Cincinnati Shaper

[dallen]

got rid of that brass Adapter that you need for the siphon nozzles, hoping to fire it up tomorrow and see how hot I can make it in the back yard

[mite5255]

That looks cool Dave

[dallen]

Thanks Mike

It took a little head scratching to figure out what I needed to do, but it works and will take a lot more heat then the brass the original was made from.

Hoping to fire up here in about an hour and see if it works like the original did.

[dallen]

me and the shop monster got out in the back yard and fired up the furnace to check out the changes I've made to the burner.

Here's a snap of the days haul out of the sand, I was on the hot side so ended up with some rough spots on the castings where the gates were at, also need to use a bigger sprue on the one really thin pattern that I'm trying to cast so that it will fill completely plus put in more vent wire holes, I forgot about it until after I had split the mold so I just ran a 3/32 wire thru the sections of the mold in one place then pushed the bump in the sand back down smooth with my finger which I'm sure closed off a couple of them.

and the business end of things, we moved a goodly amount of oil today, by the yardstick measurement instrument that I use I burned around 7 inches of oil in about 50 minutes.

Nozzle came out soaked with oil, so next time I fire up I will move it a 1/4" closer to the end of the burner tube to give the spray pattern more room hopefully that will be enough to stop it from impinging on burner housing.

[dallen]

this one came close but no cigar

what was left in the crucible when I pulled it back out of the furnace to put it in the shed

[Jammer]

Wow, looked like fun. Just not the sinking feeling of the shakeout, especially when you were so close. Pour faster, one more vent, 5 more degrees...all of the above..??

[dallen]

I knew before the shake out that they Ohaus mold didn't fill by running a vent wire into the mold after it had been poured and had cooled for a few minutes.

and yes your right pour faster, heat longer, pray harder, use bigger sprues to get more head pressure, and a dozen other things that may or may not help.

The other mold filled completely except for one spot on one of them cavities, I used separate sprues and gates on it cause I had the room in the flask. This will be welded up to make a useable part, will grab a photo before the repair job.

The Ohaus mold I put the gate in between the two with gates about 2 inches long but thin, and the shrink bob wasn't big enough or the sprue big enough to pressure the cavity's. So I dragged out the first flask that I throwed together back when I first got into this, its big enough that I can spread the patterns apart so that I can put in a big riser in between the two, and I also need to remember to vent before pulling the flask apart.

Anyway that's the game if it doesn't rain, temps suppose to drop down into the 60's by Wednesday which would be great for melting IF it doesn't rain.

We were running hot today I have iron melting in like 10 minutes, none of this iron was soft enough to cut on the band saw, not sure exactly what happened there as it was the same iron that was used in the last pour on Friday that I could cut easily, and had a nice gray color when broken.

Anyway it was just another day in the back yard, had some fun burned up some more used oil. My tank is made from a piece of 10 ID pipe and we burned 7 inches out of it this melt, anything over 1 inch in 10 minutes I call good, less then that your not going to get the heat needed to make the pour had been my experience.

[F.C.]

Everything you quoted that may or may not help, the bulk of it WILL HELP. Pray'n about it ain't gonna do it. The fire gods just sit and grin watch'n and know the only way you'll get it right is to do what you already KNOW ought to work from experience. Always go overkill till you dial in a shape and fill situation you know full well you can dial back on. My opinion.... head pressure is a must with cast iron cause I think it chills much faster than bronze... NEVER press the dimples down on your skinny air vents, blow the mounds off with an air compressor and also direct air into the vents from the outside of the mold to free any obstructions... run a thicker tab from your main gate into each of your casts, and possibly enlarge the thickness of your gate, too... The farther away your pour cup is from the end of your cast product tree you need to turn that mid riser into a reservoir (spoon out a large cavity into the riser on the underside of the drag down at the gate so it'll fill with metal quick and help keep the temp up on the rest of the melt as it reaches the end of your mold cavity)... and you can create more head pressure (without going overkill on your sprue itself) by pack'n a round slab of sand to sit atop where you're going to punch in your sprue which will give the metal a couple or more inches of drop as it hits the gate channel (this is called an "upset"). I use this a lot on long thin castings and it works wonders. It pushes the metal through with greater force so you'll also have to compensate with more weight on your sand mold or cast inside your flask and clamp the sides so it won't lift.

Other than that, what ya got on that pour looks great in terms of what got completely cast.

[dallen]

one or two more cast I'll have it dialed it, been trying to not drag this old wooden flask our of the shed but it looks like its about the only one I have that will give me the room I need to do this pour,

I had an upset on the flask to pour into that raised the sprue length 2 inches, just a matter of finding the right gate, riser matchup that will work. And your right Cast Iron cools off fast, one reason that when casting thin sections it has to be really hot, which I had the temp just missed it on a couple other points.

Gonna try it again in a couple days if the weather will let me.

Anyway it keeps me off the streets and out of trouble.

[dallen]

was woke up this morning to the sound of thunder and lighting, nice thing was that it only rained about .250", even nicer was the fact that the Jet Stream which had dipped down into Texas dragged a bunch of cool weather down out of Canada along with it and the temp was in the mid 60's all day.

So I took the opportunity to finish up the flask that I started working on yesterday, which will give me enough room to mold up two of the ingot molds that I've been messing with.

The flask, which I even grabbed up some dowel pin handles that I casted some time back and finished them up and stuck them on for better alignment.

one half of the mold rammed up

other half

plan on firing up in the morning and melting some aluminum to see how the gating works out, I made them deeper on this mold, plus I flipped it so that the mold it right side up instead of doing it upside down which puts any trash or loose sand that gets in the cavity on the outside/bottom. Anyway I'll find out in the morning if it makes any difference.