A few are electric which has many advantages.
Build electric melting furnace.
After reading some of the comments and doing more research a simple controller to cycle the element on and off is recommended as the element is more likel.
This is a homebuilt electric melting furnace.
Most are based on cumbustion furnaces charcoal or propane.
Click on the image to go to the kanthal site where you can download specifications on kanthal wire and heating elements.
Allow the furnace to heat the crucible and melt the metal before taking it out with tongs for casting.
This document describes how to build a furnace for melting metals like copper silver gold etc.
Put the metal you want to melt inside the crucible and use a pair of fire tongs to set it in the middle of your furnace.
For my 25th birthday my wife got me dave gingery s book lil bertha a compact electric resistance shop furnace so i started right off building by dave s plans the main problem in my opinion that one encounters in making a resistance furnace is the structure that holds the elements.
Build an electric foundry for melting aluminum that works on 120 vac.
None that i have seen are as easy to build as.
Kanthal is the largest supplier of electric heating elements but there are other suppliers like i 2 r elements duralite molycom and mhi.
Once finished the steel bucket is cut away and a fire is built over the furnace to melt away the plastic inside.
Similar techniques are used to produce the lid and the furnace is completed.