here is a photo of a Cast Iron Mortar that I poured today I used one that I had bought for a pattern. I cleaned it up in the lathe you can see some of the marks left by the later bits in the casting.
the sand pulled a little when I parted the mold to remove the pattern I tried to clean it all up but some I couldn't do anything with, so I left it. the part that formed the inside of the cup to get it to pull out I drove a 4 inch long deck screw into the sand and rammed it up tighter than all get out.
do to room, I had a very short runner into the gate and the sprue broke off in the pliers while I was handling it. I thought that I had a bigger gate then I did, turns out it was only like 1/2 X 1/8 I pour the cup upside down, and gated into the rim of it. here is a picture of the cup. I guess I should say mortar thats what its suppose to be.
and heres the shot of the inside after it cooled down enough that I could open it back up and take the crucible out to see the inside. for sure gotta get some of that rope seal and lay it around the top to stop the heat form blowing out under the lid.
David and Charlie aka the shop monster
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
that gray bit that you can see down in the furnace is a block about 4X5X1.5 inches that I wanted to make a tooling block with, I got it out last night and chucked it up in the lathe and faced one side off so I have a place to start with. It cut like butter, there were no hard, or white spots, as far as I can tell it didn't even really have a crust on it that was hard. I'll post up a picture of the faced off side, I used a little six inch Sthil Chainsaw file to deburr, I found no white iron in the edge with the file even in the tiny spots of flash that were left were soft.
I burn Propane, have been thinking about and Oil Burner just in case the price of propane goes out of sight. I don't think that I will be changing because I can't get the stuff hot, This is the hottest that I have ever had this furnace, I knew I was melting fast but I didn't realize that I was melting the lining out through, haven't looked at the lid yet but will check it today. It was poured in two layers the one against the tin of the tank top is 2600 degree insulating which I ran short of, so I opened up another bag of 3000 degree high strength stuff I had and put any inch and a half of that in on top of the other while it was still damp. it seems to of worked cause I haven't seen any chips or spalls off of it in the furnace or on the ground.
The Cup that I used for a pattern, when I machined it in the lathe it cut really nice for a casting from china, This was the first mold that I have had to put any type of support hardware into the sand to help hold it together, but the sand that went into the cup to form the inside of it pulled into the first time i tried to take the mold apart to remove the pattern, so I used a long deck screw and ran it into the sand so that the threaded part with inside the cut and rammed sand up around it really hard, I don't know if it was the reason but anyway I was able to get a mold, there was some spots that had some damage where I bumped the cup taking things apart but all in all I think i got a pretty good casting out of it. Now I just have to find me a pattern for a pedestal to complete the mortar & pedestal set.
David and Charlie aka the shop monster
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
Now I just have to find me a pattern for a pedestal to complete the mortar & pedestal set.
why not turn up one from ali for the pattern? once it is finished scribe a line along it and around the end so you can find the parting line. I don't think you would need a split pattern unless it is going to be real fancy.
I like to build "Stuff" using Stuff that costs Stuff All!
nothing fancy, I'm on the lookout for a miniature baseball bat about six inches long. Otherwise it will be a piece of round bar six inches long by about an inch and a quarter in diameter. And I figured I would just shove it small end first into some sand and do an open face pour and just clean up the one end.
I used the original to smash down a hunk of FerroSilicon that weighed 17 grams to almost a powder when I poured the Mortar, couldn't do that in the little ceramic one I have.
How's work on the cannon going, I got my lathe put back together, it's working a lot better now then it was. And I have gotten or tried to get back on track on my mill column Head Lift drive, down to the point of bolting parts on the mill and finding a belt that will fit, and oh yea almost forgot limit switches. Don't want to be like the dude in Texas that didn't put any limit switches. His head hit the top sheared the pin from the lead screw to the head and the head crashed into the table. damn head weighs two hundred pounds.
David and Charlie aka the shop monster
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
It would hurt a bit is a 200 lb part landed on ones foot.
Do you plan on making a pattern of a cannon and joining in. Cos so far I think it is only Anon and me, I dont know if there is any others that have started yet.
I hope to have another go at pouring the cannon in the next week or so. The weather has been clap of late, it has been bosses weeks. Fine during the week and raining on the weekends
I like to build "Stuff" using Stuff that costs Stuff All!
I want to join in but I am first going to have to find a wood lathe cut the pattern on, one of those things that I don't have and it seems like that everytime you turn around you need one to make some part of a pattern or to make the whole pattern with. I looked last weekend at Craiglist but didn't find one cheap enough to warrant me buying it for the amount of time that I will be using it.
But yes I hope to join in, when does time run out. I could chuck up a piece in yea ole metal lathe and make sawdust galore if I have too.
David and Charlie aka the shop monster
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
Back on my first ship, the Patternmakers came down to the machine shop several times to turn pieces on the 48in swing engine lathe. stuff that big gave them the "willies" on a wood lathe. though the Machinists where no real happy about the sawdust, odldy, once cleaned up, the lathe was cleaner then I ever saw it, something about the sawdust, absorbing and acting as a fine sanding medium when wiped up, make the lathe just look super spiffy!
HT, how you doing in the retired sector, get your burner straightened out??
you are totally correct the saw dust won't hurt the lathe, and it will soak up all the extra oil and grease and tiny bits of swarf (like who came up with these names for stuff, I thought a chip was a chip). My reason for a wood lathe is so I can stick it out of the way work on the cannon pattern when I have time and not tie up the metal lathe. Cause if I'm gonna make one its gonna be fired, even if with only a blank, and what I will pour it with is to be determined. But I have just finished turning a pattern not pretty but a round pattern none the less on the lathe.
Besides the saw dust is the easiest way I know of to change the oil in the drip pan without using a couple rolls of Brawny, the guy in the plaid shirt is a wimp when it comes to machine tools, one look at my lathe he cried like a baby after he saw what he was getting into.
Hell something that big on a wood lathe would give me the willies, and as long as the pattern makers did the clean up I'd let em use it every day.
David and Charlie aka the shop monster
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
I'm casting one day, doing finish work, and mounting for the next couple, with pattern making all mixed in. right now I have one pattern ready for testing, but rain is keeping me indoors, so maybe a couple af patterns will get tried at the same time.
Many good leads on work, though I would prefer to make enough money casting, but I cannot see it happening, Marketing is killing me, just cannot find enough customers. I'm debating E-bay, but I think it is so unprofessional, it will cost me money in the long run, but when I run out of customers, and still have plaques, that is the way I will go
