Your opinions on not messing with swath or dross is important--as a new foundry hobbyist, my time to do my hobby is more important than saving a few bucks on re-melting crap.
Jason, I have pinned your comment - it is absolutely spot on! Why go to all the trouble of making all the necessary equipment ,then the moulds, melting the metal (all that gas!), only to produce inferior castings made out of crap. Time is indeed important as is the realization that ALL hobbies cost at least some money - trying to do it all for nothing is false economy....Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Martin, I totally understand the economical and technical point but the (almost pathological) recycler in me is crying. Maybe this is a good subject for a short video ? Describing the technical issues and ways to tackle that (like you've mentioned the vigorous stirring), even if partially solving the problem. As you said, not every cast is critical, making a fancy coat hanger might not need top notch material.
@@thenoob2730 , Yep, I get more than a twinge of conscience too when I throw stuff like this out . Aluminium is an environmentally expensive material. In a feeble attempt to defend myself 😊may I say that I don't make much of this sort of material so I don't throw very much out. Were I to make more I would certainly pass it on to a recycler via a scrap metal dealer. My own experience with home recycling was a disaster. I had been given a chaff bag of fine lathe turnings. Supposedly aluminium but contaminated with minor amounts of steel, cast iron, and even the occasional fleck of brass. In addition it was old and I suspect had been wet so it was covered with a fairly thick oxide layer. Attempts to separate out the ferrous stuff with a magnet failed miserably as it all just hung together like tangled fishing line. So into the crucible it all went. I got about 5 litres of something resembling molten aluminium from the bag. I say molten but that was not exactly correct - it was more like a thin porridge! Thinking I had not got it hot enough (Ah, I was but a young naïve lad way back then😊) I revved the furnace up but the metal just got thicker! All those oxide films you see. Using a tablet of the now environmentally banned hexachlorethane I managed to separate the melt into about 2 litres of dross floating on 3 litres of something resembling an aluminium alloy. Its not something I will ever attempt again as the cost in time, fuel, and environmental issues (I could hear the ozone layer crying) was horrific. The metal produced was highly contaminated with both oxide films and iron and thus very brittle, it was weak and not very fluid, its corrosion resistance was poor. In short you coat would have fallen to the floor. (I did actually use the metal for an early attempt at metal moulding boxes - partially successfully) Commercially there are people who recycle this sort of stuff. Possibly (I hope) they know what they are doing and can perhaps (again, I hope) do it in some sort of environmentally acceptable way. They do produce useable alloys but keep in mind that with each trip around the recycle circuit the metal degrades - we start out with good clean metal used for can stock and foil and finish up with the sort of rubbish used for pressure diecast alloys. But I know where you are coming from, I too am a compulsive never throw anything away kind of guy..... Martin
htral Glad that you liked it now if only I can get people to follow it, sadly there seems to be a bit of an idea out there that furnaces are good for reprocessing what ever junk you can find by the side of the road or wherever 😱... Martin
Fred, They do look nice and once tricked up with all the bits and pieces butterflies etc they look very smick indeed...You can get some idea from my customers web site www.efihardware.com/ … Martin
Can we address the recycling subject? In Australia we get around $1 per kilo for aluminium swarf. Aluminium swarf is not very volume efficient, brass is, but aluminium is not. When I was really busy, I could get $40 for a trip to the scrappie, this was for a bootful of bags of scrap which would have included some brass swarf. Storing this amount of swarf in the workshop was a nightmare. At times I would just take it round to a friend with a large workshop and dump it in his recycle bins just to get it out of my way. Brass swarf was worth the effort at around $3 a kilo and of course it took far less space to store. For me it was always a case of storage vs return. Cans, swarf and extrusions exist and are often seen a free resource to make castings for the hobbyist. This to me is a bit like a right hander playing with left handed golf clubs because they were free ( ok, if you have made that work for you, fine). Foundry as a hobby has a cost, all the various bits and pieces apart from the metal itself either cost money or time in the making. Buying a good casting alloy will also cost money, but surely it must be worthwhile when you take into account the effort spent on patternmaking, moulding, melting and pouring. The effort that goes into a sand casting ( or a die casting if you count the die cost) is significant, why waste gas melting anything that does not give the best chance of success. If you want to be Green take swarf, cans and old aluminum bits to your scrap dealer and put the money towards some proper casting alloy or alloy wheels. Martin believes these can be used to advantage compared to other sources of scrap. Martin should this comment result in unlooked for angst please delete.
Smallcnc, Yep, nail on the head! I just think it a bit counter productive to go to all the trouble to make the equipment necessary the furnace, the flasks, the patterns, the moulds and then melt junk metal at a not insignificant fuel cost and pour a casting ruined by the choice of metal. Its a bit like bashing your head against a brick wall nice when you stop and start making good castings using reasonable metal John Campbell's rule 1 of making good castings "use a good quality melt". .Martin PS, If anything goes wrong refer to rule 1
George, Many people rightly thought that I should have disposed of the swarf at a scrap metal dealer, some were even a little strident about it. And they were right - but the few Kg of swarf that I had did not make a trip to a dealer environmentally viable. Iam glad that you liked the video... Martin
Very educational. When I looked at that massive feeder I pretty much thought that the only consistent way to remove it would be a large diameter saw blade. Or a very expensive slitting saw. Completely agree with the garbage alloy in and garbage castings out. I appreciate the time you took to make this video Martin.
Mark, Its just an old cold saw blade that I picked up - probably out of a scrap bin knowing me😊. Shooting the video didn't take very long, editing the thing well that's another story!... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 All my videos are pretty much edit free. Although I am starting to use a voice over as that is a handy feature instead of trying to talk, video, and keep yourself out of the worst camera angles at the same time! I have dozens of carbide saw blades in the cabinet shop i have and some of them are even purchased for metal cutting. Although that being said I don't think that I have a dedicated tooth grind that is suited to aluminum. I like that little mill of yours! a right proper beast. Not fast as the modern ones but you won't get it chattering as easily either. Mark
Andrew, Yes, the feeders will be used as feed metal at a bit less that 50% of future melts ( new ingots will be the rest). The filters float to the top and are easily skimmed off... Martin
Rocking, Thank you. The old mill is a bit of a beast - flat out at 500 RPM but Oh the metal it can remove if you can hold the work down well enough. It is an incredibly solid machine sadly now a bit worse for wear... Martin
I remember being so excited upon having a surplus of shaving/chips/swarf and aluminum cans.... I learned the hard way, your "paying it forward lesson" I wish I had learned that then ,what a struggle that was, and every casting was junk, and the porosity of the machined surfaces were horrible, and even after the remelt of those larger chunks, still, what a struggle... I tried gassing the melt, which helped. You stated this best, (garbage in, is garbage out).... But the shaving look so ready to be melted down, LOL, I know, but, don't do it!!! The melt would be popping and splattering inside of your kiln or furnace... Thank you, fun video, I am enjoying this series, and learned quite a bit, again, thank you for taking the time.... Dru
Dru, Sounds like you learnt the same way that I did way back in the early 1970s I think - scrap is crap - I sold all of it off to a scrapie and bought some decent ingot, result, most of my casting problems went away. The time is my pleasure... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Well, I am glad it happened that way, as I now can see some of the problems I would walk into on later castings projects, by means of having seen the horrible worst case scenario outcome, and of course the middle ground while I always shoot for the highest quality outcome... I think if I had not experienced that horrible mess, I would have always been thinking I was shooting for the highest quality, but would have really only ever been outputting middle quality... I hope that makes sense how I worded this, lol.. thank you, for taking the time to make educational content.... Dru
Dru, Perfect sense, It's all a learning experience and they say that you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. This may be true but I prefer the latter😏... Martin
I am always fascinated with gravity die casting. I remember that the motorcycle manufacturer, Velocette, used gravity die casting for their cylinder heads. It's good to watch your videos on foundry and pattern work specialisation.
@@olfoundryman8418: Thanks for info. That confirms what I've suspected for some time, as I've come across blow holes many times when machining pressure die castings and much less often with gravity cast components. PS. I used to use one of the older Cincinnati verticals in the 1970s - good solid machines.
Tre, Pressure die casting suffers from the problem that the metal is squirted in at very high velocity and often traps a lot of air when doing so to uncover often surprisingly large bubbles when machining such castings is all too common. Very solid machines!😀 a friend has the same but in univeresal format and refurbished - he loves it... Martin
Very nice series once again! Do you also work with other castable metals? Brass or maybe Cast Iron? Would love to see some work on these. Anyways thanks for your videos! From the Netherlands.
Tjeerd, Apart from 4 different aluminium alloys I occasionally do one of 4 bronzes. Don't do cast iron and for good info on cast iron see Luckygen1001. Might have a bronze job to d o shortly and will do a video of it - stay tuned. Greetings back from Australia... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 great tip! Looking forward for more of your work. Your a true craftsman! Love learning manufacturing techniques in general and you give a very nice insight in what you do. Fascinating!
bhein, As and hoinary Canadian (both parents born there) may I say thank you from Australia. But the really fun bit was cutting the die! I had to buy a CNC mill get it running learn how to program and use it - took a year!... Martin
Very cool. Throwing out the swarf has to really challenge your Ozarks heritage. It makes me wonder how the big aluminum production facilities recycle it. Good series, thank you from South Missouri.
Fixer, South Missouri eh - last trace of my US male line was in Beaver Dam butler Co Mo in 1880 - the old man of the family - one Zachariah West (my GG grandfather) - was an itinerant farm worker who went from farm to farm living with his wife and 6 kids out the back in the barn he never owned property and he was illiterate as were all his children! - Sounds like the Ozarks to me😏 The secret to the recycling is volume, do a lot at a time in big purpose build furnaces using lots of nasty fluxes … Martin
Holy dooly martin wow.again you have blown my mind. They look amazing. Thank you for sharing this amazing work and your incredable worksmanship. No dont melt the dwarf. Throw it.
Raschelle Sherwood, no don’t melt the dwarf or throw them out:) it’s easy to make a mistake in spelling when the S & D keys are next to each other. Cheers
Raschelle, Yes, both the customer and I are quite happy with the look heck this out from the customers web site it does look smick www.efihardware.com/image/3238/GM-LS3-700-CFM-4-Barrel-Throttle-Body-and-Manifold Sadly, I lack the strength to throw a dwarf these days (not that I ever did mind you) 😊... Martin
Volcker, Sadly at the moment I have not the strength or endurance to feed a die all day. While I like to think (hope) that this situation is improving at the moment it is easier to get a friend to help. I think he enjoys the day out (away from a nagging wife 😏) and he appreciates the contribution to his welfare. Both of us enjoy the company... Martin
Thanks for such an educational series. I always enjoy your videos. I am interested in casting aluminum. Your videos show a lot of good points and things to avoid very helpful.
Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge and experience! I'm watching this with excitement and intrigue with the dream of building a shop of my own. I anxiously await the days I can pass these valuable skills on to my sons. God bless
Straight, My own two sons are not interested in following on from me, they are way to smart for that 😊. I have no apprentice so the only way of passing it all on is via videos - I hope that it works! Good luck in your own endeavours but if I may offer a little advice - stop dreaming and start building... Martin
Peter, Better late than never! This job was very much a labour of love. I had to buy a CNC mill to cut this die. It is the biggest and most complicated gravity die job that I do but it does work well and the customer is very happy... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 I am sure your customer must be very happy with not only finding a local casting business, but also some one who cares about what they produce. Always good to find Australian based channels like yours. Thank you for taking the time to reply to both of my comments. I am sure you must have a lot to sort through. Peter.
Another set of great and informative video's Martin. You made the point about metal to me many years ago & I have remembered this. As you know I re-use Alu for much of my work & I make a point of not using small scraps. If I need a top notch cast, I purchase in what I need.
Andy, Not an unreasonable approach - provided of course that you can keep the good stuff and the bad stuff separated. Years ago (lots of them) I made some moulding boxes out of less than good metal keeping the good stuff for the castings I then made using those boxes.😊 But I also made some required to be good castings from dubious metal, fortunately they never got used, for I found one yesterday and it had all but corroded away because the metal was contaminated.😰 😱 It will appear in my next video as the possible consequence of casting crap out of scrap... Martin
Martin, I do indeed keep them well separated, & I have too seen the corrosion that sets in using poor Aul. The signage I cast is from wheel rims, as you know, a good material as long as it's cleaned well before the ment. But early on I tried allsorts and some started to corrode with in a matter of a few weeks. If anyone out there is considering making anything of any strutal nature, machined or that is to remain bare metal (like the throttle bodys) you need to invest in the metal.
Very interesting series. I'd always thought that if I had a furnace I would recycle swarf and that it would all just melt back together. I never considered the oxide layer. Now that I've got the Campbell book what you said makes so much sense. So obvious now.
John, Unfortunately a lot of people are of that opinion. The metal you get by melting it back together again is not very good. Its best left to those with the equipment (big furnaces nasty fluxes) and skills to do the job properly... Martin
Top - very top set of vids Martin, you are a master of your trade - that milling machine is a beauty - amazing bit if WW2 machinery, sent here for the war effort one imagines - they are venerable old machines.
Gez, Thank you . The mill is a bit past it now unfortunately but still serves for the occasional bit of grunt work and it has helped me make quite a few dies. I don't know when it came to Australia maybe when it was new (what a joy that would have been) but I have no idea. I did look up on Google and found a site that told me its age from its serial number and showed photos of one when new -oh what a joyous sight!... Martin
very impressive Martin thanks for sharing the fruits of your hard labour with us. A quick question for you if you dont mind, im in the process of casting a bowl type pattern and I seem to be struggling with gating it. Would it be best to do a direct pour if you like to the bottom of the bowl, I know its not ideal, your advice would be greatly appreciated thanks again for sharing
Woodsman, Direct pouring to the base of the upturned bowl certainly is not scientific - that's for sure - but if you look at this video ua-cam.com/video/IXtI5XUbCtg/v-deo.html You can see it done in a way that I find miraculous in that it works but there are several videos like this showing much the same thing!. All very crude and improbable but these blokes have developed a skill that is worth seeing. And we have to remember that bells were traditionally cast this way. But how these blokes get it to run so far so thin is amazing. If the bowl was somewhat smaller I would tend to gate at several places around the bottom edge but the runner would need to be tapered in area from the sprue to the last gate to be sure that each gate carried much the same amount of metal. How big is the bowl that you are attempting.... Martin
A pure joy to watch ,you make it look so easy as experts do, thanks for posting and giving out tips, PS . all the aluminium scraps are good for the iron recyclers
Rich, Merry christmass (belated) and a happy New Year to you too. I just wish I was well enough to put out all the new content I have in mind. Lots and lots of stuff but while the brain is able the body is not - maybe soon ... Martin
A long time ago I did gravity diecasting and machining then left it for the drawing board/CADCAM to design aircraft. After watching your Vids, I love to set up a workshop again and start building again. But what are the steps to start fresh? How about a howto vid?
David, Wow, a big subject! I hope in a week or two to have a follow up video out that will show a variety of work that I have done, some of the dies used, and some of the machines used - all way less complicated than the one used in this job. It may provide you some of the info you seek anything else just ask… Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Thanks a lot. My aim is to set up in a very remote West Africa so sourcing the spares or parts are not so easy and neither getting online or popping down to hardware store. david @ osici
I’d be quite happy with a nice stack like that what you have made, as for the swarf is to send it to the scrap metal yard and return some money back to you. Anyway love watching the shows, very good indeed love watching them, thanks 🙏 for making them....Phil in the uk
Phil, I was happy with it (and particularly so when the customer paid the bill 😊) I would take the swarf to a scrap yard but this job was an exception - I normally would not get any more than a small amount of bandsaw swarf and it would take years to get enough to bother making the trip to a scrapie. It is a waste to just throw it away but sadly it would be a bigger waste to drive to the scrapie with it.... Martin
Inspiration, Sadly I fear my casting days are behind me as my health is not what it needs to be to cast and unlikely to improve. I have so many ideas for videos that its very frustrating as without the ability to cast I can not get the ideas out there. I may though do a few "talking head" videos as Ican manage these and some of the ideas should come across that way -- don't really know how many would be interested as people do like to see hot wet stuff being poured. - my videos do not rate that well and the thought of any new ones rating even less well is a bit concerning..... Martin
Mackk, Yep, to me it always sounds of eating carrots, the great Bugs slowly crunching away, and you are right I guess it is a sort of "warm" sound... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Haha nice one.... deserved. I know it's your trade, but it's still a mesmerising process to watch. Thanks for sharing the knowledge. Andy
Hi I would like to thank you for great videos and for sharing you knowledge. I did a lot of Aluminum casting about 20 years ago and started up again about a year ago. I am making a casting for a steering box which has taken a lot of time to perfect the pattern and the method of pouring. You have helped me a lot in trying to get it right with all of the different types of items you have cast. Today I have cast the ones I have been looking for perfect results. If you are interested I could send you some photos via e-mail I am casting 2 at a time in one box about 8kg of Aluminum. Regards and thanks for passing on your knowledge. Michael
@@olfoundryman8418 Great Video's again Martin, all good advice and NO SUGAR coating when it comes to Swarf. Chips is an American term as I understand, there used to be a TV show by that name about a Motorcycle Cop, a show called CHiPs. lol. Cheers from John, Australia. PS: I think it was Eric Estrada that had the lead role.
And you say reasonable castings??? I say bloody brilliant!! We call it swarf here in the UK too. As for the old Cincinnati.. the last company I worked for had one for ages and it was a great 'grunt' for stock removal. Alas, it went to the scrapper to make way for a new CNC.. which breaks down at the bat of an eyelash!
creast, Yep, chips are a US thing (I think) The cuts that the old Cincinnati can do seem only limited by how well you can hold down the work. At just 200 or 300 RPM and a big cutter they can really make metal fly both chips and swarf😏 Milling these days is entirely another ball game, Sadly m the old girl is soon for the scrap yard too (like me!) She only cost me $5.00 (for the forklift to put in on a truck but will cost $300.00 for the fork lift to take it away - ah - inflation!.. Martin
Good day Sir, thank you for taking the time and effort to share your metal casting knowledge with us, it is very informative and is greatly appreciated. I would like to know your views on the most suitable source of aluminium to use for beginner casting. What would you consider a better source, alloy wheels or cast engine parts such as cylinder heads and engine blocks?
Johann, Without doubt alloy wheels would be my choice BUT you need to check what alloy they are as many manufactures are no longer using 356 alloy (601 in Australia LM25 in England Al7SiMg in Europe C4CV in Japan) Most wheels have the alloy designation cast into the back of the wheel somewhere - recently I was sent a photo of a BMW wheel, it had the designation AlSi9 cast into it - this is a pressure diecasting alloy and not what I would ever use to sand cast. Look inside the back of the wheel for one of the designations listed above with 356 anything else be very dubious of. You can use cylinder heads and blocks but they can be a number of different alloys and you may not be sure of what you have got as an alloy - again the casting may have an imprint of the alloy designation. These alloys often contain copper (around 4%) so will machine fairly well but will be prone to corrode badly. What ever you do don't mix alloys and stay completely away from wrought aluminium. However to be honest I found years ago that it was best to get good alloy as ingot from either a reputable supplier or from a friendly foundry (for cash) When I went over to good metal most of my problems went away...Martin
John, You assume correctly. The cut off feeder (they weigh a bit over a Kg each) will be remelted as up to half the next melt - other half plus will be new ingot. The filters do float and are easily skimmed off... Martin
I have usually heard it called chips when it is small pieces from a machining operation. Swarf i usually hear used as a general term for chips, filings, metal dust off a grinder, or what comes off the bandsaw. Speaking of bandsaw, have you tried carbide grit or diamond (non ferrous castings only) grit blades? In the states they can be pricey (about 5x for carbide or 10x the cost for diamond) but they last longer, cut faster and are excellent for cutting abrasive materials such as castings. The diamond blades can even cut gems, rocks and ceramics. They have lollipop cross section so they will side cut and can help them track better. I tested them out on some large diamter composites we had issues with tracking and blade life with and it made a very big difference with the tracking. Only thing is they like a high surface foot speed so a standard bandsaw cannot run them at their full potential, but they will still work.
Nerd, I have heard of carbide blade but have never tried any. I buy my blade in 200 foot reels and these days silver solder the joints as these seem more reliable than the butt welded ones that come from most of the poor condition butt welders I have tried 😊 Those diamond blades sound interesting as some of the aluminium I cut is very high in silicon and is quite abrasive it wears out the carbon steel blades all too rapidly I will see if the diamond blade is available locally. What sort of speed are we talking here in, say, feet /min. I often have to cut ingots in half and that is quite a big cut so better blades are appealing... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 You cannot buy these types in reels. It is a continuous stainless steel band with a resin bound material on the cutting edge so it is more of a grinding action instead of a cutting action. I know Starret makes both carbide and diamond types. I got the tests ones from McMaster Carr. I know there has been weird things in the past where they would not ship to Canada. I am not sure if they ship over there but here are a few links of places that might. www.toolcenter.com/SPC-Diamond_Grit.html?_vsrefdom=adwords&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhJrqBRDZARIsALhp1WTKFD2xoLH_SPToLfBQ2zK6D7p01-r5TNTmuNbCpvc0qpl6yLEZic0aAg5HEALw_wcB www.bandsawbladesdirect.com/diamond-tipped-band-saw-blades
Mike. I will contact my customer to see if we can do a video of one running on a vehicle - no promises mind but I will try. They are probably already machined as I made these a couple of months back and anyway all you would see is coolant splashing around the inside of a big CNC mill... Martin
Hi Martin. I am guessing you use good quality ingots for your castings. For recycled materials is there any particular aluminium scrap sources that you would recommend or alternatively recommend to stay away from to give good results. (Besides foil, and cans etc)? Thanks for the vids too. I have learnt a lot from your work
Making, Yes, I buy certified ingots so any given furnace load is about 50 to 60 % new ingot and 40 to 50% returns (gates feeders etc) from the last melt. My recommendation depends on what you are trying to make as some special things require rather special metal but for most general work the best source of metal is alloy wheels. These are usually 356 alloy (601 in Aust. and LM 25 in UK) This is what the ingots I buy are. You just need to check that it is NOT a magnesium wheel as that will cause all sorts of problems - aluminium wheels are attacked by caustic soda solution giving off bubbles Magnesium wheels are not attacked. Also magnesium is attacked by nitric acid giving brown fumes aluminium is not attacked. Your chances of getting a magnesium wheel are slim - not many of them out there. Stay away from any wrought aluminium product avoid pressure die castings - have ejector pin marks and are smooth all over. Stay away from older automotive castings manifolds cylinder heads blocks gearbox cases etc as these can be quite a variety of different alloys avoid any casting that shows a lot of whitish corrosion. I can see I need to do a video on this.... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Thanks for the reply. I suspect I came across some magnesium accidentally some years back in a steel crucible in a previous furnace. Melt started to twinkle then bright white yellow flame went on for a while reducing the steel crucible (old 7lb fire extinguisher) to a porus lava like mess. Really do appreciate your vids massive help for those of us with plenty still to learn.
This was extremely informative, thank you so so much! What's your opinion on melting coke cans as a cheap source of aluminum for hobby projects? I'm rethinking using them now after the comment on the end about reusing the scraps 😅
Nikola, Sorry for delay have had a stint in hospital and still trying to catch up. To be blunt about it I am as opposed as I can be to the melting of coke cans. I know some people do it and yes, you can get them to melt and you can actually cast the liquid into a mould. However you need to remember that cans have a lot of surface for very little metal and that means lots of oxide film in your casting. More importantly though cans are not a casting alloy they are a wrought alloy - well, actually they are two wrought alloys. The body of the can and the top of the can are two different alloys. Neither are really suited to casting and may not produce a very sound casting. Any casting made from cans will machine like chewing gum so you can't do much with it. But if all you are doing is a bit of fooling around with no intention of producing a useful casting then it won't matter much if you do use cans BUT I doubt it will prove to be cheap because you will have to melt around 100 cans to get a kilo of metal and the fuel used while you slowly feed all of them into the crucible is probably going to cost more than you will save - LPG is not cheap! If just fooling around I would suggest that you get some aluminium that has been cast - something like a cylinder head, inlet manifold, or wheel from a car. These are reasonable alloys (although you never know quite what they are) and they should produce a reasonable useful casting. My golden rule is stay away from stuff with a lot of surface area and from stuff that is wrought.... Martin
Okay, today is August 5, 2019 and I just put your package in the mail. The postal employee couldn't tell when you might receive it but she guessed that it should arrive in a couple of weeks, so around 19 August. Enjoy!
Sand, I await with both interest and excitement - always nice to get stuff in the mail 😊… Martin PS. it will give me an excuse to do an unpacking video, always wanted to do one of those 😄
After your comments about "Garbage in, garbage out", i have a question. I am going to pour a test of a small engine block soon, have 3 patterns to finish. I have a huge supply of aluminium drink cans. I plan on heating the cans in an oven first to burn off the paint and lacquer and then melt them for the pore. Can you offer any advise on this??? Many Thanks Ian
Ian, Sell the cans for scrap and buy some decent aluminium. Yes the cans will melt and yes you can pour the liquid into a mould and possibly/probably wind up with a fair looking sort of casting. BUT its the wrong alloy, it may give you shrinkage problems and it certainly will not machine any better that would chewing gum. Burning of the paint etc is a good start but its not the big problem. Cans are very thin and that means relatively little metal for a lot of surface oxide. It is very difficult to separate the oxide out after melting and oxide in the metal makes for bad castings. For a cylinder block the alloy of preference seems to be 303 out here 319 in the US and LM4 in the UK. although if the block is to have an iron liner I would likely opt for 601, 356, LM25 as it casts easier. Either choice should really be heat treated for best results... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Hi Martin. The purpose of the test pore is to confirm all of the cores and to allow me to map out and check all the placements for drilling and milling. I also want to check that i have enough material to machine off to get to tolerance allowing for shrinking and warping. All of this concerns me from your comment above. Think i will have to bite the bullet and buy the proper material. We will be using RR50 or RR56 for the final engine. Thank you very much for your comments. Greatly appreciated. Ian
Hey Martin. Understood not being worth to melt the chips because of impurities. Does the same applies to the big chunks of metal you cut off at the beginning of the video?
Okomi, The big chunks (the feeders) that I cut off are quite Ok to melt as they are very solid with little surface area. These will be added to future melts at a rate of less than 50% of the charge- the balance will be new ingot. The filter in the feeder will float to the surface and is easily removed… Martin
S Bell, Ingots 😊. Seriously all aluminium is covered with a layer of oxide so the more aluminium you get for the less surface area the better. Lots of little pieces like chips/swarf are very bad - I melted down a lot of it on one occasion and had so much oxide in the melt that it was thick like porridge and the hotter I got it the thicker it got! I will NOT melt down anything thin like floor splashings or skins from ladles or swarf/chips. I wont touch cans or things like door or window frames (wrong alloys anyway) I even scrape my crucible out (when cold) to completely remove the thin skin left. Basically the thicker and more solid the feed the better. At least half of everyone of my aluminium melts is new ingot of a known alloy - I get a certificate of analysis with every batch... Martin
Hmm. Given that aluminum is typically extracted from bauxite by electrolysis, and in nature it's mostly oxides, I wonder if sending swarf off to an Alcoa plant would be worthwhile. At least you don't have quite as many other impurities... But yeah, casting it through melting isn't worth it, especially if you're trying to do so commercially.
Early, There are quite a few chemical steps betwixt bauxite and electrolysis and I don't think the swarf would be suitable for this sort of process. The electrolysis is expensive (both in dollar terms and environmentally) and much of the aluminium can be recovered cheaper (both ways) by large furnace recycling and use of fluxes and stirring followed by degassing and deep bed filtering... Martin
Arnhem, Certainly the biggest job that I do its the only job I fire that big furnace up for and the day churns through close to 175 Kg of aluminium... Martin
Mariano, I will see what I can do but I suspect that they have already been done and for all the coolant going everywhere you probably can't see much anyway, but I will ask… Martin
Great series of videos. Many thanks for your hard work putting these together for us. NOT TOO SHABBY AT ALL. Its called swarf in the UK too. We eat CHIPS usually with FISH. Haha
Haha. Our fish n chips used to be served in news paper up until about 40 years ago. I swear it made them taste better, though it was probably because they used to cook them in LARD. Wondered off subject a bit. Cheers
Rupert, Yep , I used to save up and sell newspaper to the local butcher and to the fish shop. Then the government decide it was unsanitary and banned the practice - spoil sports … Martin
Great vid ty. Im assuming these are for carburretor bodies? If so why or how is there such a da emand for these. I was uner the imprsion that all moders cars were fuell injection? Also any chance of asking the machinist if you could, or he could vid the machning? And explain what these are used for. Excuse typos. Dont forget to tell me the bath plug direction swirl pls?
hrxy!, They are throttle bodies and I believe that they go with in-manifold injection systems. My customers web site might explain it better www.efihardware.com/ I will ask about the machining but I suspect its already all been done as I cast these a couple of months back Plug swirl anticlockwise I believe its the other way in the northern hemisphere.... Martin
Toxag, Actually they are throttle bodies but they are for V8s. Many available around the world are machined from billet and don't look anywhere near as good as mine 😊. Sadly perhaps we only see a very small part of the market here, even though my customer does export to at least the US... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 thanks for yr in depth reply, will check suggested site, the finish on yrs is exceptionally good. I ve never in my life, 71, used the word exceptional so many times Ug swiril london clockwise, but geoff crocker in NZ said clocwise so im a bit dismayed!!, confused. Anyone else in aussie pls let me know yr results ty
Grez, Sand casting is a very versatile process - it is possible to make just about any casting using it. Of the three common casting process - sand, gravity die , and pressure die-casting gravity die (also called permanent mould) is capable of making the highest quality parts.... Martin
I was always told chips is what the tool is producing during machining, swarf is the pile of chips produced by machining. My father was a machinist and that's how he referenced them. I think that's how my manufacturing textbook defined them too. Yep, toss the swarf in the bin and send it to the recycling center don't remelt it. Same with aluminum cans it's not worth melting for quality castings (I know, I'm guilty of melting garbage)
sell the cans, buy or swap for any usable drops for lathe or mill work. Or material worth melting for your castings. they must have some kind of use for it.
Sawdust and slag can be remelted under a thick layer of flux. If you throw dirty metal into the flux, the flux will impregnate the oxides and slag and prevent them from plunging into the metal. In the future, all this is scooped from the surface. However, flux can be aggressive to the crucible. Here it is already necessary to look and consider whether it will be profitable to recycle recycled metal in your conditions.
Dimitry, You are correct but its a dirty process best carried out at large scale in large furnaces and with agitation to separate the flux/oxide/and metal. Its not really the sort of thing that small; operators should be attempting - certainly in my case it would be anything but profitable. And yes the fluxes are agressive... Martin
Granted that aluminum swarf will not be worth melting down for re-use in small foundry, it should definitely not be chucked "in a bin." It needs to go to metal recycling. It's ready (and far more energy efficient) for re-smelting, even while being useless for casting.
Walnut, You are exactly correct. It should be recycled but only providing the cost (environmental) of doing so does not out way the savings made. In my case the amount is quite small (usually) and the transport cost alone ruins it. Properly handled by good recyclers it can make useful casting alloys again...Martin
What a unit. I wonder if a mill that robust has a nod adjustment. Like you said about garage in garbage out, it often confuses me why folks spend the effort melting aluminum cans to make a casting. Seems like an act in futility.
Amalgamous, Forgive my ignorance but what do you mean by "nod" adjustment? I guess some people just see cans as "free" metal, others have a desire to reclaim stuff - to make something from nothing sort of thing. I get a bit confused by it too, all that time effort and fuel - it hardly seems like doing the environment any favours. I see it as futile but others I guess do not -what ever makers them drip 😏...Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Nod may be called something else, it's just what I learned to call it. It would be where the head of the mill is adjusteded forward and back as if someone is nodding their head in a yes motion.
Amalgamous, There is slight adjustment sideways for head verticality although it is taper dowel pinned into place but pull the pin out and you can get a few "thou" - somehow though I don't think that you are meant to do this 😱. There does not seem to be any Nod adjustment, the whole head is one absolutely rock solid box structure casting... Martin
tre, Yep, that's about right... I remember saving milk bottle tops in my youth to donate to the seeing eye dog people as they used them to raise money - all the schools did it as we got free bottle of milk (1/3 pint) every day - usually left in the hot sun by the delivery truck and "off" by the time we got to drink it - Yuck - 😣 Haven't drunk a lot of milk since 😏 ... Martin
Robert, Yes, you are right the mill does have mechanical levers/stops that can be adjusted to send the table back to its start position at rapid speed at the end of a cut cycle. I have often watched a friend who has two Cincinatti mills use the feature on his machines. And in truth on the last run when the person who now does the casting came and ran the mill to cut of his run of 120 plus castings it did occur to me that I should have invoked that feature. I don't think it would have saved him much time but it would have made his life easier for sure. He is eventually to take the mill to his factory and I shall point the feature out to him... Martin
Han, Ah Ha a student of the Ellingham diagram! Something of a rarity. Clearly the C to CO curve and the Al to Al2O3 do in fact cross at about 2000 Deg. C and a little bit so yes I guess at about 2050 you should be able to get C to reduce Al2O3. It is or was done with Mg as a commercial extraction process where the cross is at about 1800 C but there both products ( the Mg and the CO) are gases and can be quickly removed from the system thus further favouring the reaction. One place I worked that used to take a melt to 2200 deg. C to induce a reaction between Ti and N in an alnico alloy - done in a pure magnesite lined very over powered induction furnace, at that temp the metal looks sky blue... Martin
World, "Clown, soda cans, and foam swords" --Hmm, who would you be referring to I wonder 🙄 😏. We know he and others like him are out there - best just ignore them... Martin
Who in the bloody hell is going to replace foundrymen like this after his last casting is poured. Younger people coming up need to be trained and that is only if they are even interested. Playing video games seems to take all their time now.
Metal, Hard to know and even harder to imagine now that all the foundry trade schools have closed down - mind you so have most of the foundries we have lost so many in the last 30 years. It will be Ok though we will just 3d print everything - well, maybe 🙄… Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Thank you for the video and for your reply. I am a machinist for 40 years now and I can really appreciate your skill and experience. All hail the oldfoundryman.
Manus, The pint would be good (if I drank 😊) and if the cost of getting it there was not more than I would get for it - my quantities are on average just too small… Martin
In the bin for a scrapyard- profit margin in the states can be made better in the small shop when you factor in the money return from recycled metals- especially brass bronze and any carbide tooling bits. Sure it takes an hour of your time to haul it- but that s money you are tossing out. Get a deal with a local scrapper for a 60/40 split (where he returns all receipts to you for verification) and make it worth your time for free money. Customer already bought it- why are you throwing out a "double" profit?
S Dunca, I agree with you but its a question of quantity. Although this job looks to produce a fair bit of saleable scrap it is very much an exception. Most of my work produces very little of this and I would have to store it for a long while until it built up enough to make a saleable load. I don't really have the room to do this and some of the scrap stinks slightly but unpleasantly of rotten egg gas - the used fluxes in the furnace dross seem to do this. I don't want to upset my neighbours (at whose mercy I operate) so the best think I can do is get rid of the smelly stuff asap and there is usually very little else save a few cupfuls of bandsaw swarf. In a perfect world considering the huge environmental cost of aluminium production I would be all for saving every little piece but this is only valid if on balance the environmental savings are there - with my small quantities sadly, they aren't... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Completely understand that... My shop is not at my house- so I can tolerate a bin gathering weight. Not a rub against you at all my friend- I respect what you do. Just putting it out there as a take-away for others to consider... Bravo on ALL fronts to your videos! Looking forward to the next one!
Peter, Yes, I could have and probably should have, but the cost to me and the environment in fuel and time to get to one made it rather moot. My point in specifically mentioning the waste in the video was to dissuade people from trying to melt it down themselves - the cost in time and fuel of doing this plus the low quality of metal recovered makes the exercise not really worth it....Martin
Matthew, If I had enough of it that is exactly what I would do, but the small quantity that I generate would not make it worth while to drive to the scrap metal dealer. To try and reclaim it myself would be an environmental disaster on fuel cost alone... Martin
Matthew, Now for a 200 litre drum full I would drive it to the scrapie. This job with its rather high swarf production is very much an exception for me, I would be years tripping over that 200 litre drum before it was even half way full, I do very little production machining and most of my swarf is by the "cupful" from the bandsaw, very fine and utterly terrible 😊… Martin
Your opinions on not messing with swath or dross is important--as a new foundry hobbyist, my time to do my hobby is more important than saving a few bucks on re-melting crap.
Jason, I have pinned your comment - it is absolutely spot on! Why go to all the trouble of making all the necessary equipment ,then the moulds, melting the metal (all that gas!), only to produce inferior castings made out of crap. Time is indeed important as is the realization that ALL hobbies cost at least some money - trying to do it all for nothing is false economy....Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Thanks for replying. I will be educating myself on your experience. Cheers from USA.
@@olfoundryman8418 Martin, I totally understand the economical and technical point but the (almost pathological) recycler in me is crying. Maybe this is a good subject for a short video ? Describing the technical issues and ways to tackle that (like you've mentioned the vigorous stirring), even if partially solving the problem.
As you said, not every cast is critical, making a fancy coat hanger might not need top notch material.
@@thenoob2730 , Yep, I get more than a twinge of conscience too when I throw stuff like this out . Aluminium is an environmentally expensive material. In a feeble attempt to defend myself 😊may I say that I don't make much of this sort of material so I don't throw very much out. Were I to make more I would certainly pass it on to a recycler via a scrap metal dealer. My own experience with home recycling was a disaster. I had been given a chaff bag of fine lathe turnings. Supposedly aluminium but contaminated with minor amounts of steel, cast iron, and even the occasional fleck of brass. In addition it was old and I suspect had been wet so it was covered with a fairly thick oxide layer. Attempts to separate out the ferrous stuff with a magnet failed miserably as it all just hung together like tangled fishing line. So into the crucible it all went. I got about 5 litres of something resembling molten aluminium from the bag. I say molten but that was not exactly correct - it was more like a thin porridge! Thinking I had not got it hot enough (Ah, I was but a young naïve lad way back then😊) I revved the furnace up but the metal just got thicker! All those oxide films you see. Using a tablet of the now environmentally banned hexachlorethane I managed to separate the melt into about 2 litres of dross floating on 3 litres of something resembling an aluminium alloy. Its not something I will ever attempt again as the cost in time, fuel, and environmental issues (I could hear the ozone layer crying) was horrific. The metal produced was highly contaminated with both oxide films and iron and thus very brittle, it was weak and not very fluid, its corrosion resistance was poor. In short you coat would have fallen to the floor. (I did actually use the metal for an early attempt at metal moulding boxes - partially successfully) Commercially there are people who recycle this sort of stuff. Possibly (I hope) they know what they are doing and can perhaps (again, I hope) do it in some sort of environmentally acceptable way. They do produce useable alloys but keep in mind that with each trip around the recycle circuit the metal degrades - we start out with good clean metal used for can stock and foil and finish up with the sort of rubbish used for pressure diecast alloys. But I know where you are coming from, I too am a compulsive never throw anything away kind of guy..... Martin
Advice on re-melt was the best part!!!
htral Glad that you liked it now if only I can get people to follow it, sadly there seems to be a bit of an idea out there that furnaces are good for reprocessing what ever junk you can find by the side of the road or wherever 😱... Martin
I learn a little something everytime I watch one of your videos. Thank you so much for sharing all this.
Martin, wonderful series of videos. I binge watched them 😁.
Glad to see you back!
Same on all accounts :-)
I was wondering how the casting looked once machined. Nice thought of putting that picture of the machined casting at the end of your video.
Fred, They do look nice and once tricked up with all the bits and pieces butterflies etc they look very smick indeed...You can get some idea from my customers web site www.efihardware.com/
… Martin
Can we address the recycling subject? In Australia we get around $1 per kilo for aluminium swarf. Aluminium swarf is not very volume efficient, brass is, but aluminium is not. When I was really busy, I could get $40 for a trip to the scrappie, this was for a bootful of bags of scrap which would have included some brass swarf. Storing this amount of swarf in the workshop was a nightmare. At times I would just take it round to a friend with a large workshop and dump it in his recycle bins just to get it out of my way. Brass swarf was worth the effort at around $3 a kilo and of course it took far less space to store. For me it was always a case of storage vs return.
Cans, swarf and extrusions exist and are often seen a free resource to make castings for the hobbyist. This to me is a bit like a right hander playing with left handed golf clubs because they were free ( ok, if you have made that work for you, fine). Foundry as a hobby has a cost, all the various bits and pieces apart from the metal itself either cost money or time in the making. Buying a good casting alloy will also cost money, but surely it must be worthwhile when you take into account the effort spent on patternmaking, moulding, melting and pouring. The effort that goes into a sand casting ( or a die casting if you count the die cost) is significant, why waste gas melting anything that does not give the best chance of success. If you want to be Green take swarf, cans and old aluminum bits to your scrap dealer and put the money towards some proper casting alloy or alloy wheels. Martin believes these can be used to advantage compared to other sources of scrap.
Martin should this comment result in unlooked for angst please delete.
Smallcnc, Yep, nail on the head! I just think it a bit counter productive to go to all the trouble to make the equipment necessary the furnace, the flasks, the patterns, the moulds and then melt junk metal at a not insignificant fuel cost and pour a casting ruined by the choice of metal. Its a bit like bashing your head against a brick wall nice when you stop and start making good castings using reasonable metal
John Campbell's rule 1 of making good castings "use a good quality melt". .Martin
PS, If anything goes wrong refer to rule 1
Brilliant video. Especially appreciated the explanation of the discarding of swarf.
George, Many people rightly thought that I should have disposed of the swarf at a scrap metal dealer, some were even a little strident about it. And they were right - but the few Kg of swarf that I had did not make a trip to a dealer environmentally viable. Iam glad that you liked the video... Martin
Very educational. When I looked at that massive feeder I pretty much thought that the only consistent way to remove it would be a large diameter saw blade. Or a very expensive slitting saw. Completely agree with the garbage alloy in and garbage castings out. I appreciate the time you took to make this video Martin.
Mark, Its just an old cold saw blade that I picked up - probably out of a scrap bin knowing me😊. Shooting the video didn't take very long, editing the thing well that's another story!... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 All my videos are pretty much edit free. Although I am starting to use a voice over as that is a handy feature instead of trying to talk, video, and keep yourself out of the worst camera angles at the same time! I have dozens of carbide saw blades in the cabinet shop i have and some of them are even purchased for metal cutting. Although that being said I don't think that I have a dedicated tooth grind that is suited to aluminum. I like that little mill of yours! a right proper beast. Not fast as the modern ones but you won't get it chattering as easily either.
Mark
Superb results yet again Marty !
No throstle grotties in your shop, just splendiferous castination, every time !
aga, You betcha… Martin
Do you plan to reuse the feeders and remove the ceramic filters after its melted?
Andrew, Yes, the feeders will be used as feed metal at a bit less that 50% of future melts ( new ingots will be the rest). The filters float to the top and are easily skimmed off... Martin
Thanks for the advice on the swarf, I was collecting mine to melt, I will get rid of it.
Danny, If you have enough take it to a scrap dealer and at least get a few dollars beer money for it... Martin
You make works of art dude.
Stormin, Well , no not really but its a nice thought and thank you for saying so... Martin
Nice castings, that were complicated to do. I love that old mill, much better than the mills made today!
Rocking, Thank you. The old mill is a bit of a beast - flat out at 500 RPM but Oh the metal it can remove if you can hold the work down well enough. It is an incredibly solid machine sadly now a bit worse for wear... Martin
Wonderful. Great to see this process from literal beginning to end. Loved the ending chat about garbage. Keep up the awesome videos.
gafrers, Glad that you liked it. I will try to keep the videos coming if somewhat irregularly… Martin
Really enjoyed this series Martin!
Jesse, Thank you for saying so... Martin
I remember being so excited upon having a surplus of shaving/chips/swarf and aluminum cans.... I learned the hard way, your "paying it forward lesson" I wish I had learned that then ,what a struggle that was, and every casting was junk, and the porosity of the machined surfaces were horrible, and even after the remelt of those larger chunks, still, what a struggle... I tried gassing the melt, which helped. You stated this best, (garbage in, is garbage out).... But the shaving look so ready to be melted down, LOL, I know, but, don't do it!!! The melt would be popping and splattering inside of your kiln or furnace... Thank you, fun video, I am enjoying this series, and learned quite a bit, again, thank you for taking the time.... Dru
Dru, Sounds like you learnt the same way that I did way back in the early 1970s I think - scrap is crap - I sold all of it off to a scrapie and bought some decent ingot, result, most of my casting problems went away.
The time is my pleasure... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Well, I am glad it happened that way, as I now can see some of the problems I would walk into on later castings projects, by means of having seen the horrible worst case scenario outcome, and of course the middle ground while I always shoot for the highest quality outcome... I think if I had not experienced that horrible mess, I would have always been thinking I was shooting for the highest quality, but would have really only ever been outputting middle quality... I hope that makes sense how I worded this, lol.. thank you, for taking the time to make educational content.... Dru
Dru, Perfect sense, It's all a learning experience and they say that you learn more from your mistakes than from your successes. This may be true but I prefer the latter😏... Martin
I am always fascinated with gravity die casting. I remember that the motorcycle manufacturer, Velocette, used gravity die casting for their cylinder heads. It's good to watch your videos on foundry and pattern work specialisation.
tre, It is one of the better casting processes and produces (usually) rather good castings. It has long been used by automotive people...Martin
@@olfoundryman8418: Thanks for info. That confirms what I've suspected for some time, as I've come across blow holes many times when machining pressure die castings and much less often with gravity cast components.
PS. I used to use one of the older Cincinnati verticals in the 1970s - good solid machines.
Tre, Pressure die casting suffers from the problem that the metal is squirted in at very high velocity and often traps a lot of air when doing so to uncover often surprisingly large bubbles when machining such castings is all too common.
Very solid machines!😀 a friend has the same but in univeresal format and refurbished - he loves it... Martin
Great series Martin. The throttle bodies turned out fantastic. Huge thanks for sharing your skills
Jess, My pleasure… Martin
Very nice series once again!
Do you also work with other castable metals? Brass or maybe Cast Iron? Would love to see some work on these.
Anyways thanks for your videos! From the Netherlands.
Tjeerd, Apart from 4 different aluminium alloys I occasionally do one of 4 bronzes. Don't do cast iron and for good info on cast iron see Luckygen1001. Might have a bronze job to d o shortly and will do a video of it - stay tuned.
Greetings back from Australia... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 great tip! Looking forward for more of your work. Your a true craftsman! Love learning manufacturing techniques in general and you give a very nice insight in what you do. Fascinating!
I really enjoyed this series. Watching all the work you put into this is very impressive.
Cheers from Canada
bhein, As and hoinary Canadian (both parents born there) may I say thank you from Australia. But the really fun bit was cutting the die! I had to buy a CNC mill get it running learn how to program and use it - took a year!... Martin
Very cool. Throwing out the swarf has to really challenge your Ozarks heritage. It makes me wonder how the big aluminum production facilities recycle it. Good series, thank you from South Missouri.
Fixer, South Missouri eh - last trace of my US male line was in Beaver Dam butler Co Mo in 1880 - the old man of the family - one Zachariah West (my GG grandfather) - was an itinerant farm worker who went from farm to farm living with his wife and 6 kids out the back in the barn he never owned property and he was illiterate as were all his children! - Sounds like the Ozarks to me😏
The secret to the recycling is volume, do a lot at a time in big purpose build furnaces using lots of nasty fluxes … Martin
Holy dooly martin wow.again you have blown my mind. They look amazing. Thank you for sharing this amazing work and your incredable worksmanship. No dont melt the dwarf. Throw it.
Raschelle Sherwood, no don’t melt the dwarf or throw them out:) it’s easy to make a mistake in spelling when the S & D keys are next to each other. Cheers
Raschelle, Yes, both the customer and I are quite happy with the look heck this out from the customers web site it does look smick www.efihardware.com/image/3238/GM-LS3-700-CFM-4-Barrel-Throttle-Body-and-Manifold
Sadly, I lack the strength to throw a dwarf these days (not that I ever did mind you) 😊... Martin
PGS, I believe its not S D key confusion but rather a reference to a one time less than nice custom/competition of throwing dwarfs 😰 😱.. Martin
Enjoyed the whole series very much, thank you. I am glad to see you got some help on this big job.
Volcker, Sadly at the moment I have not the strength or endurance to feed a die all day. While I like to think (hope) that this situation is improving at the moment it is easier to get a friend to help. I think he enjoys the day out (away from a nagging wife 😏) and he appreciates the contribution to his welfare. Both of us enjoy the company... Martin
Fantastic advice mate. Saved much heartache there if they listen.
Thanks for such an educational series. I always enjoy your videos. I am interested in casting aluminum. Your videos show a lot of good points and things to avoid very helpful.
Ronnie, If you find my videos helpful and enjoyable I am well pleased - thank you for saying so... Martin
Thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge and experience! I'm watching this with excitement and intrigue with the dream of building a shop of my own. I anxiously await the days I can pass these valuable skills on to my sons. God bless
Straight, My own two sons are not interested in following on from me, they are way to smart for that 😊. I have no apprentice so the only way of passing it all on is via videos - I hope that it works!
Good luck in your own endeavours but if I may offer a little advice - stop dreaming and start building... Martin
I am a bit late coming to the show.
But it was great to watch all 4 of these video,s.
Very informative.
Regards Peter.
Peter, Better late than never! This job was very much a labour of love. I had to buy a CNC mill to cut this die. It is the biggest and most complicated gravity die job that I do but it does work well and the customer is very happy... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418
I am sure your customer must be very happy with not only finding a local casting business, but also some one who cares about what they produce.
Always good to find Australian based channels like yours.
Thank you for taking the time to reply to both of my comments.
I am sure you must have a lot to sort through.
Peter.
Wow!! Excellent work, keep up the good work!
Adelan, Thank you... Martin
You are the man! You keep inspiring all of us to do better thru your videos. You have so much talent and skill. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Marty, Sharing is my pleasure and if you truly fell inspired get out there and do it 😊… Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 I am and I have learned a lot from watching you
Excellent series Martin.
Cheers
Peter
PGS, Thank you for saying so... Martin
Another set of great and informative video's Martin.
You made the point about metal to me many years ago & I have remembered this.
As you know I re-use Alu for much of my work & I make a point of not using small scraps.
If I need a top notch cast, I purchase in what I need.
Andy, Not an unreasonable approach - provided of course that you can keep the good stuff and the bad stuff separated. Years ago (lots of them) I made some moulding boxes out of less than good metal keeping the good stuff for the castings I then made using those boxes.😊 But I also made some required to be good castings from dubious metal, fortunately they never got used, for I found one yesterday and it had all but corroded away because the metal was contaminated.😰 😱 It will appear in my next video as the possible consequence of casting crap out of scrap... Martin
Martin, I do indeed keep them well separated, & I have too seen the corrosion that sets in using poor Aul.
The signage I cast is from wheel rims, as you know, a good material as long as it's cleaned well before the ment. But early on I tried allsorts and some started to corrode with in a matter of a few weeks.
If anyone out there is considering making anything of any strutal nature, machined or that is to remain bare metal (like the throttle bodys) you need to invest in the metal.
Andy, Spot on... Martin
Very interesting series. I'd always thought that if I had a furnace I would recycle swarf and that it would all just melt back together. I never considered the oxide layer. Now that I've got the Campbell book what you said makes so much sense. So obvious now.
John, Unfortunately a lot of people are of that opinion. The metal you get by melting it back together again is not very good. Its best left to those with the equipment (big furnaces nasty fluxes) and skills to do the job properly... Martin
Top - very top set of vids Martin, you are a master of your trade - that milling machine is a beauty - amazing bit if WW2 machinery, sent here for the war effort one imagines - they are venerable old machines.
Gez, Thank you . The mill is a bit past it now unfortunately but still serves for the occasional bit of grunt work and it has helped me make quite a few dies. I don't know when it came to Australia maybe when it was new (what a joy that would have been) but I have no idea. I did look up on Google and found a site that told me its age from its serial number and showed photos of one when new -oh what a joyous sight!... Martin
very impressive Martin thanks for sharing the fruits of your hard labour with us. A quick question for you if you dont mind, im in the process of casting a bowl type pattern and I seem to be struggling with gating it. Would it be best to do a direct pour if you like to the bottom of the bowl, I know its not ideal, your advice would be greatly appreciated
thanks again for sharing
Woodsman, Direct pouring to the base of the upturned bowl certainly is not scientific - that's for sure - but if you look at this video
ua-cam.com/video/IXtI5XUbCtg/v-deo.html You can see it done in a way that I find miraculous in that it works but there are several videos like this showing much the same thing!. All very crude and improbable but these blokes have developed a skill that is worth seeing. And we have to remember that bells were traditionally cast this way. But how these blokes get it to run so far so thin is amazing.
If the bowl was somewhat smaller I would tend to gate at several places around the bottom edge but the runner would need to be tapered in area from the sprue to the last gate to be sure that each gate carried much the same amount of metal. How big is the bowl that you are attempting.... Martin
A pure joy to watch ,you make it look so easy as experts do, thanks for posting and giving out tips,
PS . all the aluminium scraps are good for the iron recyclers
Andy, Its just a matter of practice. The iron recyclers are welcome to it 😊... Martin
Still an interesting series to re-watch. Merry Christmas!
Rich, Merry christmass (belated) and a happy New Year to you too. I just wish I was well enough to put out all the new content I have in mind. Lots and lots of stuff but while the brain is able the body is not - maybe soon ... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 here's to a healthy and prosperous new year...
Rich, One can but hope, and no way could it be any worse than last year!.... Martin
A long time ago I did gravity diecasting and machining then left it for the drawing board/CADCAM to design aircraft. After watching your Vids, I love to set up a workshop again and start building again. But what are the steps to start fresh? How about a howto vid?
David, Wow, a big subject! I hope in a week or two to have a follow up video out that will show a variety of work that I have done, some of the dies used, and some of the machines used - all way less complicated than the one used in this job. It may provide you some of the info you seek anything else just ask… Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Thanks a lot. My aim is to set up in a very remote West Africa so sourcing the spares or parts are not so easy and neither getting online or popping down to hardware store. david @ osici
You are a great teacher, thank you.
I’d be quite happy with a nice stack like that what you have made, as for the swarf is to send it to the scrap metal yard and return some money back to you. Anyway love watching the shows, very good indeed love watching them, thanks 🙏 for making them....Phil in the uk
Phil, I was happy with it (and particularly so when the customer paid the bill 😊) I would take the swarf to a scrap yard but this job was an exception - I normally would not get any more than a small amount of bandsaw swarf and it would take years to get enough to bother making the trip to a scrapie. It is a waste to just throw it away but sadly it would be a bigger waste to drive to the scrapie with it.... Martin
Nice castings nice tips, keep on casting a joy to see your work
Inspiration, Sadly I fear my casting days are behind me as my health is not what it needs to be to cast and unlikely to improve. I have so many ideas for videos that its very frustrating as without the ability to cast I can not get the ideas out there. I may though do a few "talking head" videos as Ican manage these and some of the ideas should come across that way -- don't really know how many would be interested as people do like to see hot wet stuff being poured. - my videos do not rate that well and the thought of any new ones rating even less well is a bit concerning..... Martin
Beautiful castings.
Vernon. Thank you... Martin
Enjoyed that very much Thanks for the series..........
Eddie, My pleasure… Martin
the warm sound of the cold saw blade. at work there was a 4" x .375" cutter it sounded pleasant to say the least
Mackk, Yep, to me it always sounds of eating carrots, the great Bugs slowly crunching away, and you are right I guess it is a sort of "warm" sound... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 music to my ears, unless the tool gets dull
Very informative series and a lovely big stack of castings... Damn fine job, Cheers 👍👍🍺🍺
Melt, Thank you - "A lovely big stack of castings" that turned into a fair sized stack of money 😀… Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Haha nice one.... deserved. I know it's your trade, but it's still a mesmerising process to watch. Thanks for sharing the knowledge. Andy
Really fantastic results, amazing quantity and quality mate!
JB, Yes, both my customer and I are very happy with the result....Martin
Hi I would like to thank you for great videos and for sharing you knowledge. I did a lot of Aluminum casting about 20 years ago and started up again about a year ago. I am making a casting for a steering box which has taken a lot of time to perfect the pattern and the method of pouring. You have helped me a lot in trying to get it right with all of the different types of items you have cast. Today I have cast the ones I have been looking for perfect results. If you are interested I could send you some photos via e-mail I am casting 2 at a time in one box about 8kg of Aluminum. Regards and thanks for passing on your knowledge. Michael
Michael, I would very much like to see your work, try olfoundryman@gmail.com as an initial contact email.... Martin
Lovely castings Martin!
It’s Swarf in the uk too!
Tris, Thankyou. Chips is I think an American thing😊...Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Great Video's again Martin, all good advice and NO SUGAR coating when it comes to Swarf. Chips is an American term as I understand, there used to be a TV show by that name about a Motorcycle Cop, a show called CHiPs. lol.
Cheers from John, Australia.
PS: I think it was Eric Estrada that had the lead role.
Martin can you tell me what the compound is you use on top of the feeders to help keep it molten. great work as usual
Woodsman, I do d not use any with this job but with most of my sand casting work I use "Feedex NF" made by "Foseco"... Martin
Hola Martin, hermosa pieza, pero lo mejor es la explicación sobre los chips o viruta...excelente!! gracias, un abrazo desde Argentina.
Daniel, Thank you and greetings back from Australia.... Martin
And you say reasonable castings??? I say bloody brilliant!! We call it swarf here in the UK too. As for the old Cincinnati.. the last company I worked for had one for ages and it was a great 'grunt' for stock removal. Alas, it went to the scrapper to make way for a new CNC.. which breaks down at the bat of an eyelash!
creast, Yep, chips are a US thing (I think) The cuts that the old Cincinnati can do seem only limited by how well you can hold down the work. At just 200 or 300 RPM and a big cutter they can really make metal fly both chips and swarf😏 Milling these days is entirely another ball game, Sadly m the old girl is soon for the scrap yard too (like me!) She only cost me $5.00 (for the forklift to put in on a truck but will cost $300.00 for the fork lift to take it away - ah - inflation!.. Martin
Nice work Martin.
B, Thank you... Martin
Good day Sir, thank you for taking the time and effort to share your metal casting knowledge with us, it is very informative and is greatly appreciated.
I would like to know your views on the most suitable source of aluminium to use for beginner casting.
What would you consider a better source, alloy wheels or cast engine parts such as cylinder heads and engine blocks?
Johann, Without doubt alloy wheels would be my choice BUT you need to check what alloy they are as many manufactures are no longer using 356 alloy (601 in Australia LM25 in England Al7SiMg in Europe C4CV in Japan) Most wheels have the alloy designation cast into the back of the wheel somewhere - recently I was sent a photo of a BMW wheel, it had the designation AlSi9 cast into it - this is a pressure diecasting alloy and not what I would ever use to sand cast. Look inside the back of the wheel for one of the designations listed above with 356 anything else be very dubious of. You can use cylinder heads and blocks but they can be a number of different alloys and you may not be sure of what you have got as an alloy - again the casting may have an imprint of the alloy designation. These alloys often contain copper (around 4%) so will machine fairly well but will be prone to corrode badly. What ever you do don't mix alloys and stay completely away from wrought aluminium. However to be honest I found years ago that it was best to get good alloy as ingot from either a reputable supplier or from a friendly foundry (for cash) When I went over to good metal most of my problems went away...Martin
I assume then, that you are going to melt down the cut off? Do the filters just float to the top?
John, You assume correctly. The cut off feeder (they weigh a bit over a Kg each) will be remelted as up to half the next melt - other half plus will be new ingot. The filters do float and are easily skimmed off... Martin
Thanks.
I have usually heard it called chips when it is small pieces from a machining operation. Swarf i usually hear used as a general term for chips, filings, metal dust off a grinder, or what comes off the bandsaw. Speaking of bandsaw, have you tried carbide grit or diamond (non ferrous castings only) grit blades? In the states they can be pricey (about 5x for carbide or 10x the cost for diamond) but they last longer, cut faster and are excellent for cutting abrasive materials such as castings. The diamond blades can even cut gems, rocks and ceramics. They have lollipop cross section so they will side cut and can help them track better. I tested them out on some large diamter composites we had issues with tracking and blade life with and it made a very big difference with the tracking. Only thing is they like a high surface foot speed so a standard bandsaw cannot run them at their full potential, but they will still work.
Nerd, I have heard of carbide blade but have never tried any. I buy my blade in 200 foot reels and these days silver solder the joints as these seem more reliable than the butt welded ones that come from most of the poor condition butt welders I have tried 😊
Those diamond blades sound interesting as some of the aluminium I cut is very high in silicon and is quite abrasive it wears out the carbon steel blades all too rapidly I will see if the diamond blade is available locally. What sort of speed are we talking here in, say, feet /min. I often have to cut ingots in half and that is quite a big cut so better blades are appealing... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 You cannot buy these types in reels. It is a continuous stainless steel band with a resin bound material on the cutting edge so it is more of a grinding action instead of a cutting action. I know Starret makes both carbide and diamond types. I got the tests ones from McMaster Carr. I know there has been weird things in the past where they would not ship to Canada. I am not sure if they ship over there but here are a few links of places that might.
www.toolcenter.com/SPC-Diamond_Grit.html?_vsrefdom=adwords&gclid=Cj0KCQjwhJrqBRDZARIsALhp1WTKFD2xoLH_SPToLfBQ2zK6D7p01-r5TNTmuNbCpvc0qpl6yLEZic0aAg5HEALw_wcB
www.bandsawbladesdirect.com/diamond-tipped-band-saw-blades
Martin you are the man.
K, Thank you.... Martin
We need closure! Gotta see the carb on a running vehicle or better yet getting machined and then on a vehicle.
Thanks for the series.
Mike. I will contact my customer to see if we can do a video of one running on a vehicle - no promises mind but I will try. They are probably already machined as I made these a couple of months back and anyway all you would see is coolant splashing around the inside of a big CNC mill... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 I'd love to see that too.
Andy, I will try but no guarantee…. Martin
Hi Martin. I am guessing you use good quality ingots for your castings. For recycled materials is there any particular aluminium scrap sources that you would recommend or alternatively recommend to stay away from to give good results. (Besides foil, and cans etc)? Thanks for the vids too. I have learnt a lot from your work
Making, Yes, I buy certified ingots so any given furnace load is about 50 to 60 % new ingot and 40 to 50% returns (gates feeders etc) from the last melt. My recommendation depends on what you are trying to make as some special things require rather special metal but for most general work the best source of metal is alloy wheels. These are usually 356 alloy (601 in Aust. and LM 25 in UK) This is what the ingots I buy are. You just need to check that it is NOT a magnesium wheel as that will cause all sorts of problems - aluminium wheels are attacked by caustic soda solution giving off bubbles Magnesium wheels are not attacked. Also magnesium is attacked by nitric acid giving brown fumes aluminium is not attacked. Your chances of getting a magnesium wheel are slim - not many of them out there. Stay away from any wrought aluminium product avoid pressure die castings - have ejector pin marks and are smooth all over. Stay away from older automotive castings manifolds cylinder heads blocks gearbox cases etc as these can be quite a variety of different alloys avoid any casting that shows a lot of whitish corrosion. I can see I need to do a video on this.... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Thanks for the reply. I suspect I came across some magnesium accidentally some years back in a steel crucible in a previous furnace. Melt started to twinkle then bright white yellow flame went on for a while reducing the steel crucible (old 7lb fire extinguisher) to a porus lava like mess. Really do appreciate your vids massive help for those of us with plenty still to learn.
This was extremely informative, thank you so so much! What's your opinion on melting coke cans as a cheap source of aluminum for hobby projects? I'm rethinking using them now after the comment on the end about reusing the scraps 😅
Nikola, Sorry for delay have had a stint in hospital and still trying to catch up. To be blunt about it I am as opposed as I can be to the melting of coke cans. I know some people do it and yes, you can get them to melt and you can actually cast the liquid into a mould. However you need to remember that cans have a lot of surface for very little metal and that means lots of oxide film in your casting. More importantly though cans are not a casting alloy they are a wrought alloy - well, actually they are two wrought alloys. The body of the can and the top of the can are two different alloys. Neither are really suited to casting and may not produce a very sound casting. Any casting made from cans will machine like chewing gum so you can't do much with it. But if all you are doing is a bit of fooling around with no intention of producing a useful casting then it won't matter much if you do use cans BUT I doubt it will prove to be cheap because you will have to melt around 100 cans to get a kilo of metal and the fuel used while you slowly feed all of them into the crucible is probably going to cost more than you will save - LPG is not cheap! If just fooling around I would suggest that you get some aluminium that has been cast - something like a cylinder head, inlet manifold, or wheel from a car. These are reasonable alloys (although you never know quite what they are) and they should produce a reasonable useful casting. My golden rule is stay away from stuff with a lot of surface area and from stuff that is wrought.... Martin
Okay, today is August 5, 2019 and I just put your package in the mail. The postal employee couldn't tell when you might receive it but she guessed that it should arrive in a couple of weeks, so around 19 August. Enjoy!
Sand, I await with both interest and excitement - always nice to get stuff in the mail 😊… Martin
PS. it will give me an excuse to do an unpacking video, always wanted to do one of those 😄
Sand, Package has arrived have not yet opened it, will do so when I get then camera set up. Many thanks.... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 , You're very welcome. Can't wait for the video.
After your comments about "Garbage in, garbage out", i have a question. I am going to pour a test of a small engine block soon, have 3 patterns to finish. I have a huge supply of aluminium drink cans. I plan on heating the cans in an oven first to burn off the paint and lacquer and then melt them for the pore. Can you offer any advise on this???
Many Thanks
Ian
Ian, Sell the cans for scrap and buy some decent aluminium. Yes the cans will melt and yes you can pour the liquid into a mould and possibly/probably wind up with a fair looking sort of casting. BUT its the wrong alloy, it may give you shrinkage problems and it certainly will not machine any better that would chewing gum. Burning of the paint etc is a good start but its not the big problem. Cans are very thin and that means relatively little metal for a lot of surface oxide. It is very difficult to separate the oxide out after melting and oxide in the metal makes for bad castings. For a cylinder block the alloy of preference seems to be 303 out here 319 in the US and LM4 in the UK. although if the block is to have an iron liner I would likely opt for 601, 356, LM25 as it casts easier. Either choice should really be heat treated for best results... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Hi Martin. The purpose of the test pore is to confirm all of the cores and to allow me to map out and check all the placements for drilling and milling. I also want to check that i have enough material to machine off to get to tolerance allowing for shrinking and warping. All of this concerns me from your comment above. Think i will have to bite the bullet and buy the proper material. We will be using RR50 or RR56 for the final engine.
Thank you very much for your comments. Greatly appreciated.
Ian
Hey Martin.
Understood not being worth to melt the chips because of impurities. Does the same applies to the big chunks of metal you cut off at the beginning of the video?
Okomi, The big chunks (the feeders) that I cut off are quite Ok to melt as they are very solid with little surface area. These will be added to future melts at a rate of less than 50% of the charge- the balance will be new ingot. The filter in the feeder will float to the surface and is easily removed… Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Thank you Martin.
Excellent work Martin! So to minimize oxides what is the ideal size and shape of your feedstock?
S Bell, Ingots 😊. Seriously all aluminium is covered with a layer of oxide so the more aluminium you get for the less surface area the better. Lots of little pieces like chips/swarf are very bad - I melted down a lot of it on one occasion and had so much oxide in the melt that it was thick like porridge and the hotter I got it the thicker it got!
I will NOT melt down anything thin like floor splashings or skins from ladles or swarf/chips. I wont touch cans or things like door or window frames (wrong alloys anyway) I even scrape my crucible out (when cold) to completely remove the thin skin left. Basically the thicker and more solid the feed the better. At least half of everyone of my aluminium melts is new ingot of a known alloy - I get a certificate of analysis with every batch... Martin
Excellent series, thank you. Are they aftermarket tb's ?
Tom, Yes, after market. You can check them out on my customers web site www.efihardware.com/
… Martin
Hmm. Given that aluminum is typically extracted from bauxite by electrolysis, and in nature it's mostly oxides, I wonder if sending swarf off to an Alcoa plant would be worthwhile. At least you don't have quite as many other impurities... But yeah, casting it through melting isn't worth it, especially if you're trying to do so commercially.
Early, There are quite a few chemical steps betwixt bauxite and electrolysis and I don't think the swarf would be suitable for this sort of process. The electrolysis is expensive (both in dollar terms and environmentally) and much of the aluminium can be recovered cheaper (both ways) by large furnace recycling and use of fluxes and stirring followed by degassing and deep bed filtering... Martin
Garbage in, garbage out. I agree with that whole heartedly.
Mister, Its a good code to live by for it is just so true - just look at politics politicians and the results GIGO😰 😱..Martin
A big job well done!
Arnhem, Certainly the biggest job that I do its the only job I fire that big furnace up for and the day churns through close to 175 Kg of aluminium... Martin
i'd love to see the machining of the tb
Mariano, I will see what I can do but I suspect that they have already been done and for all the coolant going everywhere you probably can't see much anyway, but I will ask… Martin
Great series of videos. Many thanks for your hard work putting these together for us. NOT TOO SHABBY AT ALL. Its called swarf in the UK too. We eat CHIPS usually with FISH. Haha
Rupert, Yep, fish and chips here too but in NZ its Fush and chups 😊… Martin
Haha. Our fish n chips used to be served in news paper up until about 40 years ago. I swear it made them taste better, though it was probably because they used to cook them in LARD. Wondered off subject a bit. Cheers
Rupert, Yep , I used to save up and sell newspaper to the local butcher and to the fish shop. Then the government decide it was unsanitary and banned the practice - spoil sports … Martin
Very enterprising. I do remember eating chips with writing on. I'm still here though. Look forward to your next video. Cheers
Wow that is a really big blade on that mill
Tyler. Its just an old metal cutting cold saw blade - slow but it works Ok... Martin
Great vid ty. Im assuming these are for carburretor bodies? If so why or how is there such a da emand for these. I was uner the imprsion that all moders cars were fuell injection? Also any chance of asking the machinist if you could, or he could vid the machning? And explain what these are used for. Excuse typos. Dont forget to tell me the bath plug direction swirl pls?
hrxy1 after market carburettors for V8s. Huge market for these workdwide.
hrxy!, They are throttle bodies and I believe that they go with in-manifold injection systems. My customers web site might explain it better www.efihardware.com/ I will ask about the machining but I suspect its already all been done as I cast these a couple of months back
Plug swirl anticlockwise I believe its the other way in the northern hemisphere.... Martin
Toxag, Actually they are throttle bodies but they are for V8s. Many available around the world are machined from billet and don't look anywhere near as good as mine 😊. Sadly perhaps we only see a very small part of the market here, even though my customer does export to at least the US... Martin
Olfoundryman yes, my mistake! Missed a keyword in my haste as well as some typos. Love your work and workmanship as always.
@@olfoundryman8418 thanks for yr in depth reply, will check suggested site, the finish on yrs is exceptionally good. I ve never in my life, 71, used the word exceptional so many times
Ug swiril london clockwise, but geoff crocker in NZ said clocwise so im a bit dismayed!!, confused.
Anyone else in aussie pls let me know yr results ty
is posible make a machine part (motorcycle engine case) using sand casting? how about a qualitiy? is die casting more solid than sand casting?
Grez, Sand casting is a very versatile process - it is possible to make just about any casting using it. Of the three common casting process - sand, gravity die , and pressure die-casting gravity die (also called permanent mould) is capable of making the highest quality parts.... Martin
I enjoyed it very much.
Tyler, I am glad that you liked it... Martin
I was always told chips is what the tool is producing during machining, swarf is the pile of chips produced by machining. My father was a machinist and that's how he referenced them. I think that's how my manufacturing textbook defined them too.
Yep, toss the swarf in the bin and send it to the recycling center don't remelt it. Same with aluminum cans it's not worth melting for quality castings (I know, I'm guilty of melting garbage)
sell the cans, buy or swap for any usable drops for lathe or mill work. Or material worth melting for your castings. they must have some kind of use for it.
Sawdust and slag can be remelted under a thick layer of flux. If you throw dirty metal into the flux, the flux will impregnate the oxides and slag and prevent them from plunging into the metal. In the future, all this is scooped from the surface.
However, flux can be aggressive to the crucible. Here it is already necessary to look and consider whether it will be profitable to recycle recycled metal in your conditions.
Dimitry, You are correct but its a dirty process best carried out at large scale in large furnaces and with agitation to separate the flux/oxide/and metal. Its not really the sort of thing that small; operators should be attempting - certainly in my case it would be anything but profitable. And yes the fluxes are agressive... Martin
Granted that aluminum swarf will not be worth melting down for re-use in small foundry, it should definitely not be chucked "in a bin." It needs to go to metal recycling. It's ready (and far more energy efficient) for re-smelting, even while being useless for casting.
Walnut, You are exactly correct. It should be recycled but only providing the cost (environmental) of doing so does not out way the savings made. In my case the amount is quite small (usually) and the transport cost alone ruins it. Properly handled by good recyclers it can make useful casting alloys again...Martin
What a unit. I wonder if a mill that robust has a nod adjustment. Like you said about garage in garbage out, it often confuses me why folks spend the effort melting aluminum cans to make a casting. Seems like an act in futility.
Amalgamous, Forgive my ignorance but what do you mean by "nod" adjustment? I guess some people just see cans as "free" metal, others have a desire to reclaim stuff - to make something from nothing sort of thing. I get a bit confused by it too, all that time effort and fuel - it hardly seems like doing the environment any favours. I see it as futile but others I guess do not -what ever makers them drip 😏...Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Nod may be called something else, it's just what I learned to call it. It would be where the head of the mill is adjusteded forward and back as if someone is nodding their head in a yes motion.
Ally can melting - the 'milk bottle top brigade' !
Amalgamous, There is slight adjustment sideways for head verticality although it is taper dowel pinned into place but pull the pin out and you can get a few "thou" - somehow though I don't think that you are meant to do this 😱. There does not seem to be any Nod adjustment, the whole head is one absolutely rock solid box structure casting... Martin
tre, Yep, that's about right... I remember saving milk bottle tops in my youth to donate to the seeing eye dog people as they used them to raise money - all the schools did it as we got free bottle of milk (1/3 pint) every day - usually left in the hot sun by the delivery truck and "off" by the time we got to drink it - Yuck - 😣 Haven't drunk a lot of milk since 😏 ... Martin
I notice your mill is fitted with limiting switches, wouldn't setting them up make things a little easier and safer on ling runs.
Robert, Yes, you are right the mill does have mechanical levers/stops that can be adjusted to send the table back to its start position at rapid speed at the end of a cut cycle. I have often watched a friend who has two Cincinatti mills use the feature on his machines. And in truth on the last run when the person who now does the casting came and ran the mill to cut of his run of 120 plus castings it did occur to me that I should have invoked that feature. I don't think it would have saved him much time but it would have made his life easier for sure. He is eventually to take the mill to his factory and I shall point the feature out to him... Martin
We also call it swarf in the UK too.
Tre, yes, I think "chips" is US terminology... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 I think you are correct.
Thanks again Martin!
Jaap, My pleasure... Martin
Making it look easy again, eh Martin?
Andy, Once you solve all the problems and get it singing along it IS easy 😊 its just that you have to solve them first of course😏...Martin
Sadly one doesnt have a furnace which could get the temperature over 2050°C. That would solve the problem with the oxide layer. :( BUT: Nice casting!
Han, Ah Ha a student of the Ellingham diagram! Something of a rarity. Clearly the C to CO curve and the Al to Al2O3 do in fact cross at about 2000 Deg. C and a little bit so yes I guess at about 2050 you should be able to get C to reduce Al2O3. It is or was done with Mg as a commercial extraction process where the cross is at about 1800 C but there both products ( the Mg and the CO) are gases and can be quickly removed from the system thus further favouring the reaction.
One place I worked that used to take a melt to 2200 deg. C to induce a reaction between Ti and N in an alnico alloy - done in a pure magnesite lined very over powered induction furnace, at that temp the metal looks sky blue... Martin
One thumb down from the UA-cam CLOWN that uses soda cans and casts foam swords. :-/
Great work as always!
World, "Clown, soda cans, and foam swords" --Hmm, who would you be referring to I wonder 🙄 😏. We know he and others like him are out there - best just ignore them... Martin
Very very nice!
Cristian, Glad that you liked it... Martin
ASK bigstack if he can use it would be funny .
Stormbringer, Pretty sure he would!... Martin
Its called Swarf in the UK
shoots. I think "chips" is just about US only... Martin
very wise about not using the dross etc,as the old saying goes,you cant make strawberry jam out of shit.
Gaz, Plenty of people try 😏 but I ain't buying it... Martin
Who in the bloody hell is going to replace foundrymen like this after his last casting is poured. Younger people coming up need to be trained and that is only if they are even interested. Playing video games seems to take all their time now.
Metal, Hard to know and even harder to imagine now that all the foundry trade schools have closed down - mind you so have most of the foundries we have lost so many in the last 30 years. It will be Ok though we will just 3d print everything - well, maybe 🙄… Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Thank you for the video and for your reply. I am a machinist for 40 years now and I can really appreciate your skill and experience. All hail the oldfoundryman.
Metal, Thank you, but you rate me too highly..😊. Martin
Swarf and dross drecks by us can be sold to scrap metal dealers as dirty ally. Not worth a lot but could get you a pint😁
Manus, The pint would be good (if I drank 😊) and if the cost of getting it there was not more than I would get for it - my quantities are on average just too small… Martin
Quality in quantity. You have it down.
bigstackD Casting
In the bin for a scrapyard- profit margin in the states can be made better in the small shop when you factor in the money return from recycled metals- especially brass bronze and any carbide tooling bits. Sure it takes an hour of your time to haul it- but that s money you are tossing out. Get a deal with a local scrapper for a 60/40 split (where he returns all receipts to you for verification) and make it worth your time for free money. Customer already bought it- why are you throwing out a "double" profit?
S Dunca, I agree with you but its a question of quantity. Although this job looks to produce a fair bit of saleable scrap it is very much an exception. Most of my work produces very little of this and I would have to store it for a long while until it built up enough to make a saleable load. I don't really have the room to do this and some of the scrap stinks slightly but unpleasantly of rotten egg gas - the used fluxes in the furnace dross seem to do this. I don't want to upset my neighbours (at whose mercy I operate) so the best think I can do is get rid of the smelly stuff asap and there is usually very little else save a few cupfuls of bandsaw swarf. In a perfect world considering the huge environmental cost of aluminium production I would be all for saving every little piece but this is only valid if on balance the environmental savings are there - with my small quantities sadly, they aren't... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 Completely understand that... My shop is not at my house- so I can tolerate a bin gathering weight. Not a rub against you at all my friend- I respect what you do. Just putting it out there as a take-away for others to consider... Bravo on ALL fronts to your videos! Looking forward to the next one!
Send the aluminium waste to an actual recycler. 👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼
Peter, Yes, I could have and probably should have, but the cost to me and the environment in fuel and time to get to one made it rather moot. My point in specifically mentioning the waste in the video was to dissuade people from trying to melt it down themselves - the cost in time and fuel of doing this plus the low quality of metal recovered makes the exercise not really worth it....Martin
very2 nicee
Swarf, sell it as scrap!
Matthew, If I had enough of it that is exactly what I would do, but the small quantity that I generate would not make it worth while to drive to the scrap metal dealer. To try and reclaim it myself would be an environmental disaster on fuel cost alone... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 I have a 200 litre drum that I throw Al scrap in, it's surprising how fast it builds up!
Matthew, Now for a 200 litre drum full I would drive it to the scrapie. This job with its rather high swarf production is very much an exception for me, I would be years tripping over that 200 litre drum before it was even half way full, I do very little production machining and most of my swarf is by the "cupful" from the bandsaw, very fine and utterly terrible 😊… Martin