) Might want to consider sit'n down and sketching out what you have according to positioning it sits in "as of now", including a symbol representing necessary tooling, then "imagine" a scenario of a typical cast project... lightly draw a line where you begin packing your mold, extend it to where you have to place it when ready to pour, then extend the line to each item you need to retrieve in order to perform all remaining tasks, including putting whatever back after your done. By doing this you will see how repetitively you cross over your path, waste effort and time, and potentially set up trip hazards that I assure you will someday cause you an accident. I know you have a small work space but with some careful thought and strategy you can develop a more organized process that will reduce considerable effort in accomplishing each cast. Review of work stations in commercial foundries, including adopting their methods on my own processes, the best layout is a circular or oval one... In my case, I started with my molding station, after packing I lifted and circled to my right (my strongest side), took two to three steps and set the mold on the deck. From there I stepped two or three steps more to my right and encountered the business end of my furnace. All my furnace tooling was immediately within reach and easily put out of the way into a rack of sorts when not needed. After shutting down the furnace, I skim, pull the crucible and pivot slightly to my left and engage the mold and pour. Then replace the crucible, close the furnace and rotate another right turn and I'm back to my molding station. Recovery of the mold sand involved just a couple steps to the mold, lift, and pivot slightly to my left and dump it into the grizley recovery screen shaker. At no point between my molding station, to where the mold sets ready to be poured, the furnace, and back toward my furnace do I have anything I have to step over, or back track my steps to grab any necessary tooling. Like I said before, the day "WILL" come when an accident will happen carrying a melt, either tripping over your fuel line, or tripping over a tool you just laid down and had to step over while carrying a pot of melt, or step on a screwdriver left lay'n on the deck and your foot goes fly'n off kilter. It happened to me twice... once my pant cuff caught the throttle lever on my furnace as i turned the wrong direction with my crucible full of melt and attempted to step clear of the gas intake pipe. I suddenly had a 18" column of flame at 40 psi errupting out of my furnace and rolling across my ceiling as I was stumbling from having my foot snagged in stride. I coordinated my fall to a knee and luckily managed to sit the base of the crucible down without spilling much, and was able to reach back and flip that lever off. The second time I tried to step over an ingot tray while attempting to lift 100 lbs of bronze melt singlehandedly and making an attempt to reach my mold. I snagged my heel on the handle of that tray, staggered, lost control, went down hard enough to spill the majority of my melt onto the concrete shop floor which instantly caused the concrete to explode in surface blasts spraying my shop with molten glops and bb's of bronze. I was damn lucky I didn't burn my shop down or burn the live'n hell outta myself. That's when I decided to take the plunge and reconfigure my shop so this scenario would never happen again.Cincinnati Shaper
Re: Cincinnati Shaper
Well done!! ('cept for not having your stuff prepped and staged beforehand, ) Might want to consider sit'n down and sketching out what you have according to positioning it sits in "as of now", including a symbol representing necessary tooling, then "imagine" a scenario of a typical cast project... lightly draw a line where you begin packing your mold, extend it to where you have to place it when ready to pour, then extend the line to each item you need to retrieve in order to perform all remaining tasks, including putting whatever back after your done. By doing this you will see how repetitively you cross over your path, waste effort and time, and potentially set up trip hazards that I assure you will someday cause you an accident. I know you have a small work space but with some careful thought and strategy you can develop a more organized process that will reduce considerable effort in accomplishing each cast. Review of work stations in commercial foundries, including adopting their methods on my own processes, the best layout is a circular or oval one... In my case, I started with my molding station, after packing I lifted and circled to my right (my strongest side), took two to three steps and set the mold on the deck. From there I stepped two or three steps more to my right and encountered the business end of my furnace. All my furnace tooling was immediately within reach and easily put out of the way into a rack of sorts when not needed. After shutting down the furnace, I skim, pull the crucible and pivot slightly to my left and engage the mold and pour. Then replace the crucible, close the furnace and rotate another right turn and I'm back to my molding station. Recovery of the mold sand involved just a couple steps to the mold, lift, and pivot slightly to my left and dump it into the grizley recovery screen shaker. At no point between my molding station, to where the mold sets ready to be poured, the furnace, and back toward my furnace do I have anything I have to step over, or back track my steps to grab any necessary tooling. Like I said before, the day "WILL" come when an accident will happen carrying a melt, either tripping over your fuel line, or tripping over a tool you just laid down and had to step over while carrying a pot of melt, or step on a screwdriver left lay'n on the deck and your foot goes fly'n off kilter. It happened to me twice... once my pant cuff caught the throttle lever on my furnace as i turned the wrong direction with my crucible full of melt and attempted to step clear of the gas intake pipe. I suddenly had a 18" column of flame at 40 psi errupting out of my furnace and rolling across my ceiling as I was stumbling from having my foot snagged in stride. I coordinated my fall to a knee and luckily managed to sit the base of the crucible down without spilling much, and was able to reach back and flip that lever off. The second time I tried to step over an ingot tray while attempting to lift 100 lbs of bronze melt singlehandedly and making an attempt to reach my mold. I snagged my heel on the handle of that tray, staggered, lost control, went down hard enough to spill the majority of my melt onto the concrete shop floor which instantly caused the concrete to explode in surface blasts spraying my shop with molten glops and bb's of bronze. I was damn lucky I didn't burn my shop down or burn the live'n hell outta myself. That's when I decided to take the plunge and reconfigure my shop so this scenario would never happen again.
) Might want to consider sit'n down and sketching out what you have according to positioning it sits in "as of now", including a symbol representing necessary tooling, then "imagine" a scenario of a typical cast project... lightly draw a line where you begin packing your mold, extend it to where you have to place it when ready to pour, then extend the line to each item you need to retrieve in order to perform all remaining tasks, including putting whatever back after your done. By doing this you will see how repetitively you cross over your path, waste effort and time, and potentially set up trip hazards that I assure you will someday cause you an accident. I know you have a small work space but with some careful thought and strategy you can develop a more organized process that will reduce considerable effort in accomplishing each cast. Review of work stations in commercial foundries, including adopting their methods on my own processes, the best layout is a circular or oval one... In my case, I started with my molding station, after packing I lifted and circled to my right (my strongest side), took two to three steps and set the mold on the deck. From there I stepped two or three steps more to my right and encountered the business end of my furnace. All my furnace tooling was immediately within reach and easily put out of the way into a rack of sorts when not needed. After shutting down the furnace, I skim, pull the crucible and pivot slightly to my left and engage the mold and pour. Then replace the crucible, close the furnace and rotate another right turn and I'm back to my molding station. Recovery of the mold sand involved just a couple steps to the mold, lift, and pivot slightly to my left and dump it into the grizley recovery screen shaker. At no point between my molding station, to where the mold sets ready to be poured, the furnace, and back toward my furnace do I have anything I have to step over, or back track my steps to grab any necessary tooling. Like I said before, the day "WILL" come when an accident will happen carrying a melt, either tripping over your fuel line, or tripping over a tool you just laid down and had to step over while carrying a pot of melt, or step on a screwdriver left lay'n on the deck and your foot goes fly'n off kilter. It happened to me twice... once my pant cuff caught the throttle lever on my furnace as i turned the wrong direction with my crucible full of melt and attempted to step clear of the gas intake pipe. I suddenly had a 18" column of flame at 40 psi errupting out of my furnace and rolling across my ceiling as I was stumbling from having my foot snagged in stride. I coordinated my fall to a knee and luckily managed to sit the base of the crucible down without spilling much, and was able to reach back and flip that lever off. The second time I tried to step over an ingot tray while attempting to lift 100 lbs of bronze melt singlehandedly and making an attempt to reach my mold. I snagged my heel on the handle of that tray, staggered, lost control, went down hard enough to spill the majority of my melt onto the concrete shop floor which instantly caused the concrete to explode in surface blasts spraying my shop with molten glops and bb's of bronze. I was damn lucky I didn't burn my shop down or burn the live'n hell outta myself. That's when I decided to take the plunge and reconfigure my shop so this scenario would never happen again.Re: Cincinnati Shaper
got a little more done on the new Cast Iron Ratchet this morning, but looks like I'm going to have to turn a new pin the one in the photo doesn't want to cooperate.
David and Charlie aka the shop monster
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
Re: Cincinnati Shaper
Dave, you certainly keep you'r self busy & I find it really interesting following you'r posts. Frank, an absolute pearl of wisdom about keeping the workshop clean & free of clutter !!! " Safety first" Am up for a pacemaker soon as I get the call ; So, does that make me a caster ? (sic) Cheers all, Trev.
On top down under
Re: Cincinnati Shaper
well now Trev its either do this or go back to one of my old hobbies, which I can't afford now. But I will have to figure out something else to do once I give up on the shaper.bunyip wrote:Dave, you certainly keep you'r self busy & I find it really interesting following you'r posts. Frank, an absolute pearl of wisdom about keeping the workshop clean & free of clutter !!! " Safety first" Am up for a pacemaker soon as I get the call ; So, does that make me a caster ? (sic) Cheers all, Trev.
I am just about done with the new ratchet that I've been working on.
Sorry to hear that your in for a pacemaker, mine isn't quite that bad, but they have had to open my up a couple times to dick around with the old ticker so I just kinda take it kinda slow and play in the yard.
Now if I could just sell the bike I could get me a new lathe.
DA
David and Charlie aka the shop monster
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
Re: Cincinnati Shaper
Where'bouts do you live in Oklahoma, DA? I might be in that area next summer visiting cousins in Neosho, MO, Tulsa, and Miami. If time and circumstances allow, maybe I could manage a stop by for a visit... distance depending, of course.
Fc
Fc
Re: Cincinnati Shaper
I was reading on Cast Iron machinability, what I could find so far is Nickel is the best additive to alloy with, also copper. Next time you do a 10# melt, throw in about $2.50 in Nickels (about a 1/2 pound). That should give you 3.75% copper and 1.25% Nickel. Higher Nickel would be better but I'm not sure where you could get it unless you ordered some pure Nickel.
Oh, and for some reason, Heart trouble seems to go hand in hand with metalcasting, so your definitely part of the group.
Oh, and for some reason, Heart trouble seems to go hand in hand with metalcasting, so your definitely part of the group.
Re: Cincinnati Shaper
I don't believe you're right, Jammer, about the heart problem association to this line of work. Perhaps by coinsidence, but a few decades ago I thought I had a heart issue and the docs went out of their way to exhaust every test they could imagine to pin it on the industry as a health hazard but in the long run they said it wasn't the case. In fact, they went further to tell me that most foundry men have issues of skin absorbtion and respirable issues from over exposure to various metals in the form of dusts. Some were potentially fatal from accumulative exposures over many, many doses over a long periods of time, but all were easily reversed once the exposure was identified and restricted. My problem was the result of manganese poisoning... both from inhaling dusts from getting scrap bronze too hot and dealing with flare offs, and a lot of grinding and power sanding causing micro fines of the particulates getting on my skin and absorbing it that way. Once I identified the route of entry I took precautions. Never had another issue with it again. Also note... foundrymen rarely get a cold or the flu, and in comparision to the rest of the population performing other work, foundrymen traditionally live longer because of the steady physical activity. The reasoning they don't get colds and flue is due the zinc they're typically exposed to from melting aloys with zinc which they breath and absorb through skin the particulates that get airborne from the subtle flaring occuring in the furnace during remelting. Zinc overdose will make you nauseous and give you a sense of the chills, but a pint of whole milk will cure those symptoms in a minute or two. All commercial foundries have a stock supply of cold milk for their employees to drink whenever they want it. Zinc, also, kills off the enfluenza and rhino virus that causes us colds and flue symptoms. I'll assure you if you have heart problems it wasn't due to the foundry work... you came to the game with that condition beforehand. Though, I'm not a doctor, but I'd wager work'n foundry work would strengthen a weakened immune system and put stamina back in a man's step. 
Re: Cincinnati Shaper
I know FC, I just made the association to hobby melters. Seems many of them I know have some heart issues, probably is coincidence. I thought I had Manganese poisoning but couldn't get anyone to test for it. Must not have been the case, I've been out of the shop for over a year and still have issues with my blood pressure and metallic taste in my mouth. What I liked is I melted Lead for years and never tested high for lead. After I was in the meltshop for a couple months my Lead level shot up almost to the shop limit. Any higher I would have to go work in the supply room or in the scale shack, until it came down.
Re: Cincinnati Shaper
I'm just outside of OKC Frank.F.C. wrote:Where'bouts do you live in Oklahoma, DA? I might be in that area next summer visiting cousins in Neosho, MO, Tulsa, and Miami. If time and circumstances allow, maybe I could manage a stop by for a visit... distance depending, of course.
Fc
here I am with 10 pounds of Silicon, pound of Manganese, bunch of copper wire, and not a gram of nickel anywhere in sight, $2.50 is pretty steep alloying for a guy with my finances so will have to find some other way to get it, wonder how much there is in stainless tig rods got a bunch of them I could chop up some and throw them in the pot.Jammer wrote:I was reading on Cast Iron machinability, what I could find so far is Nickel is the best additive to alloy with, also copper. Next time you do a 10# melt, throw in about $2.50 in Nickels (about a 1/2 pound). That should give you 3.75% copper and 1.25% Nickel. Higher Nickel would be better but I'm not sure where you could get it unless you ordered some pure Nickel.
Oh, and for some reason, Heart trouble seems to go hand in hand with metalcasting, so your definitely part of the group.
I do plan on throwing in some Copper in the next melt that I do, which will hopefully be this week if the weather warms up like they say its suppose to.
Guess a trip to the welding supply is called for, now that I'm sitting here thinking about it (dangerous situation for me to be in, thinking) didn't Weller make some high nickel brazing rods that they sold in hardware stores for use with propane hand torches.
Thanks for the info Jerry.
DA
and to throw in my two cents on the ticker problems, I had mine a long time before I started melting metal. most of mine was caused by my EX, is my thinking.
David and Charlie aka the shop monster
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
If life seems normal your not going fast enough" Mario Andrette
Re: Cincinnati Shaper
Ha.. I think my heart trouble came from the same source!!
Dave give me a day or two, I'll see what I have around here. The rods would depend on how much Chrome they have, Chrome isn't good for machining. I never noticed if they have alloys listed on tig rods. I'm still reading, too much info out there.
Dave give me a day or two, I'll see what I have around here. The rods would depend on how much Chrome they have, Chrome isn't good for machining. I never noticed if they have alloys listed on tig rods. I'm still reading, too much info out there.