Iron Casting

A cupola is a tall, cylindrical furnace that can reach temperatures above 2800° Fahrenheit - hot enough to melt cast iron. In spring 2024, my Columbia College Chicago sculpture students and I built one out of recycled propane tanks. We based our design on Stephen Chastain's Iron Melting Cupola Furnace.

The cupola debuts at Manifest, Columbia's end-of-year party.
Post-pour cleanup crew.

This project came together right at the end of the semester, so I don't have any finished objects to show yet. In the meantime, see below for examples of unfinished work. The objects around the perimeter were cast in resin-bound sand, while the piece at center was done with ceramic shell. Note that great detail!

Many thanks to Kari Sommers for funding this project. Students Abbi, Malkia, and Guthrie put in a ton of extracurricular hours in and learned to weld in the process. United Erie supplied the resin, and Reserve Management Group donated iron. Miklos Simon and Keith Kaziak at Notre Dame provided fabrication expertise and donated coke. Gabe Akagawa, Eric Fuertes, and Lloyd Mandelbaum co-hosted the pour and kept the metal flowing. Nate Carder, H. Schenck, Maddie Vaccaro, and Andy Young also provided crucial support.

Some thoughts for the next build:

  • Old propane tanks are a hassle to work with. Next time I'll probably just weld up an octagonal structure for the body and wind belt if I still don't have access to a sheet metal roller.
  • Chastain calls for 1" diameter tap and slag holes. I wound up widening those to 2" to prevent freezing.
  • Our tap was pretty light: only 35 pounds. I may double the well size to allow for bigger/faster pours.