playing in the back yard again

[dallen]

when I was working I latched onto a bunch of large bearing housing and a couple of crashed gear boxes that I broke one of them up with a sledge hammer.

the old steam radiators are great for melting cause like you said their thin which makes them easy to break down into crucible size pieces. CI Bath tubs and sinks are no good because of the enamel which turns to slag.

Some melt brake rotors but they can be full of rust and dirt which also makes slag.

DA

[awemawson]

One problem that you may find with the old thin section ci radiators is that the iron tends to be high phosphorous, as at was used for it's high fluidity when melted. But it can make it very hard to machine.

[dallen]

I don't have to worry about that seeing as how I haven't seen one of those radiators in a couple of decades.

[Dr Stan]

Good to know about the phosphorus, but wouldn't it mostly burn out and become part of the slag? Or is there a particular flux that would help remove the phosphorus?

BTW, the person who told me is a glass and metal casting artist and was not concerned about machinability. She had asked the local scrap yard/recycler to keep an eye out for the radiators and seemed to have a fairly good supply. Of course that was out in Kearney, NE so it may have been a geographical anomaly.

[Mayhem]

I've been to Kearney, NE and all I saw was corn and cows...

[dallen]

(10-15-2014, 10:37 PM)Dr Stan Wrote: Good to know about the phosphorus, but wouldn't it mostly burn out and become part of the slag? Or is there a particular flux that would help remove the phosphorus?

BTW, the person who told me is a glass and metal casting artist and was not concerned about machinability. She had asked the local scrap yard/recycler to keep an eye out for the radiators and seemed to have a fairly good supply. Of course that was out in Kearney, NE so it may have been a geographical anomaly.

Can't tell you on the flux, its just that Steam Heat isn't very high on the list down here in OK as for as a way to heat a building, and most of the buildings that used to be heated that way have switched to some other method by now.

One thing to note about the Phros is which way they are using it, if its real raw Phros. like they used to use a hundred years ago when putting it in copper they have to put it in something to keep it from burning up once the Kerosene dries up, if its in stick form like High Phos. welding rods they just weigh out how much then need and pitch it in and give it a stir.

In Copper it gets rid of oxygen in the melt, which copper like to suck up like aluminum does with H. Most Artist aren't going to be worried about if the iron will machine but more with the fact of wanting the mold to fill specially with thin casting, you can also put copper in the iron to help with bot flow and the formation of graphite which is what make the iron machine easy.

And Mayhem is right there isn't much to look at in Nebraska except Corn Fields, but if you listen real good on a still spring night you can head the stuff growing up around you.

DA