Cincinnati Shaper

[dallen]

hello, not many hang out here, yes was starting to wear a little thin but seems to of calmed down. It will be interesting to see how long it stays calm.

hopefully for a day at least, otherwise I may just go on a banning rampage.

I know what you mean, I just hope that doesn't have to happen. It actually probably wouldn't be too bad if there was some metal casting work going on with all the bitching and I'm right crap.

Anyway I had a buddy drop am Ohous lead ingot mold by yesterday to see if I could make a couple off of it. For those that don't know Ohous made reloading equipment, and this was their 4 pound lead ingot mold cast in cast iron at about 5/32" thick. First I'm going to see if I can get a nice cast out of aluminum that I can use as a pattern to make some more of them out of C/I. So its off to the back yard where the mold is awaiting, I rammed it up last night and after one fail I was able to get a good mold that the pattern pulled out of clean, now to fire up and get some aluminum good and hot so that it will flow good. Hoping that all the vent wire holes I poked in it do what they are there for.

[dallen]

OK, now we move on to the next step in this exersize with the Ohous ingot mold. I melted some aluminum and poured the mold this morning and although its not silky smooth like some would wish, the mold I used for a pattern wasn't exactly the smoothest either.

the other side looks as good, just need to clean up the porcupine stickers on it where the aluminum ran back up the vent wire holes and it will be good to go.

The other trays that I've been making are lacking a little in the strength department, I filled a couple of them this morning with some nice hot, molten Aluminum and this is what I got for my troubles a mold that went hot short on me and the end pulled off when I went to dump the contents out of it. good thing this was only one that I was using as a pattern to mold for cast iron ones.

have to wait until tomorrow and see what happens, depends on if my help shows up if I'll fire up and try to do some in Cast Iron.

[Jammer]

Hi DavidF, did you come over to the dark side for a breath of fresh air?

Dallen, are you going to make a gang mold of like 4 ingot molds in one. I did a pattern for one a few years ago, it was hard foam but not hard enough. I could seem to find anything to paint it with to toughen it up.

[dallen]

if I can get this Ohous mold to fill in cast iron then I may take an try to do four in a flask with the sprue in the middle to feed them. But first I need to get enough to use as patterns to make the mold with, I really don't need them but its something to do and I know some guys that are into muzzle loading and such so I may make some propane money off of them.

I need my router running so I could make me a pattern for one that had my initials in it or something stupid like Shop Monsters Ball works.

[DavidF]

Hi DavidF, did you come over to the dark side for a breath of fresh air?

Dallen, are you going to make a gang mold of like 4 ingot molds in one. I did a pattern for one a few years ago, it was hard foam but not hard enough. I could seem to find anything to paint it with to toughen it up.

I wanted to see what a metal casting forum that actually cast stuff was like.....very refreshing!!
AA has grown into something, not sure exactly what but i miss the old days with xlchainsaw. Good times.

[dallen]

we do try to melt metal over here every now and then just to keep the Fiddlebacks and Blackwidows populations down in the shed. Plus I find it more satisfiying to actually do and get my hands dirty then to be an armchair melter.

Hoping to melt a pot of Cast Iron in the morning if I get off my butt and get the molds ready, your more then welcome to drop by and help but bring your own gloves thou all of mine are getting stiff from the heat.

[Rasper]

It takes two to argue.

Richard

[dallen]

and for todays screw up, here's what I tried to pour, melt was a little too cool, but the iron was a nice gray color and the parts that I cut up on the band saw cut beautiful
cast iron ingot mold worked great, that's it sitting there by the pouring shank full of red hot cast iron. Damn shame both molds sitting there looking all hot and full

Reality is the damn things poured really short.

broken cross section, nice even gray color to the iron even with jerking it out of the sand like 30 minutes after pouring them.

I really like the detail that I would of gotten if the damn things had of filled

[F.C.]

Need your gates closer and at least two to three times thicker than the pieces you cast so it don't chill off your feeding tab before your mold cavity fills. Always run your feeding tab well into/onto your product with an even thickness. I agree with ya, though, the detail and quality of what did cast is very nice indeed. I think had the gates been thicker and uniform the entire length more, if not all, would have filled... perhaps the one closer to the pour cup would have made it full.... just my guess is all. Definitely needed to be hotter though and I think the quality of what ya got so far would have been throughout. Definitely had a good pack and good mix of sand & binder.

[dallen]

I tried to cram to much into the flask and didn't have room to do the gating like I wanted, and the metal could of stood to of been a little hotter, I pulled the crucible after it had been in the furnace about 40 minutes with around 15 pounds of iron in it.

Figured that with the way the vortex in the furnace was whipping the slag to a froth that it would pour,

The sand is my usual oil bonded sand that I've been using for a long time now, with out really any changes, other then to add some oil from time to time along with a shot of methanol to bring it back to life, I did have to drag out one of the other buckets of the stuff to fill both of the molds thou.

gonna have to do some head scratching over the flask issue, will have to see if I can use one of the wooden ones that I have. I have one wooden one that will work for the Ohous mold its big enough I think to do doubles in it. The other one I can drop from trying to do three back to two in a flask I know that works.

But before any thing happens the damn humidity from the rain showers yesterday morning is going to have to let up.

Need Harry to get back in the foundry and forum so I can see if he's got any extra petrobond powder he might turn loose of, I could use a couple pounds to perk my sand up some.

Oh well there is always tomorrow, maybe I'll get a better pour if I get up earlier in the morning and stop harassing the dog. Who the heck knows what the foundry gods will decide to shower our heads with, I just hope it isn't slag.