Thanks fivetide! I bet you were proud of the vice after you made it.

Irving, I originally built a popcorn can furnace using , well, a popcorn can (popular here around Christmas -- roughly 20L in size thin sheet metal and painted with a seasonal scene -- and containing stale popcorn.)

Lined with sand and clay mix and rammed -- all according to David Gingery's little books. Used an air mattress inflator as a blower. Loaded it with charcoal briquets, and proceeded to melt metal.

I later found that even a fire of fallen pine boughs we cleared up after a stormcould melt aluminum, even without a furnace or furnace blower.

After nearly ten years my original furnace gave out, so lately I have just piled up fire bricks into what looks like a 1 foot tall chimney on the ground. Used a running bond but no mortar, stuck a pipe in the bottom for the blower, loaded it with briquets and again was melting metal.

So it really doesn't take anything very sophisticated, though building a nice furnace is still very satisfying to do. I guess we all like a nice piece of shop equipment!