When using solid molds (metal, graphite, etc) you need sprues for escaping gas, when using a sand mold the gas can escape through the sand. Having sprues will also help with the voids. for making a metal mold you can cast into quality drawn pipe (none of the cast iron stuff) placed in vermiculite or sand but still add the sprues and then cut the pipe off the casting once cooled. Vermiculite is for a nice slow even cool.
Many years of casting bullets has taught me , the hotter the mold , the better the end result will be. When the metal has cooled , open the mold. The smaller the part , the faster the cooling. On your cannon , give it at least 20 min. For each pound . Be sure your metal is as hot as you can get it.
Never give up. Always wondered about using pewter with copper, now I know not to use - though it is a beautiful color - thank you! That metal mold result is fantastic - will now consider some simple mold applications. I've heard that copper in thick sections can be used for mold instead of steal - apparently works because cu is such a good conductor of heat.
When you cast your canon, why not have round spurs to the sides which you can cut off and test. Also the riser should also allow for testing material. I would also note that when annealing I was told always leave the material to cool to black before quenching or allow to cool naturally. I may be totally wrong as it has been about 30 years since I studied material sciences. I look forward to seeing your results with the cannon casting, obviously with such a large mass it should take a long time to cool, I'm not sure if the longer cooling will help as the Crystalline structure may turn out to be a little course. Thanks for making the video.
I think you are headed the right direction, I understand that the gas furnace is best for melt, however your kiln furnace will still be good for anealing. Try graphite for your mold, nice smooth surface and the heat transfer is even, then after casting try putting mold and all in the anealing furnace and cool down gradually. I think you’ll find your grain structure to be far superior and the elastic strength will go way up. I believe that what you were doing as anealing was actually shocking the material and causing a more granular crystalin structure
the metal mold is probably causing directional solidification, making the crystal structure to form more uniformly from the outside in and encapsulating the lower melting alloying elements in an even amount of base metal(copper) before they can precipitate out into larger nodules. get Stephan Chastain'ss books on casting, goldmines for this kind of info
What a great channel and great content. Glad I subscribed. Looking forward to your next video casting the cannon and taking it apart. It might be a butt ton of work and loss for you but an excellent learning opportunity for me. Thank you again.
The pewter fares worse than pure tin in this application likely due to the presence of bismuth in its composition. Pewters have very poorly defined composition, essentially any alloy of tin with other elements (excluding copper) is "pewter". Often cheap and dense metals like lead and bismuth are added to give a better bang for the buck. Bismuth in particular is present in fairly large amounts in lead-free pewter. And bismuth is known to have negative properties on the tensile strength and toughness of copper alloys; 1% bismuth in copper embrittles it significantly.
What I think is happening here is that the metal mold is cooling it faster. Perhaps it is the case that rapid cooling causes a smaller grain structure, as the grains have less time to crystallize into larger shapes. Looking at metallic asteroids, which cool over millions of years, their grain structure is absolutely massive. If a finer grain structure is what you're after, you should see how fast you can pour it and get it to freeze.
I think you're right. The flash freezing I showed on the outer layer is not something that I've ever seen with greensand. I'm tempted to try it again and don't even preheat the mold.
@@FarmCraft101 There's likely a sweet spot to find, where it won't freeze so fast that it makes cavities or can't completely fill the mold, but freezes fast enough to make it decent strong. Also I absolutely love the videos, keep up the fantastic work!
Yes annealing is a slow controlled cooling and needs to be done in a furnace. Normalizing would be letting the metal cool in room temperature with no quench.
@@tmacmillanssm no grain structure is changed depending on the alloy and rate of quench. Your trying to achieve a face centered cubic latice structure as opposed to a face centered latice structures.
Great testing and sticking at it. I know nothing. When heated it expands when cooled does the opposite. My trail of thought is that the moulding material is contracting putting pressure on the cooling metal. If this my theory has some value then using a tube of a metal that expands and contracts to greater extremes. I believe this is what is happening. If it is true you run that test. With a success I believe you will find another interesting data. Next test after that would be to cast then put it in to a pressure vessel and to put pressure on to it while it cools. Another would be a tool that the tube could be inserted to after pouring the tool would apply pressure evenly around the tube just like the lathe jaws and apply pressure. Its just a thought and theory. Hey what do I know lol
That doesnt apply to copper or copper alloys ... Iron hardens via quenching but only if it contains carbon turning it into steel whereas elemental iron wont harden in a quench nor will wrought iron or mild steel
I used to anneal my brass cartridge cases to extend their life. After firing them a number of times the necked rifle cases (like a 30-.06) would get hardened at the neck and crack rendering them useless. If I annealed them by heating them up with a torch or an oven and then dunking them in water, the brittle areas would soften and reduce cracking. Annealing different metals affects them differently.
Am looking for a “bushing metal” that is very similar to this - 87% Copper, 9-10% tin, 2% zinc, 1-2% lead. Recipe is in the Machinist*’s handbook, and Ammen’s book, “casting brass.” Your metal mold would work well for bushing stock.
I read some were that they would have the cannon mold in a pit in the ground. larger mass slower cooling when it is preheated. the foundry I worked at did the same for the large brass bearings 4 to 5 ft dia. 2ft wide 6 in thick walls.
By your findings, I would take a greensand cast and heat it up in a furnace to red hot, then let it cool down in the closed furnace. Should give you the ease of greensand casting and the strength of metal.
Ok so annealing is where you heat it up and let its cool as slowly as possible. And then the other thing is what you called annealing was really hardening, by quenching in water you froze the grain structure at its most brittle state. The next point I have is you probably could temper it by bringing it to a specific temperature and then letting it cool. This would relieve some of the stress in the grain structure. Also you want a nice tight grain structure, what you had was a quite large grain structure. If you want some more metallurgy tips shoot me a message. I would be happy to look through some of my resources to find what you need.
I am not an expert, but i have read that the strength of early cannons was improved by active cooling of the cannon from the inside, once the pour was complete. I think this goes hand in hand with your observation of the results of the Metal casting, because the radial cooling in metal casting should have allowed a gradient to form which should result in a kind of russian doll effect of cannons within cannons, which keep each other under tension and create an overall stonger part. Hope that makes sense.
New mold, A steel pipe in greensand and see which it is more like, steel mold or sand A suggestion, a clay mold, very dry, good insulator, easily removed to reveal new cannon form, surrounded with dry sand for support
Also the metal mold might slow down the cooling process but it makes the cooling process also less uniform throughout the piece you should allow the piece to cool down on its own very slowly through a pelletized medium
The windings of your furnace do not burn out because of 'shorting'. What happens is that they form an alloy with the casting metal splatter (and even vapor is enough in the long term) This alloy will have a much lower melting temperature than the original element. So you need to avoid contamination. maybe a firebrick pipe to limit splash? I have a small electric muffle furnace for bronze, the elements are wound on the outside of the (fire brick / ceramic) furnace shell, and they have been then covered with a refractory cement. This seems to work. It does reduce the available temperature in the furnace cavity (mine goes up to 1100°C) Service life of the electric furnace is dramatically reduced, if run above the rated temperatur, by even as little as 50°C as ceramic need a very high temperature to vitrify, does not have a high risk of contamination, and is run close to the limit for metallic heating elements, the ceramic furnace has the elements inside to remove the small temperatur drop through the wall.
I used older pewter for my bronze but I found that it cracks so I use only newer pewter which has a hall mark underneath the mug. It says 97% Sn, the rest is 2% Cu, 1% Sb. No problems with cracking now.
When reloading brass ammo cases, the case neck work hardens over time, the answer is to anneal the necks only, and they can continue to be used. So yes, annealing does make things softer, at least for brass.
I think the heating of the metal mold allows slower cooling . If you could heat the sand mold to near the same temperature I believe you would get similar results ... as a matter of fact I bet just 100 deg sand would make a big difference over cold sand and would probably compact better giving a better cast.
Love these video's, the trial and error is great to see... I believe when quenching to harden the metal you need to do it to a very specific controlled temperature to get the internal structure to contract like a prince ruperts drop and if you go over temperature the structure will not form correctly from too rapid contraction, I also think is done in an oxygen free environment for best results.... You may want to read an old school science book or watch a video on growing copper sulfate crystals, think the techniques may be applicable and explain why the heated steel mold forms a better crystal lattice. *I'm a mechanic so all above is best guess within my educationKeen to see this cannon :)
Try linotype if you can find it these days. Back when it was beginning to no longer be used for printing it was widely available. Maybe not the case any longer. It was far cheaper than lead and is an alloy of lead, antimony and tin. When I used to cast my own bullets back in the 60’s and 70’s for my 38, 45 and 44 sp and any black powder rounds it was good to be able to find and blend up to 10% linotype with lead to harden your cast bullets in order to reduce leading up your barrel. It wasn’t necessary with black powder loads or pistol loads that were under 1000 fps IV but adding linotype was essential when making cast loads for higher IV guns like 9MM or 357 Mags which had IVs well above 1000 fps. As handy as you are, you could just make up your cast ingots of lead with tin and antimony to your desired hardness. I used to use a thumb nail as my guide. If I could still indent a mark in an ingot with my thumb nail the ingots were not hard enough. If you have no intention of firing real cast bullets from your cannon it’s not relevant as leading isn’t an issue. I enjoy your content. Keep up the fine videos. Good luck.
what about, when you cast your cannon, building in a second smaller trunyon towards the back of the cannon that you can cut off to provide your sample to test? This wouldn't sacrifice metal from the cannon shape itself, and once finished, you can file smooth the spot.
I know glass is a noncrystalline structure but I wonder if the metal mold is causing some internal tension, just like glass does when it is cooled quickly giving it more strength ?
You may be able to get similar results from the green sand if you ran a water jacket through it. I just don't know how you are going to make a metal mold that size for a reasonable price.
Try studying the Japanese method for making Bells. They use a superheated mold and allow it to cool very slowly. They don't use a preheated metal mold because it's not practical, like you said for a cannon. I think the method they use for casting Bells will explain your results. You might also want to try manganese and aluminum as additives to strengthen the final product and not so much Lead.
work hardening does harden, but not necessarily strengthen, the extreme of work hardening is metal fatigue, this is why one anneals metal when it is worked (hammered) .
Try using plaster cast and maybe a centrifugal force mold process or just the plaster cast probably do a way better job at casting but then it does cost more I'm imagining
to be completely honest i would not recommend water to quinch as water can also counter act the annealing process...... i understand doing this on a budget but at same time if you change your own oil in your vehicles you can use the used motor oil as quinching oil
Absolutely not copper anneals via a fast quench not a SLOW quench in motor oil ... Not to mention quenching anything in motor oil is monumentally stupid , dangerous and immensely toxic
If it was a matter of flash freezing than you would see varied results across the annealing I think. I think the reason you're seeing such results from the metal cast is either leaching of steel from the mould into the cast, or it's possible that the steel from the mould is acting as a catalyst for a different crystal formation in the cast.
This also means that it's testable. You can use mild steel as a stir stick during the melt, and on a separate piece you can green sand cast with a small piece of steel at the bottom. Of a test plug green sand mould.
On a less related note, I can't recommend enough switching from propane to an oil burner. I run diesel through my oil burner and I went from 20+ bucks for a day of melting to 10 bucks a day.
@@FarmCraft101 I run mine off a pancake compressor from harbor fright. And I did buy the fancy nozzle reccomended by sv seeker in that old vid he made. But it is an easy conversion, it's not like the burner is stuck on the body of the foundry.
@@FarmCraft101 , check out a guy named luckygen001. He uses both oil and propane w a forced air system. Old vacuum cleaner I believe although a bounce hose blower( home depot) is a viable alternative. He does cast iron so its definitely fit the heat capability. On another note. Am curious if you were to use say Mizzou castable refractory to make a mold then preheated it and pour if it wouldn't have a similar effect as the mild steel w o cross contamination of the mild steel. Also have you considered adding nickle to the copper . I know it adds a boat load of strenght when adding it to the copper in cast iron. See Jantz knife making supply for powdered nickle...35$ for a pound I believe. So to give an idea of what the nickle dose... grey cast iron tensile is 360/390 mpa add 5 % nickle and 1.5% copper it goes to 760/790 mpa tensile. Idk if any of this will be of any help...but if so grand if not...well at least I tried lmbo! Blessed days sirSir, Crawford out
Don't you think that had more to do with the speed of cooling and maybe if so just drop it back in the Forge or the fire overnight would make it even harder
You should heat it up to Orange and then cool it down as slowly as possible turn normalize the grain structure and give it the highest possible tensile strength
This is not steel, you can do the annealing as fast as you want. Is the same with gold and some other metals and alloys, it's a completely different thing.
to reduce thermal shock you should be annealing in oil(used motor oil works)or molten salt. watchout for flash over. have you thought about doing cold annealing with cryonic baths?
@@BedsitBob Are you saying that it wouldn't burst, or that it wouldn't be an "explosion"? If the strength is unknown, then there's the possibility that it would burst, and regardless of what you call that I don't want to be anywhere near it when it happens.
This is not steel, you can do the annealing as fast as you want. Is the same with gold and some other metals and alloys, it's a completely different thing.
I have done that. Hydraulic cylinder arms I used were suitable for a 1" bore and held up well. It took smokeless powder to blow it up under testing and it peeled the walls back like a banana, rather than fragment. Would last forever using black powder. One ended up looking well expanded at the muzzle, like a coca cola glass.
Forgot to explain in the video. Copper and it's alloys are different from steel. What I did in the video would harden steel, but anneals copper. The quenching isn't absolutely necessary in fact, but I've read that it helps a little. The main thing with annealing copper is simply heating it to a glowing temperature.
@@FarmCraft101 that was my understanding, the question I was asking is if by cooling it too quickly you hardened. Same with the mold, the key is to cool slowly
@@Bereft777 you make no sense sir.... you: wouldn't cooling quickly harden it him: no, not with copper you: that was my understanding, but by cooling quickly did you harden it? I suspect you replied in a hurry on this day a year ago.
Never tell them you're building a cannon or they'll see liability in selling you anything. Tell them you're making a beer can recycling machine to crush cans.
That would be normalizing not annealing and unless it is being forged normalizing copper and copper alloys is pointless...actually even while forging copper normalizing is pointless as a quick quench in water anneals it completely and removes all stresses from the material
Hello and I bid you and your's well.As ALWAYS Great Video.I found Clarkson Foundry(Tennesee) UA-cam vids very Interesting , Informative.and Mjght be of some use to you . Hope they are . Be Well and Take Care .
Annealing has to happen over a slow period Were you relax the metal down from a high temperature to a low temperature not quenching I'm sure you know this by now do both will benefit you intensol strength.
Your steel ingot mould Dose not have to be That hot, You cause the ingot mould to scale leaving Steel scale on your !Ingot Black heat is all you Need !
I was thunking the same thing. Also, the steel mold expands and contracts with the heati g and cooling. I wonder if the contraction isn't imparting something like hammer forging and changing the grain structure as it contracts when cooling before the work piece does.
Copper anneals from the increase in temperature change. The cooling time, quench or air cooled, makes zero difference in the strength. There are only a few very specific Cu alloys that can be quench hardened. Enjoyed the video overall. subbed.
When using solid molds (metal, graphite, etc) you need sprues for escaping gas, when using a sand mold the gas can escape through the sand. Having sprues will also help with the voids. for making a metal mold you can cast into quality drawn pipe (none of the cast iron stuff) placed in vermiculite or sand but still add the sprues and then cut the pipe off the casting once cooled. Vermiculite is for a nice slow even cool.
Many years of casting bullets has taught me , the hotter the mold , the better the end result will be. When the metal has cooled , open the mold.
The smaller the part , the faster the cooling. On your cannon , give it at least 20 min. For each pound . Be sure your metal is as hot as you can get it.
Happy to see you having some success with this. I admire your patience and perseverance.
Never give up. Always wondered about using pewter with copper, now I know not to use - though it is a beautiful color - thank you! That metal mold result is fantastic - will now consider some simple mold applications. I've heard that copper in thick sections can be used for mold instead of steal - apparently works because cu is such a good conductor of heat.
When you cast your canon, why not have round spurs to the sides which you can cut off and test. Also the riser should also allow for testing material. I would also note that when annealing I was told always leave the material to cool to black before quenching or allow to cool naturally. I may be totally wrong as it has been about 30 years since I studied material sciences.
I look forward to seeing your results with the cannon casting, obviously with such a large mass it should take a long time to cool, I'm not sure if the longer cooling will help as the Crystalline structure may turn out to be a little course.
Thanks for making the video.
I think you are headed the right direction, I understand that the gas furnace is best for melt, however your kiln furnace will still be good for anealing. Try graphite for your mold, nice smooth surface and the heat transfer is even, then after casting try putting mold and all in the anealing furnace and cool down gradually. I think you’ll find your grain structure to be far superior and the elastic strength will go way up. I believe that what you were doing as anealing was actually shocking the material and causing a more granular crystalin structure
the metal mold is probably causing directional solidification, making the crystal structure to form more uniformly from the outside in and encapsulating the lower melting alloying elements in an even amount of base metal(copper) before they can precipitate out into larger nodules. get Stephan Chastain'ss books on casting, goldmines for this kind of info
You sir are a SUPERNERD because science
What a great channel and great content. Glad I subscribed. Looking forward to your next video casting the cannon and taking it apart. It might be a butt ton of work and loss for you but an excellent learning opportunity for me. Thank you again.
Have you tried thermocycling the cast metal to normalize the grain structure? (Heat it red hot and let it air cool to room temp, a couple of times)
land otter1 copper alloys behave differently than iron alloys. Quenching is the correct process for annealing bronze.
The pewter fares worse than pure tin in this application likely due to the presence of bismuth in its composition. Pewters have very poorly defined composition, essentially any alloy of tin with other elements (excluding copper) is "pewter". Often cheap and dense metals like lead and bismuth are added to give a better bang for the buck. Bismuth in particular is present in fairly large amounts in lead-free pewter. And bismuth is known to have negative properties on the tensile strength and toughness of copper alloys; 1% bismuth in copper embrittles it significantly.
What I think is happening here is that the metal mold is cooling it faster. Perhaps it is the case that rapid cooling causes a smaller grain structure, as the grains have less time to crystallize into larger shapes. Looking at metallic asteroids, which cool over millions of years, their grain structure is absolutely massive. If a finer grain structure is what you're after, you should see how fast you can pour it and get it to freeze.
I think you're right. The flash freezing I showed on the outer layer is not something that I've ever seen with greensand. I'm tempted to try it again and don't even preheat the mold.
@@FarmCraft101 There's likely a sweet spot to find, where it won't freeze so fast that it makes cavities or can't completely fill the mold, but freezes fast enough to make it decent strong. Also I absolutely love the videos, keep up the fantastic work!
Another lovely film dood! Subscribed!
Yes annealing is a slow controlled cooling and needs to be done in a furnace. Normalizing would be letting the metal cool in room temperature with no quench.
For steel, to allow large carbides to form. It doesn't matter for this.
@@tmacmillanssm no grain structure is changed depending on the alloy and rate of quench.
Your trying to achieve a face centered cubic latice structure as opposed to a face centered latice structures.
Great testing and sticking at it. I know nothing. When heated it expands when cooled does the opposite. My trail of thought is that the moulding material is contracting putting pressure on the cooling metal. If this my theory has some value then using a tube of a metal that expands and contracts to greater extremes. I believe this is what is happening. If it is true you run that test. With a success I believe you will find another interesting data. Next test after that would be to cast then put it in to a pressure vessel and to put pressure on to it while it cools. Another would be a tool that the tube could be inserted to after pouring the tool would apply pressure evenly around the tube just like the lathe jaws and apply pressure.
Its just a thought and theory. Hey what do I know lol
hmmm - that's not 'annealing' is it?? i thought annealing required letting it cool down slowly so the metal isnt' 'shocked' by the water?
For steel, yes. Copper can be annealed by heating and quenching in water.
That doesnt apply to copper or copper alloys ... Iron hardens via quenching but only if it contains carbon turning it into steel whereas elemental iron wont harden in a quench nor will wrought iron or mild steel
There is a difference in annealing quenching and tempering, im just not that good at explaining the difference unless its in practice.
I used to anneal my brass cartridge cases to extend their life. After firing them a number of times the necked rifle cases (like a 30-.06) would get hardened at the neck and crack rendering them useless. If I annealed them by heating them up with a torch or an oven and then dunking them in water, the brittle areas would soften and reduce cracking. Annealing different metals affects them differently.
Am looking for a “bushing metal” that is very similar to this - 87% Copper, 9-10% tin, 2% zinc, 1-2% lead. Recipe is in the Machinist*’s handbook, and Ammen’s book, “casting brass.”
Your metal mold would work well for bushing stock.
Cooling it slowly is the clear key.
I read some were that they would have the cannon mold in a pit in the ground. larger mass slower cooling when it is preheated. the foundry I worked at did the same for the large brass bearings 4 to 5 ft dia. 2ft wide 6 in thick walls.
By your findings, I would take a greensand cast and heat it up in a furnace to red hot, then let it cool down in the closed furnace. Should give you the ease of greensand casting and the strength of metal.
Very good video, you are one of the best yt channels and my absolute favourite.
It would be very interesting to see the results from a cold metal mold casting
Ok so annealing is where you heat it up and let its cool as slowly as possible. And then the other thing is what you called annealing was really hardening, by quenching in water you froze the grain structure at its most brittle state.
The next point I have is you probably could temper it by bringing it to a specific temperature and then letting it cool. This would relieve some of the stress in the grain structure. Also you want a nice tight grain structure, what you had was a quite large grain structure. If you want some more metallurgy tips shoot me a message. I would be happy to look through some of my resources to find what you need.
I am not an expert, but i have read that the strength of early cannons was improved by active cooling of the cannon from the inside, once the pour was complete.
I think this goes hand in hand with your observation of the results of the Metal casting, because the radial cooling in metal casting should have allowed a gradient to form which should result in a kind of russian doll effect of cannons within cannons, which keep each other under tension and create an overall stonger part.
Hope that makes sense.
New mold, A steel pipe in greensand and see which it is more like, steel mold or sand
A suggestion, a clay mold, very dry, good insulator, easily removed to reveal new cannon form, surrounded with dry sand for support
This man knows copper.
Also the metal mold might slow down the cooling process but it makes the cooling process also less uniform throughout the piece you should allow the piece to cool down on its own very slowly through a pelletized medium
The windings of your furnace do not burn out because of 'shorting'.
What happens is that they form an alloy with the casting metal splatter (and even vapor is enough in the long term) This alloy will have a much lower melting temperature than the original element.
So you need to avoid contamination. maybe a firebrick pipe to limit splash?
I have a small electric muffle furnace for bronze, the elements are wound on the outside of the (fire brick / ceramic) furnace shell, and they have been then covered with a refractory cement.
This seems to work. It does reduce the available temperature in the furnace cavity (mine goes up to 1100°C)
Service life of the electric furnace is dramatically reduced, if run above the rated temperatur, by even as little as 50°C as ceramic need a very high temperature to vitrify, does not have a high risk of contamination, and is run close to the limit for metallic heating elements, the ceramic furnace has the elements inside to remove the small temperatur drop through the wall.
I used older pewter for my bronze but I found that it cracks so I use only newer pewter which has a hall mark underneath the mug. It says 97% Sn, the rest is 2% Cu, 1% Sb. No problems with cracking now.
When reloading brass ammo cases, the case neck work hardens over time, the answer is to anneal the necks only, and they can continue to be used. So yes, annealing does make things softer, at least for brass.
I think the heating of the metal mold allows slower cooling . If you could heat the sand mold to near the same temperature I believe you would get similar results ... as a matter of fact I bet just 100 deg sand would make a big difference over cold sand and would probably compact better giving a better cast.
Love these video's, the trial and error is great to see... I believe when quenching to harden the metal you need to do it to a very specific controlled temperature to get the internal structure to contract like a prince ruperts drop and if you go over temperature the structure will not form correctly from too rapid contraction, I also think is done in an oxygen free environment for best results.... You may want to read an old school science book or watch a video on growing copper sulfate crystals, think the techniques may be applicable and explain why the heated steel mold forms a better crystal lattice.
*I'm a mechanic so all above is best guess within my educationKeen to see this cannon :)
Try linotype if you can find it these days. Back when it was beginning to no longer be used for printing it was widely available. Maybe not the case any longer. It was far cheaper than lead and is an alloy of lead, antimony and tin. When I used to cast my own bullets back in the 60’s and 70’s for my 38, 45 and 44 sp and any black powder rounds it was good to be able to find and blend up to 10% linotype with lead to harden your cast bullets in order to reduce leading up your barrel. It wasn’t necessary with black powder loads or pistol loads that were under 1000 fps IV but adding linotype was essential when making cast loads for higher IV guns like 9MM or 357 Mags which had IVs well above 1000 fps. As handy as you are, you could just make up your cast ingots of lead with tin and antimony to your desired hardness. I used to use a thumb nail as my guide. If I could still indent a mark in an ingot with my thumb nail the ingots were not hard enough. If you have no intention of firing real cast bullets from your cannon it’s not relevant as leading isn’t an issue.
I enjoy your content. Keep up the fine videos. Good luck.
what about, when you cast your cannon, building in a second smaller trunyon towards the back of the cannon that you can cut off to provide your sample to test? This wouldn't sacrifice metal from the cannon shape itself, and once finished, you can file smooth the spot.
Essential Craftsman has a great video on his blacksmith forge, maybe some of that would be inspirational to your forge build
I know glass is a noncrystalline structure but I wonder if the metal mold is causing some internal tension, just like glass does when it is cooled quickly giving it more strength ?
So a steel pipe won't work as a mold?
I would suggest trying a wood mold, I've seen good results with wood molds and curious what the tensile strength would be.
Ik gunmetal was used to make cannons in the old days. Do you think it's strong enough for modern firearms?
You do know that they use a barrel liner in brass cannons. Use a capped black pipe in the mold and add a brass muzzle on the end hiding the pipe.
on a cannon if it fails you would rather it deform than shatter
You may be able to get similar results from the green sand if you ran a water jacket through it. I just don't know how you are going to make a metal mold that size for a reasonable price.
Try studying the Japanese method for making Bells. They use a superheated mold and allow it to cool very slowly. They don't use a preheated metal mold because it's not practical, like you said for a cannon. I think the method they use for casting Bells will explain your results. You might also want to try manganese and aluminum as additives to strengthen the final product and not so much Lead.
Would have been nice to see a finished sample brought up to very near melting and followed with controlled cooling over 12 or 24h.
Have you watched SV Seekers experiments in large castings? I recall he ended up with a much simpler furnace.
If you want to strengthen copper alloys you need to hammer them to work harden
work hardening does harden, but not necessarily strengthen, the extreme of work hardening is metal fatigue, this is why one anneals metal when it is worked (hammered) .
Cooling slowly = large grain size. Cooling rapidly = small grain size. If you want a smaller grain size, try quench it.
Try using plaster cast and maybe a centrifugal force mold process or just the plaster cast probably do a way better job at casting but then it does cost more I'm imagining
could you preheat the sand mold in some way?
can you do a controlled cool in the mould? by preheating the sand mould and insulating it so you can control the rate it cools down.
to be completely honest i would not recommend water to quinch as water can also counter act the annealing process...... i understand doing this on a budget but at same time if you change your own oil in your vehicles you can use the used motor oil as quinching oil
Absolutely not copper anneals via a fast quench not a SLOW quench in motor oil ... Not to mention quenching anything in motor oil is monumentally stupid , dangerous and immensely toxic
have you tried super slow cooling ?
This would be either normalization or annealing in the furnace.
If it was a matter of flash freezing than you would see varied results across the annealing I think. I think the reason you're seeing such results from the metal cast is either leaching of steel from the mould into the cast, or it's possible that the steel from the mould is acting as a catalyst for a different crystal formation in the cast.
This also means that it's testable. You can use mild steel as a stir stick during the melt, and on a separate piece you can green sand cast with a small piece of steel at the bottom. Of a test plug green sand mould.
On a less related note, I can't recommend enough switching from propane to an oil burner. I run diesel through my oil burner and I went from 20+ bucks for a day of melting to 10 bucks a day.
Agree. I'd love to burn waste oil, but it's challenging. I plan to start with a propane burner and maybe change to oil or diesel later.
@@FarmCraft101 I run mine off a pancake compressor from harbor fright. And I did buy the fancy nozzle reccomended by sv seeker in that old vid he made. But it is an easy conversion, it's not like the burner is stuck on the body of the foundry.
@@FarmCraft101 , check out a guy named luckygen001. He uses both oil and propane w a forced air system. Old vacuum cleaner I believe although a bounce hose blower( home depot) is a viable alternative. He does cast iron so its definitely fit the heat capability.
On another note. Am curious if you were to use say Mizzou castable refractory to make a mold then preheated it and pour if it wouldn't have a similar effect as the mild steel w o cross contamination of the mild steel.
Also have you considered adding nickle to the copper . I know it adds a boat load of strenght when adding it to the copper in cast iron. See Jantz knife making supply for powdered nickle...35$ for a pound I believe.
So to give an idea of what the nickle dose... grey cast iron tensile is 360/390 mpa add 5 % nickle and 1.5% copper it goes to 760/790 mpa tensile.
Idk if any of this will be of any help...but if so grand if not...well at least I tried lmbo!
Blessed days sirSir, Crawford out
Don't you think that had more to do with the speed of cooling and maybe if so just drop it back in the Forge or the fire overnight would make it even harder
this is a great video but can someone explain the zinc part, why you add it
how about poring a larger mold then forging it down to size then mill it and test it
Heat to near melting temp soak at that temp then slow cool in the furnace.
Metal slows the cooling, you could place the poured casting in a heat cabinet and control it's cool pattern
I'm not sure it does, because I could see that it was flash freezing on the outer layers. I've never had it do that with greensand.
The metal mold doesn't allow the gases to escape sideways - sand does. I guess this was the reason you had voids in the castings.
To bad you can't make a ceramic mold for your cannon. I believe that it can be heated and that is how bronze statuary is made isn't it?
They sell a pelletized medium that can slow down the process by insulating
What would happen if you pore into the sand and then wrapped in the blanket would you get a different result then?????
It's a good idea, but It wouldn't change anything. Not that much heat transmits through the sand, not quickly at least.
Ok well it was just a thought and thank you for the reply
You should heat it up to Orange and then cool it down as slowly as possible turn normalize the grain structure and give it the highest possible tensile strength
This is not steel, you can do the annealing as fast as you want. Is the same with gold and some other metals and alloys, it's a completely different thing.
Would annealing it then doing a normalizing cycle on it could be a good test
Smaller grain size from faster cooling equals higher yield strength.
to reduce thermal shock you should be annealing in oil(used motor oil works)or molten salt. watchout for flash over. have you thought about doing cold annealing with cryonic baths?
Slower cooling in the metal mold allowed a greater normalization.
Use a steel pipe cut in half and insulated for a metal mold
How about casting a machining a cannon barrel, then hydro-pressure testing it?
Testing it to failure? I wouldn't want to be anywhere near when it exploded.
@@JS-hy1ob It wouldn't explode during hydro pressure testing.
@@BedsitBob Are you saying that it wouldn't burst, or that it wouldn't be an "explosion"?
If the strength is unknown, then there's the possibility that it would burst, and regardless of what you call that I don't want to be anywhere near it when it happens.
@@JS-hy1ob It may burst, but there wouldn't be an explosion, ie. no massive release of energy.
What’s he mean by voids?
Wish you'd show the sample breaking instead of the gauge during testing.
You can see it in the background ;-)
Try using a steel tube and set it in sand, then turn down your canon.
You are not looking to harden this alloy (might make it harder but more brittle) your are looking to normalize the grain structure
This is not steel, you can do the annealing as fast as you want. Is the same with gold and some other metals and alloys, it's a completely different thing.
you need to look at flexibility as well as tensile strenght - pure tensile strenght is worthless if it cracks or fragments
Well... I am considering a canon build... Actually repurpousing a hydraulic cylinder... It's cr mo i guess.. so no casting needed.
I have done that. Hydraulic cylinder arms I used were suitable for a 1" bore and held up well. It took smokeless powder to blow it up under testing and it peeled the walls back like a banana, rather than fragment. Would last forever using black powder. One ended up looking well expanded at the muzzle, like a coca cola glass.
@@lindastevens3547 any pictures? maris.keisels@gmail.com
Air dry vs water quench? Wouldn't water quench harden it
Forgot to explain in the video. Copper and it's alloys are different from steel. What I did in the video would harden steel, but anneals copper. The quenching isn't absolutely necessary in fact, but I've read that it helps a little. The main thing with annealing copper is simply heating it to a glowing temperature.
@@FarmCraft101 that was my understanding, the question I was asking is if by cooling it too quickly you hardened. Same with the mold, the key is to cool slowly
@@Bereft777 you make no sense sir....
you: wouldn't cooling quickly harden it
him: no, not with copper
you: that was my understanding, but by cooling quickly did you harden it?
I suspect you replied in a hurry on this day a year ago.
cool stuff man!
zinc is used to balance wheels
go to cnc shop center and buy one steel tube
Never tell them you're building a cannon or they'll see liability in selling you anything. Tell them you're making a beer can recycling machine to crush cans.
have you thought about annealing it to try and uniform the metal then heating it back up and allowing it to air cool? might make it stronger
That would be normalizing not annealing and unless it is being forged normalizing copper and copper alloys is pointless...actually even while forging copper normalizing is pointless as a quick quench in water anneals it completely and removes all stresses from the material
Very interestingkts..😁
You're not Annealing, you are Tempering
If only molds for engine blocks were made out of metal...
That sound at 0:26
It is a shame that the annealed pewter gunmetal is not that strong because the color is very pleasing.
Really enjoying your experimenting, (hmmm I'm becoming a bit of an addict I'd better go and do some work)
making a cannon ?
Less expansion in metal mold.
You could just shield your heating elements with ceramic wool or something.
and when he insulate the heating elements, where would the heat go ?
Hello and I bid you and your's well.As ALWAYS Great Video.I found Clarkson Foundry(Tennesee) UA-cam vids very Interesting , Informative.and Mjght be of some use to you . Hope they are . Be Well and Take Care .
"Your is..."? Huhh?
Not resistance electric! Induction.
That is not what "annealed" means.
Annealing has to happen over a slow period Were you relax the metal down from a high temperature to a low temperature not quenching I'm sure you know this by now do both will benefit you intensol strength.
Read the comments and learn...copper anneals via a quench steel anneals via a slow cool
Is it just me or is he over cooking that pewter, it should never get hot enough to glow like that in my experience
Your steel ingot mould Dose not have to be That hot, You cause the ingot mould to scale leaving Steel scale on your !Ingot Black heat is all you Need !
I was thunking the same thing. Also, the steel mold expands and contracts with the heati g and cooling. I wonder if the contraction isn't imparting something like hammer forging and changing the grain structure as it contracts when cooling before the work piece does.
@@sumduma55
You Could Be right,, Like swage Forging !
You need an ounce or two of silver
Silver bronze is much stronger than tin bronze or alminum
look up sv seeker
Your quench hardening the mental not annealing it (making it brittle)... you bring the temperature down as slowly as possible when annealing
Not with copper alloys. You are thinking of steel.
Copper anneals from the increase in temperature change. The cooling time, quench or air cooled, makes zero difference in the strength. There are only a few very specific Cu alloys that can be quench hardened. Enjoyed the video overall. subbed.
The heat up process you are using is neither annealing or normalizing
Try heating it up red hot and letting it cool slowly
That doesnt work on copper
@@jessebond4221 gunmetal might react differently than pure copper
the reason your getting bad result is your not using clay and horse shit 50 50 mix for your molds