a day in the back yard

[dallen]

I spent most of the day in the back yard trying to come to grips with the problems I have been having melting iron, I hope I have finally figured it out, won't know till I do several more melts without any problems.

anyway for you entertainment

[dallen]

this is what the part looked like

fresh out of the sand

first side cleaned up

second side

I really want one of the hammers that they have in this video for the back yard to annoy the neighbors with.




DA

[LJP]

Damn... Those hammers are incredible!
Nice faceplate you made, what size is it?
Larry

[dallen]

the pattern is around 4.5 inches in diameter, so by the time you clean it up its around 4 1/4 inches, it was a pattern I made a while back when I acquired a 4" 4 jaw chuck and made a backplate out of some bronze bushings that I had been given. After messing up the thread I found that I could get a plate from W.T. for a decent price and went that way.

This was made because I was trying to figure out what I keep messing up when trying to melt Cast Iron, when the stuff in the crucible started melting I needed something besides the ingot tray to pour it into, and the pattern that I had been working on tore a big hunk loose in it, its not a complicated pattern just a dog to mold because of the shape, I grabbed this backing plate and poured it because it was one I could mold up fast.

I'll probably leave it like in the photo because I don't need it at the moment, or if someone needs one and wants to machine their own they can have it.
the iron cut pretty decent,

Good news is that the new wall lining I put in the furnace is holding up, has a few stress cracks but I knew they were going to happen, otherwise it looks good.

DA

[chucketn]

DA,
My new casting buddy and I are building a foundry from scratch. I don't know if we will ever do C.I., but surely aluminum and brass/bronze.
I have been watching your threads to learn as much as I can. Did you make your own refractory for the furnace in this thread, or did you use commercial mix?

[dallen]

for something like aluminum you could go with a home recipe, even up to bronze temps.

you seen what happened to my furnace and the store bought refractory that was in the wall was 2700 degree insulating.

I'm not going to suggest one over the other, but me I would use commercial refractory because its available and in the long run is probably cheaper. the stuff that I used to redo the wall in my furnace runs about 40 dollars a bag here in OKC, now if your not going to ever entertain the though of melting iron use something with a lower rating like 2600 and use an insulating refractory instead of a high strength Castable that will get as hard as concrete. some even mix perlite and vermiculite in the High Strength stuff to turn it into a semi insulating but you almost have to have a cement mixer to do it, I recommend a mixer to mix any refractory, you get a lot better mix with less water.

How big are you planing your furnace, size is everything, you look at a tube that six inches in diameter and say that's awful big, then stick an A4 crucible in it and ask yourself how are you going to get it out because there is no room to slide tongs down between the wall and the pot. Also another question you have to be asking yourself is how much oversize do you want to go to take up expansion of skill's down the road. bigger projects call for bigger flask and crucibles and furnace.

I think I saw where you said your buddy or his father worked in a foundry, he should be able to answer all these questions and lots that I can't.

One Big thing you have to ask yourself is do you want to cast metal or reinvent the wheel. To me its a lot easier to go buy the right stuff, then it is to try and find stuff that will work to make my own, by this I mean I can buy two bags and in three days be putting heat in a furnace to dry it out. if I try to find and buy stuff that will make refractory no telling how much I may spend. Of course if aluminum is all I need to do to make some small parts to heck with the furnace grab an old 15 inch lowboy trailer brake drum, set it over a pipe with a hole in it lay a piece of steel on top to keep the charcoal out of the blast pipe and fill it up with raw/lump charcoal and stick a crucible in it, squirt a little diesel on the charcoal and steal the wife's hair dryer.



DA

[chucketn]

I have searchd for commertial castable refractory, but refuse to pay $60 and up per bag and then $120 per bag shipping. I can drive to Asheville, NC in an hour and 30 min, pick up a couple of bags of good fireclay, have a very good meal and drive back home for less than half that.
It's all well and good to advise someone to go with commertial products, and if this wasn't a hobby persuit, and I had bottomless pockets I probably would. But then I'd probably have other hobbies like wild women, Elk hunting or Bonefishing, and not have time for foundry activities.
Chuck

[dallen]

(10-03-2013, 06:32 PM)chucketn Wrote: I have searchd for commertial castable refractory, but refuse to pay $60 and up per bag and then $120 per bag shipping. I can drive to Asheville, NC in an hour and 30 min, pick up a couple of bags of good fireclay, have a very good meal and drive back home for less than half that.
It's all well and good to advise someone to go with commertial products, and if this wasn't a hobby persuit, and I had bottomless pockets I probably would. But then I'd probably have other hobbies like wild women, Elk hunting or Bonefishing, and not have time for foundry activities.
Chuck

I didn't say to not go with a homemade recipe, I just find it easier to use ready mix refractory, as far as the bottomless pockets go my check only goes so far and there are a lot of things that have to be bought before I buy things like refractory or a new crucible which I need for iron. just have to tighten up the purse strings on that one.

really to get started you can make an aluminum melting furnace out of a lot of things adn grow into the hobby that way. If I was you I would go as cheap as I could till I knew that I was going to like the hobby.

one thing you may want to check out is a ceramic kiln you can usually find one pretty cheap and sometimes people give them away, they will operate pretty cheap and will have no problems melting aluminum.

plus an added bonus of being able to use it as a heat treat oven.