The International Hobby Metal Casting ezine.
Brought To You By:
Col Croucher, administrator of: www.myhomefoundry.com
Australia.
May 2007. Volume: 04. Number: 43.
As I sit down to begin writing this ezine, I look out of my office window at the beautifull autumn colours in the leaves of several trees we planted well over twenty years ago, these trees have struggled, really struggled during the recent drought we've all been suffering from in OZ for the past year - two years, perhaps three or more in some places, we didn't really expect the colours to be all that great this autumn, but we were wrong. It shows just how resilient old mother nature is, the Autumn colours are not as good as a normal year but they are good none the less, it is indeed a beautifull site.
I enjoy this time of the year when it becomes cooler, it means getting back into the workshop to crank up the foundry again, and also to tackle problem projects that were abandoned in the past.
We should take a leaf out of nature's book, (Scuse the pun) nature is incredibly resilient, we can also show persistance, and not give up on something, it could mean the difference between success and failure in any indeavour, yes, we can learn a lot from mother nature, it is hard to understand why trees manage to survive in times of drought, it makes you think, doesnt it.
Last weekend I dragged the portable charcoal forge out from under the bench and fired it up to melt down about fourteen large Al truck pistons into raw ingots, yep, I used a cheap home made steel pipe crucible for the pot and I was surprised at how little charcoal was actually consumed, as usual I employed the trusty old electrolux vac for the blower, albeit a very gentle air blast when used with the charcoal forge, the variable speed control on the vac works a treat with the forge. After about 2.5 to 3 hours the job was complete and I had quite a stack of Aluminium ingot stock ready to melt for a project we are planning.... more of which I will tell you about a little further on in the newsletter.
Thank you if you were one of the many people who responded to our little ezine survey, it looks like the HTML version wins the vote as the best ezine format, we kind of knew that would be the case, but we thought we would put it to the vote, thank you for replying to let us know what your thoughts were. There was an intial rush of replies the day after the ezine notice went out, but the reply's just kept on comming, and the last only just arrived a few days ago, most just sent the blank email which is all we requested, but others wrote some really nice emails voicing their personal thanks to us for publishing the ezine, we replied to all of those emails, but thanks again for your support and gratitude, I wont mention names, as the people concerned will give a knowing smile when they read this section of the ezine.
OK, that's enough of my comments and yap, let's get on with the job, following is a short article and some photographs sent to me by Simon Milner who is one of our Australian ebook clients. Simon lives south of Melbourne (Vic) and has taken on board the knowledge and ideas from the ebooks and has built a fabulous hobby foundry set up. I was blown away with the quality of the equipment and tools he has built. Take a look at the photo's and read the article, learn from it, and if you have been toying with the idea of casting some metal in your own hobby workshop, then you can do it... truly.
Sponsor Message.
A freind asked me the other day, "What countries do your ebooks go to,
and who reads your articles?"
The article page view/read tally is: 81,994
and the articles have also been published in other ezines - newsletters
1,130 times. Who reads them?... Anyone who's interested in hobby
foundry work.
As for the ebooks, they've been delivered to hobby casting
enthusiasts in: 44 states in the USA, 9 provinces in Canada, and
delivered to 42 countries around the world. we are really happy to have
helped so many people discover hobby metal casting, there are endless
possiblities with this ancient metal craft.
If you like working with your
hands, and you enjoy a mental challenge as well, there's no doubt
you will thoroughly enjoy metal casting.
Want to give it a go?
Grab Your ebook Package Here.
Testimonials:
You Can Read Them
Here.
Well designed, quality built home foundry
gear.
A peek inside the furnace. Note the nice
stainles steel furnace parts.
An ideal
hobby
foundry set up, ready for casting success.
Simon
purchased The Metal Casting Made Easy
ebooks, and used the idea's and methods to successfully build his own
home foundry. The
ebooks outline a success recipe followed by many people from around the
globe.
Simon's OZ Foundry.
Hi Col.Thank you for the information regarding the Petro Bond problem. In the last few days, I have made several calls to foundry supply companies, and researched the product intensely. I was about to give up on the material after finding that the powder was without
oil addition.
What I have found out has changed my mind, and I am really looking forward to obtaining the rest of the recipe's to complete it to "green sand" stage. Basically, Petro Bond is a volume addition added to dry, clean silica sand, to replace the clay that is usually the ingredient for bonding the sand. I discovered the oil is the wetting agent designed to replace water, (Used in green sand) with the advantage of eliminating steam generation during the pour.
The silica sand should be of the finest grade obtainable, and the oil is a hydraulic oil. Mike Taylor of Dynaref, in Dandenong, said Shell "Shellus" oil is compatible, so I am getting the local Shell distributor to source some for me. I have also found a foundry sand supplier in Deavon Meadows who can sell me graded silica sand. Hopefully this week will see some sand mixing, and even a pour!!
Initially I was wondering how foundry companies could afford to use Petro Bond as a main sand with the cost for 25.5kg coming in at over $350, but when it is mixed into the sand and oil at the suggested quantities, one 25.5kg bag will make nearly 600kg of "green sand".
still dear, but considerably better than thinking that 25kg was the sand volume total.
I have attached some pictures of the furnace and tooling I have made so far. I thought you might appreciate your influence through the web site, and the ebooks. This furnace has been built with a flu with a butterfly to choke the exhaust flow, to obtain optimum mixture ratio and heat intensity.
The lifting mechanism has been built into the top of the flu at the highest point, to obtain lifting stability. The locking bar operates automatically to fall into the support as soon as the lid is lifted high enough, and when lifted above this point, it is knocked backwards
by the lid, which allows the lid to be lowered without interference of the locking bar.
To centre the lid on the furnace, I did not bother with fancy aligning mechanism's, and instead, cast a lip into the refractory poured into the lid, which acts to seal the top of the furnace from side blasts of flame, and drops into the centre recess of the refractory, which
locates it centrally into the furnace.
The burner is attached by a single 3/8 unc bolt, which is loosened a couple of turns allowing the burner to just slide out for transporting or storing the furnace.
I have shown the funace running with it on about 1/4 air flow, doing a warm up. The camera cant get onto an angle anywhere near this when the gas and air are turned up.
You will notice the small cement mixer in the background in one of the photos. I sold a rusted out VW Beetle last week for $215, and used the money to buy this 45 litre mini mixer for $210. I thought I should get it after realising all of the Petro Bond mixing that will be required.
I could have built one, but this saved a couple of weekends work, and I would have needed to purchase a motor anyhow. The Chinese products might not be great quality, but for the work required, it suits this purpose ideally.
Thank you again for your help in getting this far. I will send you a pic of the first pour when I get there. Assuming it is not a shameful attempt.
Regards,
Simon Milner.
Victoria Australia.
Well done Simon, you have built an excellent home foundry.
Col.
Commercial Foundry Core Production.
Pedro Products. Huntingdale - Melbourne Australia.
During a recent business trip to Melbourne I had the opportunity to call on Terry & Anna Capsalis and son Peter at their foundry core making facility Pedro Products in Huntingdale Melbourne, the business was formerly known as Walron cores. They have several core blower machines which are set up for production runs, in effect, the sand is coated with a resin which is then blown/forced into a two-part heated metel die block, after a few seconds the die is opened by a hydraulic ram and the completed baked core is ejected, sometimes the cores are made in two halves and glued together at a later stage when the cores have cooled down.
   |
Echuca - Steam - Horse - & Vintage Rally.
June 9th & 10th. Queens Birthday Long Weekend.
If you live in Victoria, NSW, or SA and have never been to the Echuca Steam & Vintage Rally, then you should come along, even if it's for one day. This year's rally marks the 44th event, and you'll see some incredibly fascinating sights - sounds - aroma's, and machinery from yesteryear which can be seen close up.
And if you are planning on comming along, then keep your eyes and ears open for the sound of a gas fired furnace roaring away, because that will be me demonstrating the ancient art of metal casting, we booked a site some time ago, and we're currently preparing to take the foundry and gear over to Echuca to do some onsite foundry work. This will be the first time we have done onsite demonstrating, so hope it all goes well.
We'll be giving away some small cast aluminium trinkets, so if you are at the rally and you are an ezine subscriber, ebook customer, or you just want to take a peek at metal casting, please drop in to say G'day.
We aim to do moulding/metal casting demos about every hour or so. Should be a lot of fun, and don't forget to grab your free cast trinket. (Hence the mention above or the ingot stock being melted in the charcoal forge.)
We will have samples of castings & patterns etc to show interested people the possibilities of this fascinating metal craft.
Look forward to seeing you there if you can make it.
Col.
Small
Farm Maintenance & Workshop Skills.
Things that tree changer's should think about.
Small
farm lifestyle living has attracted a lot of interest from a large
number of people, many of
which have decide to take the step and live the rural lifestyle dream. There is no wonder that so many books have
been written to provide ideas and
guidance to help the small farmer or homesteader create an income to
help them survive and prosper
on a small rural holding.
For instance; there are several
books available that provide useful information for the small farmer, on all
kinds of topics, such as: Farm basics,- Finances & marketing - How to sell
your home grown product - Small farm enterprise ideas - How to grow crops
- How to raise animals - Alternative
agriculture ideas - Small farm management, etc, etc.
The shift to the rural
lifestyle will mean that small farm holdings will tend to increase approx 17.4% over
the next 10 years. To the casual observer, you would be forgiven if you
asked the question why?
The simple
reason is:
People are just sick &
tired of the hassle of city living and the many problems now appearing in society will
keep driving the exodus to the small
farm lifestyle, which offers true peace and quiet, and a safe haven
for your family.
But with the move to rural
lifestyle properties many city people suddenly find themselves in the situation of having
to learn a whole new set of skills, and a new way of doing things, because
farm life can be quite different to city life.
Routine farm maintenance can be
a real headache for the non-practical person, a basic requirement on any farm
is; gates & fences, you need good fences to control stock, and gates to
move them from paddock to paddock,
ready made gates can be expensive to buy and have installed by a tradesman, but if you possess welding
and fabrication skills, & you understand how to install them yourself,
the cost will be minimized to the expense of the raw materials plus your
time to install them. DIY work will put money back in your pocket.
Investing capital into a farm
workshop equipped with quality tools and equipment will repay the initial set-up
cost ten fold within a very short time.
The beauty of living the rural
lifestyle is the freedom to do things that you may not be able to do in the city; perhaps you
have hobbies and interest's that generate excessive noise... a productive
farm workshop may fall into that category, but heck, you are saving your
self a lot of money building things your self, right, and as long as you don't make
noise at really odd hours of the day or night, your neighbours down the road
shouldn't mind in the least what you do in your workshop.
style="font-family:
Arial;">
If you enjoy rebuilding and
restoring old antique oil engines, or other old things for that matter, then a rural location
will allow you to collect, store, and restore old engines to your hearts content, in
fact you might have several other practical hobbies that you can pursue on your small
farm enterprise.
Learning new skills is a
lifelong process, if you love restoring old engines, farm machinery, or old tools and equipment, then one of
the most invaluable skills to have under you belt is the ability to cast your own metal
parts from aluminium and bronze.
The process is not high tech,
the tools can be homemade, and the equipment to melt scrap metal can be built from items
scrounged from junkyards, or from your own farm, an overview of metal
casting could be described as: Using a pattern to make the cavity in a two part
sand mould, scrap metal is melted in a
simple furnace and then poured
into the sand mould cavity, of course there is more to it than that, but if you want to
explore the possibilities with metal casting, then feel free to visit our web site to
download a free introductory ebook.
To learn more about the art of
metal casting, feel free to make a visit to www.myhomefoundry.com The hobby foundry
info web site. Download your
free introductory metal casting made easy ebook. And learn how
others have mastered hobby
metal casting.
Until Next Time. Enjoy Your Casting And Be Carefull.
Col Croucher.