Welcome to Prometheus Unbound.
So, what is this place?
It's a site detailing my related hobbies of melting and casting metal, machining, ceramics, and forging. Really, anything to do with fire and hot stuff (hence "Prometheus") is within the domain of this site. There are also pages detailing some of my other hobbies (possibly casting-related, possibly not).
As an aid to the hobby metalcasting community, I've written a book aimed at beginner and intermediate casters that provides instruction on how to cast, how to build the tools and apparatus needed, a fair amount of handy reference material, and some ancillary subjects (like ceramic chemistry) that are useful for casters to know. It's by no means a complete reference, but it should be good enough to get a hobbyist started (and in the process, completely hooked on the hobby--the more you learn, the more interesting it gets). That book is available online through the "Foundry Tutorial" link to the left, and in the future, it should also be available as a downloadable PDF and a hard-copy version.
Beginners to metalcasting should also take a look at my "Links" section. All those places are either valuable references or suppliers of hard-to-find casting-related materials. None of them pay me money to be listed--I list them because they're the best I've found so far.
The rest of the site isn't primarily intended to be instructional--it's just a log of the stuff I've done as a hobbyist, available for your viewing pleasure. One thing I will try to do is make a special mention of my mistakes, so they don't get repeated.
Also, one last thing--a disclaimer and safety warning. This may not be the most fun part of the site, but it's important.
DISCLAIMER
Many of the activities described in this website are very dangerous. I make an attempt to point out some specific safety precautions as they come up, but there is no way I can point out every conceivable danger. I'm not a professional foundryman, scientist, or engineer, just a hobbyist—so there may be dangers that I don't even know about. For that matter, any advice I give could be wrong or even dangerous in certain situations. I can't be held responsible for any harm that comes to person or property as a result of following my advice or using any of the information on this website. Remember, the extremely high temperatures that liquid metal can reach are more than enough to send you to the hospital or kill you, or to set fire to anything nearby (like your house). Other activities, like welding or machining, present their own very serious dangers.