Found Dreaming

I got a little careless the other day and didn't vent a casting even tho I knew my sand was just a bit damper then I would normal have, I forgot to vent and got my first steam explosion, man did that ever get my attention, even tho I clamp my molds the metal blew out from between the cope and drag, plus it shot out the sprue. Photo 1 shows the part I was casting plus the result Luckily I always wear a leather apron and leather leggings, leggings took the brunt of the metal as can be seen in photo 2, the mesh face shield that I use has strip of metal about two inches long and about a 1/4 inch wide at about where my cheek would be, but no burns on me, it was a very lucky escape and lessons learnt

you gotta watch the moisture on the sand that's for sure, one reason I like my oil sand all it does is burn when the damn stuff falls out of the flask when you try to pick it up and move the mold with no board underneath it, have set the yard on fire more then once doing it, you would think at some point I would learn to put boards under the molds.

Glad your OK

Aluminium or Brass? Either way it would have hurt! You can take a flame to the pattern before you close it up to dry out the surface, that may have helped.

What's the last thing a Redneck says before he dies? "Hey Ya'll, watch this…"

Glad you are OK...

Jammer wrote:Aluminium or Brass? Either way it would have hurt! You can take a flame to the pattern before you close it up to dry out the surface, that may have helped.

It was Aluminum Jerry. Today I went to do some welding and noticed this on the back of the gloves, which I use when casting, I could have been in a heap of pain

yep that's what gloves are for, keeping hot shit of the backs of your fingers and sometimes the palms of your hands

Be glad that you had them on. and be even glader that the stuff didn't get inside with you

DA

I learned a very valuable lesson Dave, under no circumstance do you cast without any ppe, I have ordered some more, I have a leather welding hood ordered to protect the top of my head as some metal shoot out of the sprue

I went to pour what was left in the crucible after filling the mold one time with cast iron, it blew molten cast iron about 15 feet straight up, all you can do is hunch your shoulders and hope it doesn't land on you. cause if you run your probably going to run right into it.

You could always get the B$%ch from the city board to stand in front as a shield.

DA

True very very true

Thats a given on the PPE and good thing you already knew that before this happened. I always wear boots, welding gloves and leggings along with a mesh face shield.

Never could get things right with greensand myself which is why I went with oil bonded sand so the moisture is something I have never had to deal with. I do always cover pouring sprues or vents on molds that wont be poured right away to make sure a spider doesnt decide to take up residence though.

Had one steam pop early on when learning things long before I even had the foundry proper, before even casting anything just in the hey I can melt metal stage. Was melting aluminum cans then and was using a steel pipe about 3 feet long to feed them into the crucible, just drop 6 or so down there every couple of minutes. Well went to reload and the first can must of had some water in it and made the *whooomph* sound when it went in and a blob of moten aluminum shot up and slid across an ungloved finger. Left a dried/discolored spot about the size of a nickel that later blistered up.

That metal didnt spend a micro second in place since it pretty much just passed by, was very lucky it didnt stick. Also lucky that "the lesson" was firmly ingrained without much personal damage.