Found Dreaming

Is the Old Style Ales rather strong Richard

I'm having one right now.

All my life I have been prone to underestimate how long it will take to get a job done. The way I handled it when I was in the shipyard business was to figure how long a job would take, and then multiply that by a factor of three. It then came out pretty accurate.

Richard

I always multiply by the factor off, it takes as long as it takes LOL, consequently I don't think I could ever run a business

I poured her this morning.



That big cylinder to the right rear is the burn-out kiln.



Here it is freshly poured. That little curl of bronze on top is all that was left over. I'm getting pretty good at estimating how much metal to melt.



One new thing I did was to break a beer bottle and put about a third of the glass in the melt. It provides a shield, but a great thing is that it collects the dirt and when I scooped the glass off all of the dirt came with it. I put about a tablespoon of borax in the center and let it sit for a minute before I skimmed. (I don't want that stuff touching my crucible.) I have never had a pour with metal this clean. I think I love glass covers.

I will break her out tomorrow. We will see. Fingers crossed.

Richard

Fingers crossed Richard . Can I ask, how did you build the burnout kiln built, is it gas fired

It has a base made of -plain old house bricks. You can see the base in the photo above. I used a standard oil drum (55 gallon here. Maybe 40 gallon there, imperial gallons). I wrapped it with 3 inches of ceramic wool and then wrapped a sheet of sheet steel around that.

It is not ideal. The 55 gallon drum deteriorates from oxidation rapidly. I have already relined it with a piece of sheet steel. A sheet of stainless inside of the drum would probably be the best answer. The problem is, I have a lot of stainless in my shop up in California, but none down here. I haven't been up there in three years.

Richard

That sounds simple enough

I busted the casting out today. Came out great.

Looks good, lots of chasing work to do.

I plugged the core pin holes today. I made plugs from the same metal and used 45% silver solder to hold them in.





Richard

Is she hollow? Looks like it came out really great.

Glass works good if you don't use too much. One of my early brass pours, I had too much glass and it was everywhere and nearly ruined the crucible.