burning is nice & quiet as you say, just light it with sticks & spray with red diesel & it's away in 5 minutes, I still have about 3/4 ton left so that'll see me out at my age as we don't use it on the aga now.