Re: Cast Alumium Tractor Seat
Posted: Wed Oct 08, 2014 8:21 am
I designed a set-up to accommodate a fella to cast and manipulate all his own flasks and melts himself. The guy had an injured back like the rest of us old farts. In a sense, everything was placed "in-line", i.e., sand bin/molding station, casting station, then furnace. All were contained in an area of about 8 to 10 ft length. I designed the overhead track to accommodate his largest crucible (#20) pouring bronze. It was a track made of two suspended pipes with a trolley car of plate steel and pulley wheels that sat atop the pipe. The trolley had a welded ring beneath that a small chain hoist attached to. The crucible tongs were designed without any long shanks for man handling, instead, were intended to lift the crucible and remain attached to the crucible while being tilted and poured. A set of bicycle handlebars were designed to quick attach to the tongs (combination tongs and yoke) and the caster would manipulate the melt while handling the handlebars sliding the melt left or right into position, then lowered to pouring height by chain hoist and tilted during the pour by using the handlebars. I know, sounds involved and timely and potentially inefficient due heat loss mess'n about with all the details, but with sufficient practice pouring dry sand he got the hang of it and produced some awesome art casts of significant weight. The set up worked just as good over the molding station separating the flask and rotating it onto a side for finishing prior to closing and moving to the cast station. The flasks were re-fitted with centered thick steel pins (about 3/4" dia) and the trolley/hoist was used to lift, separate, and tilt the upper half of the flask onto a side with ease... just took some putz'n about is all... certainly not something a guy would use for any production runs. The entire molding station was open for ease of body access for work'n the sand, the casting station was contained/walled, as it were, to protect from pisser's or outright mold failure douching the entire contents of melt out, and a thick sand bottom caught any spillage and served to act as an ingot mold for excess melt. The overhead trolley also served to lift his furnace lid, but if you have one that rotates off that can easily be done using a length of round stock steel as a removable handle of sorts. The overhead trolley system was nothing but 2x4 adn 2x6 framework with standard 1" black iron pipe suspended off fabricated miniature coat hanger rod supports like what you see used in bedroom closets. The trolley was designed to ride below the axles and pulley wheels which rested atop the pipes. The entire set up was built and installed beneath a lean-to awning off the side of his garage that faced into his backyard. I was well proud of myself that I could help this gent keep active and pursueing his art interests. If this is something you guys could use yourself, let me know. I'll be happy to sketch it up and post.dallen wrote:luckygen did some tractor seats in cast iron in one of his videos, you may have to get the aluminum a bit on the hot side to have a good pour without any shorts.
if you have a messed up back then your going to need some type of mechanical helper in order to do large pours, when I mmoved my pouring bench I put up a swing arm on the telephone pole for when I need the extra help when pouring by myself. Need to do something about moving the molds from where I ram them up to the pouring bench. but for now the really big molds can get rammed up on the bench.
Good luck on pouring the seat, photo's of both the good and the bad are required.
DA
. Next stop was the scrap metal bin and the was about 8 lengths of 40mm solid shaft varying in length from about 1.2 mts to about 3 mts, I asked the factory manager if I can remove some steel from the bin and he said yes 
