Hi guy. Recently finished my first foundry, using roughly the design
on John Wasser's site, a Reil derivative burner, except instead of a
coffee can, I used a galvanized bucket.

Pictures of the first melt are available at:
http://www.psychemorphic.com/pics/forge/

First melt of lead in an iron crucible made from the bottom half of a
bernzomatic oxygen cylinder went off without much trouble.

It did expose some weaknesses though. I used channellock pliers to
lift the crucible, that worked OK, but it took a little more effort
than I was expecting (lead is heavy!), and didn't seem to give me much
control over the pour.

I've purchased some beefier channel lock pliers for future use. What
do you guys recommend for crucible tongs? I see some on
budgetcastingsupply.com, but they don't seem particularly "budget" to
me!

I've also purchased some graphite/clay #4 crucibles from LA Graphite
(they are having a going out of business sale BTW, lagraphite.com).

I'm baking the crucibles in the kitchen oven, first I tried 500F for 10
minutes, and that produced copious smoke. Down to 250F for 1 hour and
a little less smoke. Can I just put them in the foundry with the
burner as low as it will go, and let them cook there for a while?

My wife is going to kill me when she gets home today and the whole
house smells like acrid burning mothballs.