Pit for the furnaces

[Harry]

This was from back in 2009 and had been posted over on the BYMC forum.

Well it has been some months but with the weather getting better I have gotten quite a lot done. I doubled the size of my shop, originally it was just the metal roof 11x22 lean too, dirt floor and only a partial wall on one side. Now it is 22x24, concrete floor and walls on three sides. I finally have a place to get out of the high winds we have here and it stays dry inside







I am so happy, this really makes me want to get outside and work on some of things I have been wanting to do. On to the topic of this thread though.

Here is the pit formed up.



After the pour, I should have used my concrete vibrator, ended up with some uglies but it will serve its purpose.



Military surplus pallet. Probably used for carrying bombs in its past life. Now it will serve as a platform for the furnace, support the overhanging grating and a base for the steps after I cut off those big channels. The channel will be made into ingot molds.



The furnace is installed, the bottom of the lid is just over half an inch above the grate. The area around the pit will be filled with sand flush with the top of the grate.



A shot from inside the pit, stand welded to the base is 1" square tubing. Bottom of the pit will be filled with sand up to the top of the pallet.



This really beginning to come together nicely. Next step is to set up oil, air and electric lines so I can get the furnace functional again. The pit looks huge with that one lonely furnace in there but I wanted to be sure to have plenty of room down there if I need to get into the pit while the furnace is running plus did anyone think i would be stopping at just one furnace Go big or go home

[barryjyoung]

What a great idea. Maybe I can find room to make a pit after all.

Barry

[Harry]

Really you would not even have to go as far as I did with it. I always go overboard on things like this. As long as you can make sure it wont fill with water I say go for it, you will not be disappointed. It is like making yourself two feet taller.

The other option would be a raised floor using steel grating. The thing I like about that idea is if you have the molding bench a few feet away and the pouring floor raised you never bend over to set molds down, just make them up turn around and set them on the raised floor then go up the steps to the pouring floor and the furnace is at foot level. If I ever get to build foundry 2.0 with proper funding I will carefully consider this as an option. Depending on the topography of your land if there is a tier the furnace and molding bench could be on the lower level and pouring floor above, another option for me since building a retaining wall and back filling it like a loading dock would be pretty easy.

[barryjyoung]

Well Harry:

Despite popular opinion to the contrary we occasionally see rain here in the Seattle area. Last time was a huge monsoon-like downpour. Luckily it only lasted 85 days this time so we got off a lot easier than normal. Maybe a pit is a bad idea for Barry.

I am confused as to why you would want the pouring shelf to be so high. Being a pygmy, I am concerned about getting high enough with the molds on the ground. Are you really tall?

Barry

[Harry]

I am tall but I think you misunderstood. The pouring floor would be a raised platform where you would stand. Maybe a simple picture to express the idea.

From the ground level you would stand to do your molding at the molding bench. Pick up the finished flask, turn around and sit it on the raised pouring floor... no bending over. Go up the steps to the pouring floor and now you are above the furnace and the molds.

The floor could be a raised grating or my preference would probably be to pour concrete walls and fill it in with dirt and maybe pave with firebrick. Some railings probably wouldnt hurt anything.

I was also thinking that if the top of the molding bench matched the height of the floor some rails could be placed along the edge of the pouring floor where the molds would be poured and extend right out over the bench. This way the molding boards could be on carts and just slide them into place for pouring.

[barryjyoung]

OK, now I get it. Thank you Harry. That all makes perfect sense.

Barry

[Harry]

I just keep thinking of this in terms of 10 or 20 years down the road Barry, I was dropped onto this planet in 1963 and each year that goes by for the last 10 or so those nagging limitations pile up on me so figuring out how to so something also means figuring out how to still be able to do it five years from now.

For me metal casting is something I plan on doing for the rest of my life, this is my career that will carry me to the golden years so doing it in such a way that is not like the selling my back that I did for the last 30 years is very important.

[barryjyoung]

Oh I see Harry, you are a youngster. When I came here Dwight Eisenhower was President. I was 4 when you were born. I also want to do this for a long time and view things the same way. I am setting up to be able to do this and other things when I am a very old man. That is why your pit and now raised platform ideas are so intriguing to me. They are rock solid ideas I have seen nowhere else.

Barry

[castaway]

I just keep thinking of this in terms of 10 or 20 years down the road Barry, I was dropped onto this planet in 1963 and each year that goes by for the last 10 or so those nagging limitations pile up on me so figuring out how to so something also means figuring out how to still be able to do it five years from now.

For me metal casting is something I plan on doing for the rest of my life, this is my career that will carry me to the golden years so doing it in such a way that is not like the selling my back that I did for the last 30 years is very important.

I started out in my backyard metal casting hobby/business when I was 46 and have been at it for the last 22 years and has been my major source of income for the last 15 years. It's been a very good business and I have more work now then I can attend to. I hire my son and nephew on weekends to help on the bigger jobs that I can no longer handle by myself. My plan is to let them take over the casting phase and leave the machining and finish work to me. They both know the casting steps which allows me to just stand in and watch to see they are getting it done the way it needs to be done correctly. I have all the needed equipment and materials to keep things going as well as the needed contacts to get the stuff when they run short. I think the major reason I have done so well is I stayed small. If you hire outside your family things could become a problem with local and work regulations that I have not had to deal with. I'm on a 60 acre piece, wooded for the most part and my set up is off the road so no neighbor problems.

Besides.



On to the pouring floor question. I used to pour on a 1" sand cushion over my concrete floor in the foundry but as time has worn me down a bit I made up a pouring bench that made pouring allot easier both for placing the flasks as well as the pouring. I first made it out of some scrap 2X10s I had but if I dripped some metal on the wood I had to deal with it ASAP. So when a scrapper stopped in with some aluminum plate 1/2"X 24"x24" I then had something to complete a perfect pouring bench. Spills would freeze almost as fast as they hit the plate but if it was a squirt and it ran it landed on the plates on the floor.

[Rasper]

You guys are just boys. FDR was president when I was born.

What you are saying about preparing for the future is smart. I can tell you, when you get older you just plain don't have the energy to do what you used to do. I find myself planning my work so I won't have to bend over any more times than necessary. After I do a few hours of metal melting I am exhausted. And I'm in top physical condition, for a 68 year old.

Richard