Kickstarter

Hello backers!

We're happy to finally announce that skillets are on the way! We'll be reaching out to you to reconfirm your address before your shipment goes out. If you'd like to get in touch with any questions, the best way is to shoot us an email at info@boroughfurnace.com.

We'll be in touch again soon with some process photos as we crank these puppies out - we're currently producing 2-3 pans a day. For more incremental updates, you can also check in on us at our new Facebook page.

It's because of you that we've been able to see our green production model out to completion and we can't thank you enough for your patience and support.

Borough Furnace

Hello everyone,

Our shop has found a new home at the Gear Factory on Syracuse’s Near West Side. Designed by Albert Kahn in 1908, the building is the former site of the Brown-Lipe machine shop, a precursor to Kahn’s famous daylight factories built for Ford. Abandoned for years, the Gear Factory is now a cornerstone for the revitalization underway on the Near West Side. You can read more about the neighborhood’s transformation here and can find some photos of our new shop in this profile by the Syracuse Post Standard.

As the Thanksgiving holiday is upon us, we wanted to let you know how thankful we are for your continued support and enthusiasm for this project. 

BF

Hi everyone,

Here are some new images of skillet mold tests. The molds are working very well (compare the metal texture on the unfinished skillet to the unfinished bottle openers in the background), the next step is to get the gating system just right.

The gating system is the path that the metal takes to flow into the skillet cavity. If it flows too quickly it creates turbulence in the liquid metal and results in air bubbles and sand in the finished casting. If it flows too slowly the leading edge of the metal solidifies before filling the whole skillet cavity. The tests are getting pretty close... I have a feeling that the next update will be a real skillet!

Just a quick look at the frying skillet mold - more to come soon!

Hi everyone,

First and foremost - all bottle openers have been shipped! If you have not received yours, please let us know by emailing info@boroughfurnace.com and we'll figure out where they went. 

It's been a while since we've posted an update, so here is an overdue look at what we've been up to, with more to come every other Friday or so. Most of our time to date has been spent designing the waste vegetable oil furnace, then refining the burner system until we started getting hot iron (~2650 deg F) consistently. Now that we're at a comfortable point with the furnace, and the bottle openers are out the door, it's finally time to focus the Skilletron's energy on the main agenda - skillets! The next few weeks are sure to bring updates on the trials and tribulations of skillet molding. We are, however, over the main hurdle - consistently melting scrap iron with fryer grease - and excited to continue working on the skillets themselves. Here are some photos of the shop - talk to you soon.

-BF