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27.5 gallon molding bench

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 5:28 am
by Tobho Mott
I copied cae2100 and built a molding bench around half of a 55 gallon plastic barrel cut lengthwise. Works great and although it is empty in the pix, it holds 300 pounds of sand or more when it's full.

I just built a wooden box around the half-barrel and bolted it to the inside of the box. There's a 2X4 under the low point of the bin to support its weight if I ever decide to put legs on it or move the thing.

No legs as of now, it's still just a box. I have it sitting on a wide shelf that was used to stack firewood on once upon a time, in the shed where I work on patterns and molds. It didn't get to live in the dining room (where I built the box and took the pictures below) for long, that's for sure! :mrgreen:

Where I have it sitting now puts it at what seems like just the right height for me.

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The lid is hinged and the blue styrofoam gasket on its underside keeps most of the bugs out, but it doesn't stop the sand drying out as well as I'd hoped.

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The only drawback is that the top of the lid immediately turns into a cluttered workbench the moment I close it. Then I have to put away all the tools and vacuum up all the grinder dust off the top of it before I can start making molds...

Jeff

Re: 27.5 gallon molding bench

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 6:58 am
by dallen
looks good, I used to work on top of my muller, didn't relise how big of a pain in the ass it was until i got the tub, and raised it to working height and made a sliding top to ram up molds on.

Re: 27.5 gallon molding bench

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:32 am
by Jammer
I still use a tub on the floor, it about kills me. My problem is it's so long between casting sessions that the sand dries out. I have to dump it all out and dampen it, mull it around and then put it in the tub.

Re: 27.5 gallon molding bench

Posted: Wed Nov 07, 2018 9:24 am
by Tobho Mott
I built mine because I was tired of clearing off a workbench and laying down a tarp to catch loose sand and ramming up there, working out of a couple buckets that my sand all used to live in.

The bench is way nicer to work at, but my sand usually all dries out between sessions too.

Jeff

Re: 27.5 gallon molding bench

Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2018 5:45 pm
by Harry
Nice, I was lucky and had a couple of galv steel sink counters that were once around the lake here as fish cleaning stations. When I set up the foundry they were a perfect fit.

My muller sits at the end of one of the sink basins Jammer, I just shift it from one of the other sinks where I last shook out or from a trash can I also do shakeout in. I dont remember what the weight was on the sand in the system but it would fill 2 30 gallon cans to the brim.

For shifting sand I have a couple of feed scoops that grab a good 5lbs or so in a scoop.