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I was laid up with a bunch of medical problems when I started with Yahoo groups. Spent most of two years having and recovering from a variety of surgeries, plus learning to live with obstructive sleep apnea and a CPAP machine. Had LOTS of spare time, and needed desperately to have something fun to do, and had very little income. Yahoo groups was it, and then I helped several groups transition to groups.io, and there were quite a few that didn't need any help, either. I actually own (had to go count) 7 groups, and moderate for a few more. For none of the ones I own am I the sole owner. I was a member of several mini-lathe groups owned by J.W. Early at Yahoo back when he passed away unexpectedly, and those groups really did die.

I'm also retired now, and have a bit more time to devote so I might just join a few more groups, as time goes by. ;)

What you need for a furnace depends on what you want to do. If you want to make more belt buckles, you can do with a coffee can furnace, for example. If you want to cast lathe beds, you need something bigger. David Gingery wrote a whole series of seven books on building a machine shop from scratch from aluminum cans and scrap aluminum. Started with a charcoal fired furnace that would melt about 1 quart of aluminum. There are a bunch of folks in the Gingery group who started that way. Also a bunch more who tried it and gave it up. I'm among that latter group, actually, but if you know absolutely nothing and want to learn really bad, if you do it you will be a pretty good metalworking and machinist by the time you finish.

A good source of info if you don't find what you need in the file section would be archive.org. They have a lot of the old metalworking and machining and foundry practice books from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century. Also search Stephen Chastain, David Gingery, Vince Gingery, Rick Sparber, Lionel Oliver II, C. W. Ammen, Michael Porter, and a load of other folks. I have been trying to do this stuff seriously for for the past 13 years or so, and have not even gotten close to finding all the good sites, books, videos, and people that could be of help. Look at YouTube, and see if there is a model engineering group in your area, as well.

Yeah, Covid has messed a lot of stuff up, but things are coming back. Where are you located, at least roughly? Houston has a really active metalworking group. OKC used to have one, but it's fallen... Phoenix, there is the New England Model Engineering Society NEMES, and there are several other groups up and down the east and west coast, among many other places.

I sign as Bill in OKC, but I really live in a little postage-stamp suburb surrounded by OKC proper. I can't actually spit into OKC from my house, but can pitch a rock over my across-the-street neighbor's house and have it land in OKC. There is a diner in Del City (my little postage stamp town), where a group of railroad enthusiasts meet at 8am Saturday mornings. Some of them are also machinists and metalworkers, and right now it's the only group of folks I know who still meet up. I'm sure there are other but don't know how to get ahold of them anymore. The Model Engineering Society of Oklahoma (MESoO) was run, sort of, by my friend Bill Hinkle, but was fading away before he passed in April of 2020. I keep thinking about trying to revive it, myself. There were a bunch of folks who were way better organizers and metalworkers than I'll ever be, and sometimes I wonder if they're as bummed out by the group seeming to evaporate as I am. Also, search groups.io, and see if there are other groups near you.

If it turns out you're not in the US, there are groups in England, the UK in general, and Canada, and many other countries. My first batch of decent metalworking tools I picked up in Turkey when I was stationed there in the mid-80's. There are tons of books available on Amazon, and at many of the online booksellers like Powell's, too.

Bill in OKC

William R. Meyers, MSgt, USAF(Ret.)

Aphorisms to live by:
SEMPER GUMBY!
Improvise, Adapt, and Overcome.
Physics doesn't care about your schedule.
The only reason I know anything is because I've done it wrong enough times to START to know better

I guess I should set up my signature for my posts as I don't always remember to put it on. I'm in Socal in the South bay area, Torrance to be exact. Lived in California my entire 69 years but would love to get away from the crazy. My wife won't leave the grandkids so I guess I'm stuck. ? I'll look around and see if I can find something local. The guy who would have known for sure just recently died so I'm out of luck there. He was a engineer by trade and he collected machinery and tools his whole live. He covered his lot with sheds then dug a basement under the house he was born in to collect more machinery. He collected many other articles as well. Very nice guy if you had something that needed to be made he would make you do the work while he mentored you. That is the real way to learn something new. I met him through a wood turning club where he was very active but the weird thing was he never turned a thing. Sad to see him go.

Bill from Socal

If looking for other site you may want to look at.?

Dave?