Recent content by Chips Ahoy

Chaski.org

But, when the first chip showed up in the bed..... well.....

Well now, Jos, that is interesting. Do you have a gut feeling how it might do as a cylinder on a steam engine? Scotty

I've not machined any of the "home brew" alumu-bronze yet. A friend who has said it machines ok but is tough on the band saw. Now he was just mixing only copper and aluminum. I am going to go ahead with adding tin mixture as third major component. I don't know when, but I will post the results...

Actually, the pump housings and meter housings appear to be more reddish and display a series of rings when sawn. That would indicate a silicon bronze, about 20% zinc. For our uses the strength and machinability seem to be more than adequate, we just don't want to work with the mess of zinc. We...

I dunno the pedigree of the bronze, we don't purchase it for the foundry. It is all donated scraps, for example we have a 5gal bucket of sprinkler heads, a 5gal bucket of identical pump housings, water meter housings and a bucket of who knows what identfied only by color after saw cuts. Our...

It is bronze. A couple of ways to reduce or eliminate the fumes/fire are, use an electric furnace hense no open flame or using glass to "seal" the surface of the molten metal. You are correct in melting the copper first then adding the PREHEATED zinc. I have about decided to only pour brass...

This is pic of a zink fire we had a couple days ago while pouring bronze. We should have waited until the crucible was in the pouring shank (out of the furnace) before removing the glass & dross. You can see the ladle of glass & dross in the scoop above and to the right of the furnace, in...