Found Dreaming

It's not really a museum. It's my neighbors Man Cave and foundry collection. I'm not sure how this end of his house doesn't collapse from the weight. He has a lot more Iron all through his house and garage.
He has a long background in Iron Foundries, 40+ years at several foundries in Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee. He has collected Patterns, tools, flasks and finished pieces. I tried to buy a pattern or two but he won't let loose on them. We talked a lot about chemistry. temps and casting methods. He is a wealth of information.
Walls lined with special casting skillets and lined above with matchplates.

WOW!!! What an AMAZING collection!! I recently come across some cast iron collectibles, i.e., cookie molds that are cool I'd love to have. They wanted over 60 bucks per mold. I've waited, now, for a couple months during which time it was revealed the place is closing and up for sale... it's a small antique'ish store that sells clothes, home furnishings, etc. all of which is dated. I'm going to head back and visit again soon with an offer of 25 bucks per mold (cash) and see if I can acquire them. I'll use them as patterns to cast duplicates in Aluminum, have them powdercoated with Teflon and offer them at craft fairs for sale at 30 bucks each.

Bloody hell!!! that sure must be a strong wall.... I sure would love to come across some of those patterns

Thinking the same here Mike, that looks like a lot of fun for a guy with a furnace

With all those patterns, I thought he would let loose of one or two but no way. Someone had asked about lid handles a while back, if you look at the pattern for the small skillet in the snap flask, you can see the handles for the lids on the side. He said they would cast them with the skillets and put them in a bin. Then, when the cast the lids, they would stick a handle in the pattern, ram it up and cast the handle into the lid. Now, Lodge has the handle right in the mold, after the sand is rammed there's a hydraulic piston that rotates the handle out of the sand just before it opens to remove the pattern. All automatic.

Lodge Chemistry for fluidity and less casting defects.
Carbon 3.60 - 3.70%
Si 1.90 - 2.00% Si and Mn would need to be added.
Mn .73 - .79% Most of it would burn out in the melt if any O2 is present.
Phos .20 - .25% Over .26 tends to cause defects and pits in the iron
Sulfur .07 - .09% Probably already in the Iron or at least .04 to .05%

May need to start a thread on Chemistry to include this and how to make or choose better alloys for casting.