My home foundry Sand cast Motor Cycle Club Badge
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- Опубліковано 2 лип 2016
- Sand casting an Aluminium Badge for a Vintage Motor Cycle Club. This is a relatively easy casting to make - the main requirement is a good surface finish
- Наука та технологія
Great work. Trying to get a few more videos under the watched list. Learn a bit every time. Thanks.
Malcolm, Thanks for the views... Martin
wow, you are the master of the "fast and dirty odd side"! the decades of experience really shows
Luddite, Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do to get the job done... Martin
Great video and a superb finish... Thanks for sharing 🍺🍺👍👍👍
Melt, Thanks for saying so..Martin
I enjoy watching your videos, Martin. Another great casting.
Mistertbones, Thank you - I am glad that you enjoy them... Martin
Thanks for the comment. As it turns out I need not have been that fussy with trying to get the best possible finish for I have just found out the customers paint the badge and paint covers a multitude of sins
Really encouraging, appreciate your talent and skills.
As a beginner caster, I'm learning a bunch from watching your videos!
Thanks for the comment. There is a lot to learn, it has taken me 60 years so far and I am still learning. Part of my reason for putting my videos up was to help people like yourself and I am happy to have been of assistance. If you (or anyone else for that matter) has any questions please do not hesitate to ask - I will do my best to provide a useful answer.
Hello Sir,
I have just subscribed to your channel.
From what I have seen thus far there is a lot I can learn from you regarding how to make sand moulds.
Where I am a mere beginner you have tons of experience. Nice to watch and learn a few things!
Leo, Thank you for your comment and your subscription. There is no need to call me "sir" :) - its very flattering, but far to exulted a title for a poor foundry man like myself. Foundry work seems simple but there is a lot to learn, I have been doing it for 60 years and I still learn every day that I make castings. One must always have an open mind and be receptive to new ideas and techniques etc. I put up the videos in an attempt to convey some of the knowledge that I have gained over those 60 years. If people like yourself watch and feel that they have learnt something I am well pleased. Keep at it, and remember we were all mere beginners once.
Great video. Thanks
Rupert, Glad that you liked it..Martin
Nice job
Amazing work! I myself have just gotten myself some new petrobond sand and having a hard time with a piece similar to this, the sand keeps sticking to the letters in the pattern and tearing out!
Thank you for your comment. I have no experience with petrobond so I am guessing here a bit, but with green sand this sort of problem is either due to there being insufficient draft on the letters and perhaps to moulding boxes that do not give a good square lift i.e. pins are too sloppy.(or too short) If the sticking is always in the same place every time check the draft. (particularly in that place) If its sometimes here and sometimes there, check the pins for sloppiness. (My pins only allow a box half to move sideways 0.005 inch with respect to the other box half - any more and I replace the pin guides )Another cause of this problem is a pattern that absorbs some of the binder from the sand. I use photoengraved patterns for some work like this and if I do not paint the patterns they will absorb water from the greensand and this causes very bad sticking. Also remember that you can't rap patterns of this type very much as if you do you will break the finer details away from the mould. Another trick is to paint the pattern with a matt paint and then to dust this with decent parting agent (NOT talc) leave a little of this dust on the pattern. You will see me do this in most of my videos. The parting agent that I use is very finely ground calcium carbonate.(limestone) Keep trying you will get there!
Further to my reply. Don't try to lift the pattern out of the mould, instead lift the mould off the lettered face of the pattern. If you pins are any good and you have lightly rapped the pattern (or the box half) before doing this it should be a piece of cake.
love your work and your flask is awesome
were you a drummer once upon a time?
keep up the good work mate
Thank you for your comment. Was I a drummer? - I am guessing that you ask this because of the way I hold that steel rod when I rap the flasks to loosen the pattern - but no I was never a drummer, I just hold it like it was a big pencil!
Old foundrymen don't 'burn out' like normal people, they just fart really close to the furnace ;)
aga, Yep, gota watch them onions and beans if working next to the furnace is on tomorrow... Martin
PS. Old foundry men never die they just melt away..
Hi, impressive work. It's nice to see a professionnal foundryman at work. I'm professional machinist in Canada and I'm thinking getting in foundry work since there is no small foundry anywhere around 1000km. I would like to pour cast iron and I would like to know your thoughts about what is the best to start with, a crucible furnace, a small cupola, investing in a arc furnance? Do you have good reference book that you still use?
Thanks,
Simon
Simon, Thank you for your comment. Which part of Canada, dad was from Agassiz BC Mum from Winnipeg?My standard advice to any one thinking of setting up a small foundry is "keep taking the medication and the idea will go away". Seriously its no easy thing to do it right, although cast iron is as close to Gods gift to foundry men as you can get. There is a very steep and long learning curve. You need to have a separate premises as foundry stuff and machine stuff don't mix well , all that sand and dust! I have to keep all my equipment covered with drop sheets. What to start out with? depends on what and how many you wish to cast, i.e. how much metal you will need for any particular casting session. You can build a crucible furnace or a small cupola quite easily and cheaply, maybe you could start with a crucible furnace and see how you go . Even a small 8 inch cupola will produce rivers of iron whereas a crucible furnace is limited to the crucible size (iron is very hard on crucibles!) An arc furnace would be a considerable investment. What about Induction furnaces more usual that arc but again a big investment. A good reference book? now that's a good question. For casting work generally John Campbell's "10 rules of casting" or if you can stretch it a bit his "Complete Casting Handbook" 2015. The latter contains the former plus a whole lot more. Both are a bit of a technical read in places but are intended for the foundry man intent on producing good castings. Anything else is so old hat as to be in Campbell's words "6000 year old technology" (he is right!) and most older references are just a rehash of each other and are just plain wrong at least in large part with a capital W. For a reference specifically to do with iron I suggest that you ask this question of a friend of mine (lives fairly near me) Luckygen1001. He has been casting iron both crucible and cupola for over 30 years. He is self taught (don't hold that against him) and when he started out there was no internet or forums or YT just those quaint old things called libraries wherein he spent a lot of time! I may not agree with quite everything he does but he is way better than the average YT founder and will know way more about the practical nitty gritty of iron casting than I ever will. By all means tell him I suggested that you contact him. Note that he may be a bit slow to reply as where he lives the internet is so bad that he has to go into town to use the local library connection. Good luck, Martin.
No, I leaf Montreal couples years ago to move in the contry side so I can start my own workshop. I'm still working in a machine shop for now. I think this is one of the best thing being a machinist, you find job everywhere, very fast. Thanks for the advice, I have a little barn-garage outside I'm thinking setting everything there. Yes I think I will start with a crucible furnace base on your friend design. I'm following him since a long time and I have to said that he make it look a lot too easy. I admire his work, he look like a guy with a really good intuition and a good scientific methode for solving problems. I saw that he also build is how induction furnace wich completly amaze me! I'm a big zero in electronic and the medication at lease work pretty good on this, I can stay focus on metal work. I will contact him as soon as I start pouring big slag of unmolted engine scrap. I will also check on your references books. Thanks for sharing all this with me Martin have a good week-end.
Simon, Good luck with it all. You are right it is not as easy as Luckygen makes it look, he has been doing it for a long while and has developed a great deal of skill. I know him quite well, he and I have shared several cups of tea and many hours of most pleasant foundry related conversation. I would love one of those little induction furnaces too but he doesn't seem to do that anymore, pity! Rgds, Martin
@@Simon28298 , Go with a crucible furnace to start. Idk about you guys up north but the obamer administration killed off all but one or two coke plants so it is very difficult to obtain fuel for a cupola (forget charcoal) an induction furnace would be awesome, some small ones can be had from india or china for fairly cheap but if you live in a rural area you may not have good enough electrical service to run one (heck I live in town & our service is so bad I can't even run a phase convertor!)
good day. i have a problem with bronze plaques . thay are about 400mm by 800mm and 6mm thick. and no matter wich gating system i try i dont seem to get the mold full. my molds are sodium silicate bonded sand. mixed at 5% by waight. anny advice would be appreciated.
Manus, 400 *800 that is one big plaque and at only 6 mm thick I am not surprised that you are having trouble. Most plaques that sort of size that I have seen are a lot thicker than that 10mm at least (does not mean that it can't be done at 6 mm of course) I have to be honest here and point out that I have not made anything that big (I could not lift the mould!) I have a number of questions and my suggestions would depend on the answer to those. Might be best if you PM me with an email address so I can send you my address as that way you can send photos etc. of your tries, and have a decent discussion. In the meantime what bronze are you using is it purchased certified ingot. Have you checked for sag in the cope (measure section thickness in middle of plaque) Do you dry the moulds? Also one trick that is said to increase flow distances by a factor of 2 to 3 is to smoke the mould black with an acetylene flame. There is a lot more to say so PM me.... Martin
Olfoundryman hi. sorry i havent figured out how to do the pm thing yet. in the end i resorted to cutting the plaques into 3rds and gate them to have the shortest distance to fill.
i use silicon bronze that i aloy myself. i use only serain suply of copper and get a reasonable consistant aloy. i did try to dust the one mold with grphite powder. it seem to make no difrence. i tryed sevral gating systems from the us navy foundry manual. and all failed. i hope the small plaques will cast better. will see in the day tomorrow. i cant spend more time on experiments as i have to deliver 14 pannels by this weekend. so ill weld them up. contact you directly soon. this is some thing i get a lot of requests for and can meen good money for me in the long run. so i do apresiate the input and advice. ill smoke one mold with soot in the morning and see wat it does.know thay do that for casting glass.
and next time i will go much thicker. but the customer spesified the thickness as it is mounted in a walkway. and thay are not very easy to convince of practicalities.
thank you for your help. i will send you images soon.
Manus
Manus, To PM me go to my channel and click "About" a little below the "about" a small flag will appear just to the right of the small flag is a square cartoon type speech bubble click it and then you can send me a message.
Silicon bronze would certainly be the alloy I would chose for this casting as it is one of the most fluid bronzes there is. I have to say that I am not all that much in favour of making up alloys oneself as I have found it to be an unreliable process yielding quite variable results, we can talk about this later. I have a copy of the US Navy Foundry manual and while it does contain a lot of very good and useful information it is now very out of date and some of the gating systems that they suggest are not very good. I think your idea of casting the plagues a third at a time and then welding the thirds together is quite reasonable in view of your time constraints, The small plaques should cast much easier and of course the silicon bronze is easily welded. Note that as far as I know it has to be soot from an acetylene flame, apparently there is something about the form of the carbon in the soot from an acetylene flame that aids metal flow. It is not known what this something is but it seems to be (possibly, maybe) unique to acetylene smoke.
Do you mean that you have to make 14 panels each 400 * 800 if so WOW that is a big order. I judge plagues to be one of those casting jobs that take a bit of practice to get to cast properly. But once the experience and know how is gained they become be much easier to cast and quite rewarding too. I await the images with much interest.... Martin
What is the white powder? Do you use talcum?
K, No, I do not use talc. Some of it is known to contain a small percentage of crystalline silica, and from one location (Now closed down) it was found to contain asbestos. I use a commercial parting agent but it is simply finely ground calcium carbonate its cheap, effective, and safe... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 thanks for the quick reply.
Where do you get your patterns from?
k, They come from all over. Some I make myself usually from craft wood with lots of coats of paint. Some are made by a friend who is a pattern maker, and some like the one here are provided by the customer who wants the castings. I have even used a few that were 3D printed but they need to be smoothed a lot to get rid of the layer structure on the surface as it tends to grab the sand... Martin
How many PSI is your blow gun running?
Welder, I run about 15 PSI. But even then you have to be careful as many guns give an over long initial pulse when you push the lever. I tend to either push the lever slowly or to have the gun pointed away when I push it. For delicate work like text I hold the gun a fair bit away from the mould and come only just close enough to move the visible loose grains.... Martin
@@olfoundryman8418
Thank for your information. I have learned lots from you! Keep up the good work.
What is your sand type and size
4 . My sand is a natural one - straight out of the ground clay and all. I just sieve it to get rid of the few little pebbles that it contains, add the right amount of water and use it. For facing sand I grind some of it up in a sort of homemade flour mill. I don't know the size of the sand for sure but at a guess it's around 170 AFS.... Martin