casting weekend

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Poured the cylinder for a 25 HP waterloo in .291 scale
And 2 governor casting for a 1\3 case
All turned out well
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Still hot and cover in sand ....and up side down lol but I think you can see them well enough to make it out
 

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Everyone seems to gate their molds a little differently, so it is interesting to see what works and what doen't work.

Nice work !
The castings look great.

I bought a small package of granulated coal a few years ago, but I can't find where I purchased it.
I was planning on using green sand with coal dust, but was having trouble with green sand, and went back to using resin-bound sand (OK85 to be exact).

My plan was to grind the coal up into pellets.

I have seen discussions about whether regular coal can be ground and used in green sand, or whether it has to be sea coal.
From what I have read, seal coal burns more cleanly than regular coal.

I guess you could grind up a little regular coal and try it on one mold, since it is possible that it would work as well as sea coal.

You can buy a 40 lb sack of coal from Tractor Supply for dirt cheap, perhaps $9.00.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/catalog/coal
People still use coal as a heating fuel, and at that price, it is pretty economical.
They say burning coal is not as environmentally unfriendly as some would say, but it does tend to have a sulphur smell, and I would worry about my neighbors complaining before I worried about the environment, not that I don't care about the environment.

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I remember a YouTube video, possibly from LuckyGen - ?? - or someone else who regularly does cast iron; IIRC, he did an experiment using saw dust in place of coal dust, and it worked surprisingly well. I'll have to go back and find that video ...
 
Everyone seems to gate their molds a little differently, so it is interesting to see what works and what doen't work.

Nice work !
The castings look great.

I bought a small package of granulated coal a few years ago, but I can't find where I purchased it.
I was planning on using green sand with coal dust, but was having trouble with green sand, and went back to using resin-bound sand (OK85 to be exact).

My plan was to grind the coal up into pellets.

I have seen discussions about whether regular coal can be ground and used in green sand, or whether it has to be sea coal.
From what I have read, seal coal burns more cleanly than regular coal.

I guess you could grind up a little regular coal and try it on one mold, since it is possible that it would work as well as sea coal.

You can buy a 40 lb sack of coal from Tractor Supply for dirt cheap, perhaps $9.00.
https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/catalog/coal
People still use coal as a heating fuel, and at that price, it is pretty economical.
They say burning coal is not as environmentally unfriendly as some would say, but it does tend to have a sulphur smell, and I would worry about my neighbors complaining before I worried about the environment, not that I don't care about the environment.

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I meant to say "my plan was to grind the coal up into powder".
Brain freeze I guess.
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Yep that was me.

I very much enjoy your videos! But I've always wanted to ask a question: why is your pouring area so far from the furnace? I always wonder if it is a matter of shop layout, or more a matter of safety or convenience or something like that.

Thanks again - your videos have inspired me to work on building my own furnace. That is a WIP at the moment, but making slow progress ...
 
I very much enjoy your videos! But I've always wanted to ask a question: why is your pouring area so far from the furnace? I always wonder if it is a matter of shop layout, or more a matter of safety or convenience or something like that.

Thanks again - your videos have inspired me to work on building my own furnace. That is a WIP at the moment, but making slow progress ...
My cast iron melting furnace generates a lot of heat so it needs to be outside, under a roof without walls. The roof only idea lets me melt in any weather. My furnace gets cast iron very hot so there is no problem with the iron getting too cold to pour by the time I get to the sand molds.
 
I very much understand wanting the furnace to be outdoors! Is there not enough space near the furnace to set up the molds, or maybe it is that the muller and other equipment is in a different location, and you are setting up the molds there?

I hope this doesn't sound like criticism! I don't know enough to have an opinion; just wanting to learn!
 
I very much understand wanting the furnace to be outdoors! Is there not enough space near the furnace to set up the molds, or maybe it is that the muller and other equipment is in a different location, and you are setting up the molds there?

I hope this doesn't sound like criticism! I don't know enough to have an opinion; just wanting to learn!
A roof without walls can be a problem when molds can get wet from rain. If I tried to pour a mold with excess moisture it will explode so it is far safer to keep the molds away from the weather in my shed.
 
Ah, got it. I would guess this is particularly true for the scale on which you are pouring - not just one or two molds, but half-a-dozen or more at a time. Too long a time getting them all set up to leave them in the weather.

Again, many thanks for sharing. I hope one of these days to take my first tentative steps into casting ...
 
This weekend we casted mostly good stuff lol
Ecentricks and straps links for the reverse gear and clevises for the ecentricks arms The only one that didn't work out was the connecting rod
It is 50/50 lol think I'll put the run in the top and gate it in 3 places next time .......and lose the vents
 

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You could perhaps try two gates into the connecting rod, sort of long gates, so as to split the mold cavity into three parts, and vent at each end of the rod.
Or maybe 1/2 of the length between the two gates, and 1/4 on each end.
Should not be difficult to correct that part.
Seems like there is a bit of shrinkage in the rod.
How much ferrosilicon are you using?

The other parts look like they filled well.

100model says no vents are required, but I always vent the high points of any mold.
Better safe than sorry as they say, not knowing exactly what the permeability of your sand is.

Vents are cheap insurance in my opinion, and they cost nothing.

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I'll give that a try
The only time I use vents is if I have to pack the box hard ,or if it is thicker then needed
Use to vent everything ,stoped .....luckygeen1001 ...said no vents fryer it works better in iron without any .....at least for me
Thanks
Todd
 
Most of them are good .......disk not so much lol
Box lifted ...a re melt.80lb in three and a half hours -1c out where the foundry is .......
 

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The parts look good.
Maybe a little sand inclusion on the flywheel; my guess that it would still be usable.
I wish I had time to get out there and cast some metal.

Sounds a little chilly to be out casting stuff, I guess warm next to the furnace though.

I put a cardboard box over my molds during cold weather, with a hair dryer attached to the lower part of the box, and a small vent hole at the top of the box.
The box/hair dryer keeps the molds at about 70F, and so avoids cold shuts.

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