Cincinnati Shaper

[dallen]

mortar or pestle or both, pestle wreaks havoc on black walnuts,

I was pretty happy with the pour, not so happy with all the little things that tried to rain on the parade though, like the one mold floating open.

The ingot sawed really nice, there's not any machine work to do on this pour,

I throwed in a little vermiculite along with the Lime Stone dust that I've been using on the slag, too soon to say on the vermiculite as to if it helped or not. maybe the next melt I can add a little more then I did this time see what happens.

here's a shot of the crucible after todays heat.

not as much white as the last melt, I don't think I was as hot this time, last melt I had slag on the ingot around the sides and bottom where I poured it the sand, this time I didn't. parts were cleaned of any sand that was stuck with a regular wooden handle wire brush.

Wish that a thermal couple that will take the heat of molten iron didn't cost two legs I'd get one.
DA

[dallen]

here's a little something I put together which hopefully doesn't show how badly the day went what with all the little thing's like not having the camera pointed the right way to catch the UUUUH OOOOH when the one mold floated and dumped molten cast iron down on my air and propane hoses, it may be time to run them overhead.

anyway here we go....

[mite5255]

[quote="dallen"]here's a little something I put together which hopefully doesn't show how badly the day went what with all the little thing's like not having the camera pointed the right way to catch the UUUUH OOOOH when the one mold floated and dumped molten cast iron down on my air and propane hoses, it may be time to run them overhead.

anyway here we go....



Very good Dave, those floating molds can get very scary

[dallen]

Very good Dave, those floating molds can get very scary

that's when it pays to have a good water hose handy

[Jammer]

I've never had a floater and I don't do anything to prevent it. If I keep that up it will come back to bite me. I did burn my propane hose once, flames shooting out everywhere.

[dallen]

I have a bunch of 5 pound window sash weights that I normally lay on top along with some other hunks of iron and such that can put some pretty good weight on the top f the flask.

big molds can do some weird things when you fill em up, and its no fun when the stuff is running out on your fuel lines, so its a lot easier to just put some weights on the top.

DA

[mite5255]

I've never had a floater and I don't do anything to prevent it. If I keep that up it will come back to bite me. I did burn my propane hose once, flames shooting out everywhere.

I have a bunch of 5 pound window sash weights that I normally lay on top along with some other hunks of iron and such that can put some pretty good weight on the top f the flask.

big molds can do some weird things when you fill em up, and its no fun when the stuff is running out on your fuel lines, so its a lot easier to just put some weights on the top.

DA

I've had one or two floaters, more so if I have people over to see what I do. I do find having people watch whating I'm doing distracting at times, I'm more concerned with their safety and get distracted
I now put a piece of timer across the flask and clamp it with two f clamps, instead of weights. I also have flasks on the opposite side of all gas and fuel lines

[F.C.]

Route your fuel/electric lines beneath channel steel stock. Never have another problem with that happening again. If it's too much of a trip hazard, sawcut the deck, smooth out the curfs, then run your lines and inset/imbed the channel stock flush with the floor. Another way is to re-arrange your set up so your furnace operation is nearest your fuel source (with the fuel source well protected, of course) and your casting is directly opposite away from the furnace operations with NO overlap causing you to step over fuel lines, power lines, etc... i.e., fuel/furnace/furnace tending area/crucible removal/transfer of crucible to yoke/and pouring... all in that order. That will eliminate most mishaps save for any pissers from molds lifting during pour. I always use weights on ALL my molds. If the mold is big enough, and the cast product is flat, I leave the sand in the flask and clamp the flask halves together. Flat castings have a phenominal amount of hydraulic lift and can seperate far greater weights then the melt being poured into them. The more of an upset you use to drop force your melt into the mold the greater that hydraulic force will be. When in doubt always add weights or at least clamp the mold halves together. You don't have to squeeze your sand tighter to effectively clamp it, rather, just sufficient pressure to not allow it to lift during pours.

[dallen]

still playing around with this little project,

[dallen]

did a little metal melting today and ended up with some nice soft cast iron that I can use to make the piston ring for the steam engine that I started working on a while back.

took some video but still have to get it edited

DA