Cincinnati Shaper

[dallen]

getting closer, will have to see what happens in the morning, I would of poured it again today but had a little project that I needed to do for a guy in Prague, Ok.

used up the last of the loose ones so I pulled a couple off of a flask that wasn't in the use at the moment and rammed them up also, plan on making four more when I cast again.

[dallen]

In order of happenings

placed glass cloth filter on the mold then covered with a pouring basin, I cut the filter up into quarters to save them as I only have a few. thinking that with aluminum regular fiber glass woven mat that has a open mesh would work.

we've all seen metal melted so I didn't take any photos of that but heres a shot of the sprue with the fiber in the middle of it after pouring the metal into the mold

then the shake out more flask parts, I plan on one more mold that will have six in it, then I will pick the best two of the mess and keep them for patterns, or just take some off a flask when more are needed.

This shot is of the sprue, I laid it across the vise and popped it with a hammer, there was actually very little that was holding he two parts together,

and one with the filter removed

there is some shrinkage, but on these part and where its at it's not a problem. one of the parts failed to fill two of the corners where the screw holes are but the part is still useable so no big deal there either.

In all a good morning, got to play with molten metal while it was cool, (weather's been being really freaky here lately) I didn't use oil to heat with this morning as I didn't want to deal with having to drag the air pump an other stuff out. I did give this pot a dose of degassing chemicals just because I have the stuff.

That's it for today.

[Jammer]

Can you tell if it actually filtered out anything? I've used them a couple times, but I'm too psycho about skimming the metal, there isn't any lumps left.

[dallen]

Can you tell if it actually filtered out anything? I've used them a couple times, but I'm too psycho about skimming the metal, there isn't any lumps left.

as big as the mesh size is on the cloth I doubt that I could tell, other then if it stopped a lot of big stuff. I normally skim pretty good myself. I'm going to take one next time I do cast iron cause its a real pita to skim at times and there is normally the odd chunk that will run down the sprue pipe.

Here's a picture of the last of the flask handles I plan on making for a while these 6 came out pretty good, metal could of been a bit hotter but it poured ok. On this one I used the same filter cloth but after the shakeout I actually pulled all the strands of the cloth out of the sprue.

On this mold I paid the way I poured a lot of attention and made sure to keep a puddle in the cut so that it wasn't sucking air as they can do if your not pouring fast enough to keep the sprue choked off.

Anyway here's the photo. theres two of them that have some problems with the corners but there's enough metal there to get a screw into them so I'm happy. Think I'll make a new pattern our of some decent wood and fix all the edges where they have been sanded and filed on till the damn things are drafted the wrong way makes it hard to pull the patterns out.

well that's it for today, other then the guy that owns the house on the north side of me he rents it out, the last renter left a bucket of shock tablets there and he ask me if I could use them I told him yes I could I now have a life time supply of degassing tablets.

DA

[Jammer]

I'm not sure those filters will hold up to Iron. I think they are only for Aluminum. Did I send you any of the ceramic sponge looking things, they are for Iron. I didn't get very many of them and have been hording the 4 or 5 I have. I could have had a hundred or more of them but didn't know what they were.

[dallen]

No on the ceramic screens, I wish I could afford to buy some. PatJ has a whole case but said he wouldn't part with any for a guy to try out.

Anyway here is a shot of the sprue from yesterdays last pour, I pulled all the filter out yesterday with no problem, this morning I laid it across some iron and gave it a whack with a rammer and snapped it where the filter had been.

First up is the top half or what was in the pouring riser.

Then we have the bottom half or what was in the cope under the filter cloth.

I took these with the macro lens on my camera, the Redneck in me forgot to put the camera on the macro setting, but then I'm no pro photog either.

I'm taking that the black spots in the metal are crap that was trapped in the filter. I'm thinking that the filters would work better if placed over the basin in the drag, but not sure how a guy would stop them from pulling down into the runner which would allow the metal to just run over them?.

[Jammer]

There was a fellow over near my sons place that has a case of Iron filters. I may check on them next time I go over there. He wants a lot for them, maybe I can talk him down if he still has them.

[dallen]

when I pour iron I usually do it on coffee day which means that I have some help, my buddy is normally put on slag duty to watch and stop any from getting to the mold with a stick, be nice if a guy could buy say fifty of them instead of having to do a whole case from the suppliers. I'd like to try some, Doyle does pretty good but he's been known to miss some at times especially when the stick starts flaming.

I sent an email to one outfit about some degassing tables, they actually sent me some samples. Shocked the heck out of me, I was sitting here no expecting anything from the brown truck when he pulls up and hands me a package from Canada. Don't guess it would hurt to email someone and see about purchasing some samples.

[dallen]

finally hit a mold that filled completely with no voids or other problems, SO I think its time to go back to trying for a couple of these ingot molds made out of cast iron.

these will be my patterns, only thing I plan to do differently then what I did this morning for cast iron is to split the gate and use two so that the metal flows in at the mid point between the two end cavities instead of in the middle of the mold. This will make the metal hit both ends at the same time.

But now that I think about it I cabbaged a couple of yardsticks off of my neighbor this afternoon, to make new gates with I may just fix so that it has four gates about an inch long, but I don't see where that would help.

Anyway I now have a couple of good aluminum parts that I can mold lead in and use for patterns

[dallen]

The new gating setup. will sprue directly into the middle just like I did today, but the gating into the cavity is spread out so that the metal has a chance of hitting all the way across the cavity without choking off.