It's turtles all the way down !

I've moved up from aluminium to bronze.

I started by making a stand for the crucible. That way it stays upright when the charcoal burns. Makes life easier.

I also prepared a bucket of charcoal broken into small lumps, about 2cm on the longest side. They would be easier to load, and burn fast and hot.

I had a lot of fun putting charcoal into the furnace without getting it into the crucible on the Al melts, so I made a sheet metal cone with a handle. I simply covered the crucible and shovelled in the charcoal. Less time with the furnace open.

And I kept it topped up. Once the furnace calmed down from a raging fury, I added more fuel.

It still took a long time to melt the bronze, but the turtle turned out pretty well for my first bronze case, and my second sand cast of anything.

A little tidying up to remove the flashing (I need more practice at making the sand molds) and a little cleaning up with a buffing wheel and this guy's a keeper.