The Hot metal Ezine

Extract From: March 2006. Volume: 03. Number: 29
Feature Story.
Sean Capogreco.
North Carolina USA.
Project: The Tesla Turbine.

Nikola Tesla wanted free power for everyone. He is Master of Lightning and father of the wireless. Gods gift to the 21st century. Like many early inventors Nikola Tesla died poor, but as developers we use the Internet for its original purpose. An efficient method for scientists to communicate. I know that if Tesla were alive today he would say we were right on target. After all it's his entire baby. As Sean said "I didn't invent any of this, I'm just following up on the work of those before me".

Do you know about the Tesla Turbine?

Sean Capogreco of North Carolina has. He is a long time devotee and has been studying the work of Nikola Tesla (Inventor of the Tesla Turbine) for quite some time now. But before Sean could start building anything he had to learn from scratch how to cast metal so that he can build a Tesla Turbine. Some of you may have heard about the Tesla Turbine, a few people may have even discounted the Tesla theories, but many scientists believe the Tesla Turbine will become a major force in the generation of sustainable energy requirements for the world at large... especially with world energy shortages (Read crisis) virtually on our doorsteps.

"If you can cast metal and run a lathe you can build turbines, or anything for that matter".Says Sean. "Learn to command the sand, and you can pretty much do whatever you want". Gods gift to mankind is the sun. "We need to adapt our devices to the sun in order to survive".You can read & learn more about the Tesla turbine here. http://www.sredmond.com/disk_turbine.htm

All of this has evolved from the basic foundry knowledge and techniques learnt from the hobby foundry ebooks to cast all of the parts for the Tesla Turbine. As the photos show above Sean has made some very nice turbine stator housing castings, plus many other special parts. I have followed Seans progress for some time now and he has done some amazing things with his metal casting skills.

As publisher of the hobby foundry ebooks, I get enormous satisfaction when I witness success such as this. Metal Casting is not that hard to learn, and once you know what and how to do it, then you can put those skills to use and build meaningful, rewarding projects, Sean has certainly shown that with a little effort, you will be rewarded with success.

"The ebooks truly provided the knowledge to make this thing go. Even gave me a free copy when I lost a hard drive". You have delivered such a rewarding craft, you've been there for support, and answered lots of questions.Colin, you made my castings successful.

Congratulations Sean on being selected as the Developer of the Month for two consecutive months, on the following web site" http://phoenixnavigation.com/ptbc/home.htm

oooo0000oooo

THE DYING TRADE. By David Patterson.
Extract From: July 2006. Volume: 03. Number: 33.

One of the best days of my life was walking out of a pattern shop with the knowledge that I had a job the following Monday. It was early summer 1973, I was age twenty-four, and almost too old to become an apprentice. The cut off age was twenty-five. Monday came and I wondered what the hell I had got myself into, for the first two weeks on the job I spent cleaning a 1/4" coating of pigeon dung out of some large foundry core-boxes. A great start that was!

I had to finish a six-month probation or trial period, and then I was on my way. Five years later, I finished and became a card-carrying certificate holding journeyman pattern maker. At the end of the apprenticeship program I had to make a decision. The boss said. "You can stay where you're at, or quit and move on to increase your skills". I chose to quit; my employer wasn't too happy but understood, his grandfather and
father were pattern makers. Things were good because I knew I could get a job in a pattern shop any where in the country, even though I didn't, but I could.

But there was a change coming; the industry was undergoing a transformation in the way things were done. I decided to come back to the pattern shop where I started. There standing on the shop floor were two NC mills in the machine shop, and the machinist was starting to cut simple patterns. They failed big time, ha!

A couple of years later some guy came in and was talking about lasers and plastic, for a small investment of $10,000, we could have invested in something called stereo lithography. This was about 1984, the year before I got my first computer. One change was that my original "Home" pattern shop where I started no longer had an apprentice, and none had been trained since the time I had left the shop. By 1987 the union was also gone in this area. Which was too bad, as the Pattern makers League of North
America was 100 years old. And was actually one of the first trade unions in this country.

In 1994 I started taking CAD classes at a local community college. What a change that was, not only could I build anything out of whatever I wanted too, I could now just do it on a computer. Realizing that the patterns I made by hand can now be cut on a machine, with better accuracy. I saw MY career change from hands of skill in creating a pattern to one of simply hand sanding the product that the machine had cut. So by 1997 I left the trade to design machine parts and castings on the computer.

Between 1997 and now, I've been back to the pattern-shops for total of two years, as a CNC programmer. I'm a CMM programmer and Cad designer the rest of the time.

Being a Pattern maker is something you either are or your not. I still miss the smell of pine and lacquer, and the simple patterns I build at home don't quite make up for the thrill of laying out the offsets and building the rudder hub for a 600-foot tanker, or arranging the close tolerance tooling for a 15" midrange speaker horn. The pattern making trade is dying, or changing, but either way the traditional pattern making knowledge of old will eventually be lost for good.

David R. Patterson.

Now that you have read Davids article, why not pop over to his web site to learn more.
http://home.comcast.net/~oddkins/foundry_home.html

Feature Article.
Extract From: August 2006. Volume: 03. Number: 34.
Reproduction Castings For Vintage Oil Engine.
John Harmes.
Western Australia.

Hi my name is JOHN HARMES and I live in TAMBELLUP just south of Katanning in the Great Southern district of Western Australia.

My background is largely in the Motor Trade where I spent over forty years both as a mechanic and Service Manager, part of which also included 25 years experience with Mercedes Benz vehicles. At the age of 55, I had to have an operation to have a heart pacemaker fitted, after the operation, I had to make a major change in life style, but as the old story goes NO body wants to employ you.

We moved from Perth to the country and bought a Delicatessen and operated the Deli for four years before selling the business and moving onto a bush block to build a house and then setting up a workshop. After we had established ourselves, I found that I needed some kind of a hobby, and after some thought I decided on restoring vintage oil engines, the make of engine was not important, most of the engines I found were in reasonable condition, but often several parts were missing or broken. These old vintage engines from the early 1900s onwards and there are few spares available, if at all. So I was now at a loss as to how to obtain parts.

Early in June 2004, a copy of The Old Machinery Magazine (TOM) which I subscribe to arrived in the mail, and to my delight an article on building a furnace and doing your own foundry work appeared in the magazine by our mentor Col Croucher, it was then that I new I was in luck.

My next problem was how to contact Col as at the time, we did not have a computer, but a friend came to my rescue and in no time at all, I had built my furnace as per instructions in the ebooks except for one minor change, a removable burner assembly was used. This enabled me to happily experiment with the moulding sand as well as making patterns, I will admit to a few failures, and a few successes along the way, but now I find it easier to make patterns from polystyrene set in hard packed sand in the normal way.

The Items I have cast so far are; small mufflers, air cleaner cover, timing cover for a Cooper Little Wonder Shearing plant built somewhere around the year 1910-1915, small pulleys & wheels, & end caps for a long muffler for the Cooper.

Now here’s a good hint, for scrap metal stock, I use aluminium race horse shoes cut in half, approx fifty shoes provides 5-6 lbs of ingots, and I have a ready supply of shoes for free.

I also make new fuel and water tanks, being way out of town I have to be resourceful and make a lot of stuff myself, so I made two sheet rolling machines for making the tanks plus a heavy duty rolling unit for making wheels with 6mm thick rims, the same style as the old vintage wheels used on old machinery, this metal rolling unit was made using heavy duty bearings.

A sheet metal bending machine was also made, which I use for making square tanks. I cut all my styrene patterns using a wire cutter powered by a battery charger.

A sand Muller of my own design was also built, and powered by a heavy-duty 12v motor. Another useful machine I made was a de-rusting tank, which is also powered by the battery charger. All the equipment I have made is proving to be very effective, I am really enjoying my engine restoration hobby and being able to cast the special parts required.

John Harmes. Western Australia.

Restoring Rusty Cast Iron.

From the "Fajita King", and he uses cast iron serving plates for my fajitas say's Jeff Watson.

The best way to rejuvenate cast iron after it gets a little rusty or crusty is to spray it with oven cleaner and let it sit for an hour to remove the buildup. Then remove any rust with naval jelly (gelled phosphoric acid, good stuff for rust).

Then rinse thoroughly in hot water several times, wipe it down with vegetable oil and heat it up in the oven. You'll have to re-apply the oil a time or two, but this is the step that prevents rusting, so coat it well and let it soak in, the heat will help it wet the metal and cure it so that it stays put. Good Luck and Bon Appetite`!

It appears that everyone just loved the story and the film about Burt Munro, the speed legend of New Zealand, and it is a great story, he was a great inventer, tinkerer and metal caster, you never get tired of reading about blokes like Burt.

Famous Quote From Burt: The only way to overcome any obstacle was by persisting and learning, and then persisting some more. (Food for thought).

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.

Metal Casting Success Story.
Extract From: October 2007. Volume: 04. Number: 48.
Troy Rhodes.
Michigan, USA.
Photographs Start At The Top: #1-2-3-4-5.

Col.

Here's a success story for you. I also want to encourage others to get in there and try metal casting.

***

I wanted to build/assemble my own generator using an "old time" Iisteroid. Perhaps you have heard of these fun/slow/durable engines.

The sticky part was, I needed a custom pulley to take a 6 rib serpentine belt, just like the one that drives the alternator and other accessories on your car. This would allow me to run a serpentine belt right from the flywheel of the listeroid to the pulley on the generator.

I did some research and found a source that manufactures them, but the cost was exorbitant; they wanted hundreds of dollars for the complete assembly, by the time I bought the special bushing and then paid the shipping the cost was blown out too much.

This I thought was the perfect time to begin experimenting with my new foundry, and the pulley assembly was the first useful part I had made with the foundry. On top of that, I made the entire part using the lost foam process.

For the readers who have never tried this technique, it's not as hard as some make it out to be. To be sure, there is a learning curve and you'll make a few bad parts. But that's half of the fun.

(Editors note: Haven’t we always said that you'll learn more from you’re mistakes than you will from your successes!)

So, first I made a foam pattern out of normal white bead board, AKA Styrofoam. You can experiment with white foam (fast and cheap) or the denser pink and blue extruded foam board products. The denser foams will generally produce finer casting detail and will provide a stiffer, stronger pattern which is less likely to deform when you bury/surround
it in the backing sand.

Image #1: The raw blank being turned on the lathe.

Then I fancied it up a bit by drilling some lightening holes in the foam pattern. That's one of the major advantages of a foam pattern. You can make it virtually as complex or as simple as you want, and never have to worry about pattern draft, or complex 3 or 4 part mold boxes. Just make it how you want it, allowing for a little extra "meat" for final machining and cleanup allowance.

The sprue and vent are simply glued to the pattern, to get a complete fill. Use ordinary white PVA glue (Elmer’s would be the common brand around here.) Be careful not to make a huge thick glue joint, as that may impede the flow of molten aluminium.

Image #2: The raw casting straight from the sand. (NA)

Now here's a pic of the raw casting just after I rinsed the sand off. I Didn’t use green sand or petrobond or anything special. This was just dry "play" sand, purchased at the lumberyard in a 50# bag for a couple of bucks. I was as proud as a new father, well, almost. But I have to confess that it took about three tries before I found the proper arrangement for the sprue and the vent to get a nice dense casting without voids.

The project was a fantastic learning experience the whole way through.

Image #3: When things go wrong. (NA)

You reckon you are the only one to have failures... here's one of the duds. I think the molten aluminium wasn't quite hot enough on that pour. And/or the sprue wasn't tall enough to put a enough "hydrostatic" or head pressure on the casting to get a fast efficient fill. Oh well, it's back in the pot for another try.

Image # 4th: Success. (This is the only image shown in this ezine).
As you can see the pulley machined up nicely, and I also cast a split mounting bushing to bolt it to the gennie shaft. Here's a look at the finished product. The original plan was to machine the lightening holes in the pulley for a spiffy finished look, but the "as cast" appearance was quite good enough, and I decided to leave them as is.

While I was doing a static balance of the pulley, we found that it only needed very minor drilling to get a perfect balance. This is a testament to how accurately you can make a raw casting using the lost foam method:

Image # 5: (NA)
The goal has been acheived and the pulley is finally installed and doing its job on the generator:

Finest regards and I enjoy the e-zine every month! Keep up the good work.
Troy Rhodes.

Matt Weber. Metal Artist.
dellaterra studios. AZ. USA.
Extract From: October 2007.
My name is Matt Weber and my partner Desi Costanza and I run Della Terra Studios located in Chandler, Arizona, USA. Our working studio is primarily a Metal, Glass, and teaching studio. Desi handles the glass side of things, and I work the metal. Our commissions are both public and private, our artwork can be found around the world.

My interest in metal began when I took a welding class in Jr. High School. I was pretty much hooked at that point. As time went on, my metalwork started to take an artistic form. My hunger for knowledge in all types of metalwork could not be satisfied. I began to study with all types of metalworkers such as master Blacksmiths and Coppersmiths.

I also began collecting and reading every book on the subject of metal I could get my hands on. I would buy books that covered metalworking skills of things I had no intentions of making. Such as armor reproduction and knife making.

All these skills are transferable to most any type of metalwork. You learn about new tools and properties of metal and how to heat-treat them. All these skills make me a better artist by giving me the mental tools to transfer what I see in my mind to reality.

Casting metal is another road in my metal working journey. The possibilities of combining hand made cast items and hand-forged work are endless. I see many benefits in casting when it comes to original sculpture. My attempts with casting have been crude to say the least. They basically consist of pouring copper onto the kiln shelf, and basic plaster molds. The "Chalice" pictured is the only artwork I have done that has cast pieces in it.

It was made from several random pours of copper onto the kiln shelf. The pieces were then assembled over the top of an old oxygen tank used as a form, and then assembled onto a steel/copper base. The patina is chemical and the gold interior is gold leaf.

My failed (and sometimes dangerous) experimentation has led me here to try metal
casting. I may be dumb enough to experiment with dangerous procedures, but I'm
at least smart enough to wear the proper protective gear.

So after splattering copper all over the place more than once, I figured I better ask the pro's. This led me to Colins wonderful ebook publication on the net. So much information supplied for such a reasonable price.
I host a free online forum at: www.metalartistforum.com you can find many talented metal artists there that are more than willing to share what they know.

Sharing our knowledge is what keeps our arts evolving!

Matt Weber-Metal Artist
http://www.dellaterrastudios.com

Editors Note:
Matt has commissioned work located at the following locations:

Vision Gallery: http://www.visiongallery.org/
Art on Boston: http://www.artonboston.com/
There are two pieces currently on display at the Chandler
Sculpture Walk: http://www.chandleraz.gov/newsrelease.aspx?N_UID=957
Matt also has a public commission to re-create light fixtures for a historic
home and visitors centre in Chandler, AZ. USA.

**
Thank you Matt, your work is imaginative & creative.
Col Croucher.
Ed.

If you are a new ezine subscriber, you are probably thinking where all the past issues are, well please hang in there, we are working on a new ezine archive directory on our server!

Many thanks to the article contributors above, you have helped make The Hot Metal ezine what it is today. And if there are any other ezine readers who would like to contibute, feel free to send us your story at any time, just send us an email through the contact form on the web site about page and I will give you another email address to send your article and pictures along to us.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year.
Col.
PS.
See you late in January.
PPS.
Have you been thinking about setting up your foundry? You can save a few dollars right now with our three day Christmas special... it's happening now.
http://www.myhomefoundry.com/library.html

The Hot Metal Ezine. The International Hobby Metal Casting ezine. Brought To You By: Col Croucher, administrator of: www.myhomefoundry.com Australia. December 2007. Volume: 04. Number:50. Anniversary Edition.
Hello again. Well wouldn't you know it, this edition of The Hot Metal ezine is number 50, I think that is a bit of a milestone, especially for an Internet based product where things come and go rather quickly. Would that be a faint round of applause I can hear in the distance? I dunno, cant tell from here... too far away, or maybe I'm going deaf... don't matter. Anyway, I hope you have enjoyed the ezine so far. We were hoping to have at least a couple of good stories from subscribers to show and tell us what they have achieved with their hobby foundry, as you know, everyone likes to read about other people and the what - where and how they are doing things, it is bit of a shame that it is not going to happen right here in the fiftieth edition. Do you have a story to tell? What have you done with your time over the past six months - year... two years... I would say that's enough time to acheive almost anything. But I guess if you've not had the time, or perhaps other things tend to get in the road of your projects... that is a shame, as we would really like you to share some of your metal casting creations, no matter what they are. Lets recap on where the ezine has come from: It grew from a seed of an idea one day while chewing the fat with mate here in OZ, I did not have much of an idea on how an ezine should be put together, but after a bit of study of what others were doing we we soon had issue number one ready to go, but that was just a plain Jane text version, not the nice HTML version we have today with full colour photos, this was voted by far to be the best style of ezine to publish. The first edition was published on November 06 / 2003. Issue No: 01. Volume No: 01. We had 101 subscribers for the first mail out. Today, the list has grown considerably from the first 100 or so subscribers , which consist of people from all walks of life, from all over the world, from both rich & poor countries, subscribers range from Doctors to backyad mechanics - professional & retired engineers - car - truck & motorcycle restoration enthusiasts - from education professionals to corporate high flyers - from individual artistic metal craft people to community arts groups, and of course the humble back yard founder just like you and I, yes, you would be truly surprised just who is "into" hobby foundry work. You see, it matters little where you come from, or what your background is, there are great rewards for creating things with your bare hands... personal rewards and great satisfaction rate extremely high on most blokes minds.... and there is no better way to bring that out than with hobby metal casting. Turning junk scrap metal into something of value is the epitome of total recycling, and you should feel proud because you have created something valuable & worthwhile from scrap metal. It is not hard to use your brains to come up with bright ideas, then use your hands to bring your ideas to reality... it is something special, a unique gift, and people who have no idea shake the heads & wonder just how the hell you have made whatever it is you have made. Well, I say congratulations because you deserve it, anybody who has the drive to get of their backside to have a go at something they have never done before deserves a bit of praise and encouragement that's for sure. (End Of Cols Rant) Now lets recap some interesting stories/articles from past ezines. Before ya start, go make your self a brew of coffee, get yer self comfortable, caus there's a lotta readin ta do...
You Need The Right Kind Of Tools & Info To Build Your Hobby Foundry. It Could mean The Difference Between Success & Failure. You Will Find Everything You Need Through The Link Below. Our 2007 Christmas Special. Three Days ONLY! Grab It While You Can, Plus Some Free Downloads. On The Library Page.	Sean Capogreco: Tesla Turbine, machining the stator housing. Tesla Turbine Article. March 2006. There is only one image per article supplied here, individual articles can be read by sourcing respective ezine month issue. John Harmes: Reproduction rocker arm on vintage oil engine, cast in aluminium alloy. Reproduction Castings For Vintage oil Engine. August 2006. Indian Engine: Highly modified by Burt Munro of NZ for land speed record attempts. January 07 Top notch home built hobby foundry gear. Simon Milner. Vic. Australia. May 2007. Simon modelled his foundry from info gleaned from our foundry ebooks. Troy Rhodes. Michigan, USA. October 2007. Project: To cast and machine a custom pulley to take a six rib serpentine belt, just like the one that drives the alternator and other accessories on your car. This would allow me to run a serpentine belt right from the flywheel of the listeroid to the pulley on the.... Matt Weber. Metal Artist. USA. October 2007. Chalice, open mould cast copper. To say that I am impressed by the hobby foundry work that has come to my attention over the past couple of years would be an understatement. I feel even more humbled when people email us to extend a simple thank you for providing the tools, information and encouragement to simply "have a go" at hobby metal casting. Congratulations and thank you to every ebook customer, ezine subscriber who has successfully reached their personal goals of success.
Significant Articles From Previous Ezines. Extract From: March 2006. Volume: 03. Number: 29 Feature Story. Sean Capogreco. North Carolina USA. Project: The Tesla Turbine. Nikola Tesla wanted free power for everyone. He is Master of Lightning and father of the wireless. Gods gift to the 21st century. Like many early inventors Nikola Tesla died poor, but as developers we use the Internet for its original purpose. An efficient method for scientists to communicate. I know that if Tesla were alive today he would say we were right on target. After all it's his entire baby. As Sean said "I didn't invent any of this, I'm just following up on the work of those before me". Do you know about the Tesla Turbine? Sean Capogreco of North Carolina has. He is a long time devotee and has been studying the work of Nikola Tesla (Inventor of the Tesla Turbine) for quite some time now. But before Sean could start building anything he had to learn from scratch how to cast metal so that he can build a Tesla Turbine. Some of you may have heard about the Tesla Turbine, a few people may have even discounted the Tesla theories, but many scientists believe the Tesla Turbine will become a major force in the generation of sustainable energy requirements for the world at large... especially with world energy shortages (Read crisis) virtually on our doorsteps. "If you can cast metal and run a lathe you can build turbines, or anything for that matter".Says Sean. "Learn to command the sand, and you can pretty much do whatever you want". Gods gift to mankind is the sun. "We need to adapt our devices to the sun in order to survive".You can read & learn more about the Tesla turbine here. http://www.sredmond.com/disk_turbine.htm All of this has evolved from the basic foundry knowledge and techniques learnt from the hobby foundry ebooks to cast all of the parts for the Tesla Turbine. As the photos show above Sean has made some very nice turbine stator housing castings, plus many other special parts. I have followed Seans progress for some time now and he has done some amazing things with his metal casting skills. As publisher of the hobby foundry ebooks, I get enormous satisfaction when I witness success such as this. Metal Casting is not that hard to learn, and once you know what and how to do it, then you can put those skills to use and build meaningful, rewarding projects, Sean has certainly shown that with a little effort, you will be rewarded with success. "The ebooks truly provided the knowledge to make this thing go. Even gave me a free copy when I lost a hard drive". You have delivered such a rewarding craft, you've been there for support, and answered lots of questions.Colin, you made my castings successful. Congratulations Sean on being selected as the Developer of the Month for two consecutive months, on the following web site" http://phoenixnavigation.com/ptbc/home.htm oooo0000oooo THE DYING TRADE. By David Patterson. Extract From: July 2006. Volume: 03. Number: 33. One of the best days of my life was walking out of a pattern shop with the knowledge that I had a job the following Monday. It was early summer 1973, I was age twenty-four, and almost too old to become an apprentice. The cut off age was twenty-five. Monday came and I wondered what the hell I had got myself into, for the first two weeks on the job I spent cleaning a 1/4" coating of pigeon dung out of some large foundry core-boxes. A great start that was! I had to finish a six-month probation or trial period, and then I was on my way. Five years later, I finished and became a card-carrying certificate holding journeyman pattern maker. At the end of the apprenticeship program I had to make a decision. The boss said. "You can stay where you're at, or quit and move on to increase your skills". I chose to quit; my employer wasn't too happy but understood, his grandfather and father were pattern makers. Things were good because I knew I could get a job in a pattern shop any where in the country, even though I didn't, but I could. But there was a change coming; the industry was undergoing a transformation in the way things were done. I decided to come back to the pattern shop where I started. There standing on the shop floor were two NC mills in the machine shop, and the machinist was starting to cut simple patterns. They failed big time, ha! A couple of years later some guy came in and was talking about lasers and plastic, for a small investment of $10,000, we could have invested in something called stereo lithography. This was about 1984, the year before I got my first computer. One change was that my original "Home" pattern shop where I started no longer had an apprentice, and none had been trained since the time I had left the shop. By 1987 the union was also gone in this area. Which was too bad, as the Pattern makers League of North America was 100 years old. And was actually one of the first trade unions in this country. In 1994 I started taking CAD classes at a local community college. What a change that was, not only could I build anything out of whatever I wanted too, I could now just do it on a computer. Realizing that the patterns I made by hand can now be cut on a machine, with better accuracy. I saw MY career change from hands of skill in creating a pattern to one of simply hand sanding the product that the machine had cut. So by 1997 I left the trade to design machine parts and castings on the computer. Between 1997 and now, I've been back to the pattern-shops for total of two years, as a CNC programmer. I'm a CMM programmer and Cad designer the rest of the time. Being a Pattern maker is something you either are or your not. I still miss the smell of pine and lacquer, and the simple patterns I build at home don't quite make up for the thrill of laying out the offsets and building the rudder hub for a 600-foot tanker, or arranging the close tolerance tooling for a 15" midrange speaker horn. The pattern making trade is dying, or changing, but either way the traditional pattern making knowledge of old will eventually be lost for good. David R. Patterson. Now that you have read Davids article, why not pop over to his web site to learn more. http://home.comcast.net/~oddkins/foundry_home.html Feature Article. Extract From: August 2006. Volume: 03. Number: 34. Reproduction Castings For Vintage Oil Engine. John Harmes. Western Australia. Hi my name is JOHN HARMES and I live in TAMBELLUP just south of Katanning in the Great Southern district of Western Australia. My background is largely in the Motor Trade where I spent over forty years both as a mechanic and Service Manager, part of which also included 25 years experience with Mercedes Benz vehicles. At the age of 55, I had to have an operation to have a heart pacemaker fitted, after the operation, I had to make a major change in life style, but as the old story goes NO body wants to employ you. We moved from Perth to the country and bought a Delicatessen and operated the Deli for four years before selling the business and moving onto a bush block to build a house and then setting up a workshop. After we had established ourselves, I found that I needed some kind of a hobby, and after some thought I decided on restoring vintage oil engines, the make of engine was not important, most of the engines I found were in reasonable condition, but often several parts were missing or broken. These old vintage engines from the early 1900s onwards and there are few spares available, if at all. So I was now at a loss as to how to obtain parts. Early in June 2004, a copy of The Old Machinery Magazine (TOM) which I subscribe to arrived in the mail, and to my delight an article on building a furnace and doing your own foundry work appeared in the magazine by our mentor Col Croucher, it was then that I new I was in luck. My next problem was how to contact Col as at the time, we did not have a computer, but a friend came to my rescue and in no time at all, I had built my furnace as per instructions in the ebooks except for one minor change, a removable burner assembly was used. This enabled me to happily experiment with the moulding sand as well as making patterns, I will admit to a few failures, and a few successes along the way, but now I find it easier to make patterns from polystyrene set in hard packed sand in the normal way. The Items I have cast so far are; small mufflers, air cleaner cover, timing cover for a Cooper Little Wonder Shearing plant built somewhere around the year 1910-1915, small pulleys & wheels, & end caps for a long muffler for the Cooper. Now here’s a good hint, for scrap metal stock, I use aluminium race horse shoes cut in half, approx fifty shoes provides 5-6 lbs of ingots, and I have a ready supply of shoes for free. I also make new fuel and water tanks, being way out of town I have to be resourceful and make a lot of stuff myself, so I made two sheet rolling machines for making the tanks plus a heavy duty rolling unit for making wheels with 6mm thick rims, the same style as the old vintage wheels used on old machinery, this metal rolling unit was made using heavy duty bearings. A sheet metal bending machine was also made, which I use for making square tanks. I cut all my styrene patterns using a wire cutter powered by a battery charger. A sand Muller of my own design was also built, and powered by a heavy-duty 12v motor. Another useful machine I made was a de-rusting tank, which is also powered by the battery charger. All the equipment I have made is proving to be very effective, I am really enjoying my engine restoration hobby and being able to cast the special parts required. John Harmes. Western Australia. Restoring Rusty Cast Iron. From the "Fajita King", and he uses cast iron serving plates for my fajitas say's Jeff Watson. The best way to rejuvenate cast iron after it gets a little rusty or crusty is to spray it with oven cleaner and let it sit for an hour to remove the buildup. Then remove any rust with naval jelly (gelled phosphoric acid, good stuff for rust). Then rinse thoroughly in hot water several times, wipe it down with vegetable oil and heat it up in the oven. You'll have to re-apply the oil a time or two, but this is the step that prevents rusting, so coat it well and let it soak in, the heat will help it wet the metal and cure it so that it stays put. Good Luck and Bon Appetite`! Burt Munro; The Indian Speed Legend Of New Zealand. Extract From: January 2007. Volume: 04. Number:39. To achieve success with limited financial resources is surely something that few people realize, to spend a lifetime perfecting and refining a motorcycle with basic skills and technology should also be measured as a huge personal success. There are probably thousands of self-taught backyard mechanics just like the late Burt Munro, who spent many years toiling on inventions and projects that end up being unsuccessful and yield little in the way of financial reward. But does it really matter? Some may argue that without financial reward you cannot move forward. Often the personal reward & self-satisfaction gained through painstaking project success is a far greater personal reward than any financial gain. Financial reward is often not the panacea of success that so many people are conditioned to accept today. Think about the months, perhaps years of work that Burt Munro would have spent making his own engine barrels, flywheels, pistons, cams and followers and pressure lubrication systems for his beloved Indian motorcycle. He also virtually hand-carved and machined con-rods from a section of Caterpillar tractor axle. He honed, refined and perfected his old Indian motorcycle to an inch of its life in preparation for the speed attempts, such was his focus & determination. His quest and passion was to highly modify and improve his treasured 1920 Indian Scout Motorcycle to set land speed records...and his major aim, to eventually see how fast it would go at the Utah Bonneville Salt Flats during the annual speed week event in the USA. This was no mean feat for a humble bloke who lived way down in South New Zealand in a place called Invercargill. (If you have not watched the film yet I suggest you do because it is a great story). Can you imagine the fun he must have had working day & night in his little Workshop, machining his special performance parts, and building his high performance motorcycle engine, he certainly did things differently. For instance, it has been said that he used an old spoke for a micrometer to measure things, he sand-cast parts in old tins, one American report tells about how he cast some pistons in the sand at the local beach! He even built his own overhead four-cam cylinder head design to replace the standard two-cam system and converted the engine to overhead valves. What a practical designer & innovator he was. But do you want to know what the best part of all of this? It is still possible to do all of this just like Burt Munro did all those years ago, you can still learn the skills. The technology is more readily available today than ever before, allowing the home hobby/mechanic to manufacture high quality special parts for old cars - motorcycles and special custom projects. With very basic workshop equipment Burt Munro was able to cast and produce pistons - conrods - cylinder barrels - alloy cooling fins - flywheels - oil pumps. An amazing talent from an amazing legend of a man. Article Author: Col Croucher. Would you like to learn about the special metal craft skills, and learn to make things similar to what Burt Munro did? Learn More: Visit the web site: http://www.indianmotorbikes.com/features/munro/munro.htm It appears that everyone just loved the story and the film about Burt Munro, the speed legend of New Zealand, and it is a great story, he was a great inventer, tinkerer and metal caster, you never get tired of reading about blokes like Burt. Famous Quote From Burt: The only way to overcome any obstacle was by persisting and learning, and then persisting some more. (Food for thought). Simon's OZ Foundry. Extract From: May 2007. Volume: 04. Number: 43. 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. Metal Casting Success Story. Extract From: October 2007. Volume: 04. Number: 48. Troy Rhodes. Michigan, USA. Photographs Start At The Top: #1-2-3-4-5. Col. Here's a success story for you. I also want to encourage others to get in there and try metal casting. * I wanted to build/assemble my own generator using an "old time" Iisteroid. Perhaps you have heard of these fun/slow/durable engines. The sticky part was, I needed a custom pulley to take a 6 rib serpentine belt, just like the one that drives the alternator and other accessories on your car. This would allow me to run a serpentine belt right from the flywheel of the listeroid to the pulley on the generator. I did some research and found a source that manufactures them, but the cost was exorbitant; they wanted hundreds of dollars for the complete assembly, by the time I bought the special bushing and then paid the shipping the cost was blown out too much. This I thought was the perfect time to begin experimenting with my new foundry, and the pulley assembly was the first useful part I had made with the foundry. On top of that, I made the entire part using the lost foam process. For the readers who have never tried this technique, it's not as hard as some make it out to be. To be sure, there is a learning curve and you'll make a few bad parts. But that's half of the fun. (Editors note: Haven’t we always said that you'll learn more from you’re mistakes than you will from your successes!) So, first I made a foam pattern out of normal white bead board, AKA Styrofoam. You can experiment with white foam (fast and cheap) or the denser pink and blue extruded foam board products. The denser foams will generally produce finer casting detail and will provide a stiffer, stronger pattern which is less likely to deform when you bury/surround it in the backing sand. Image #1: The raw blank being turned on the lathe. Then I fancied it up a bit by drilling some lightening holes in the foam pattern. That's one of the major advantages of a foam pattern. You can make it virtually as complex or as simple as you want, and never have to worry about pattern draft, or complex 3 or 4 part mold boxes. Just make it how you want it, allowing for a little extra "meat" for final machining and cleanup allowance. The sprue and vent are simply glued to the pattern, to get a complete fill. Use ordinary white PVA glue (Elmer’s would be the common brand around here.) Be careful not to make a huge thick glue joint, as that may impede the flow of molten aluminium. Image #2: The raw casting straight from the sand. (NA) Now here's a pic of the raw casting just after I rinsed the sand off. I Didn’t use green sand or petrobond or anything special. This was just dry "play" sand, purchased at the lumberyard in a 50# bag for a couple of bucks. I was as proud as a new father, well, almost. But I have to confess that it took about three tries before I found the proper arrangement for the sprue and the vent to get a nice dense casting without voids. The project was a fantastic learning experience the whole way through. Image #3: When things go wrong. (NA) You reckon you are the only one to have failures... here's one of the duds. I think the molten aluminium wasn't quite hot enough on that pour. And/or the sprue wasn't tall enough to put a enough "hydrostatic" or head pressure on the casting to get a fast efficient fill. Oh well, it's back in the pot for another try. Image # 4th: Success. (This is the only image shown in this ezine). As you can see the pulley machined up nicely, and I also cast a split mounting bushing to bolt it to the gennie shaft. Here's a look at the finished product. The original plan was to machine the lightening holes in the pulley for a spiffy finished look, but the "as cast" appearance was quite good enough, and I decided to leave them as is. While I was doing a static balance of the pulley, we found that it only needed very minor drilling to get a perfect balance. This is a testament to how accurately you can make a raw casting using the lost foam method: Image # 5: (NA) The goal has been acheived and the pulley is finally installed and doing its job on the generator: Finest regards and I enjoy the e-zine every month! Keep up the good work. Troy Rhodes. Matt Weber. Metal Artist. dellaterra studios. AZ. USA. Extract From: October 2007. My name is Matt Weber and my partner Desi Costanza and I run Della Terra Studios located in Chandler, Arizona, USA. Our working studio is primarily a Metal, Glass, and teaching studio. Desi handles the glass side of things, and I work the metal. Our commissions are both public and private, our artwork can be found around the world. My interest in metal began when I took a welding class in Jr. High School. I was pretty much hooked at that point. As time went on, my metalwork started to take an artistic form. My hunger for knowledge in all types of metalwork could not be satisfied. I began to study with all types of metalworkers such as master Blacksmiths and Coppersmiths. I also began collecting and reading every book on the subject of metal I could get my hands on. I would buy books that covered metalworking skills of things I had no intentions of making. Such as armor reproduction and knife making. All these skills are transferable to most any type of metalwork. You learn about new tools and properties of metal and how to heat-treat them. All these skills make me a better artist by giving me the mental tools to transfer what I see in my mind to reality. Casting metal is another road in my metal working journey. The possibilities of combining hand made cast items and hand-forged work are endless. I see many benefits in casting when it comes to original sculpture. My attempts with casting have been crude to say the least. They basically consist of pouring copper onto the kiln shelf, and basic plaster molds. The "Chalice" pictured is the only artwork I have done that has cast pieces in it. It was made from several random pours of copper onto the kiln shelf. The pieces were then assembled over the top of an old oxygen tank used as a form, and then assembled onto a steel/copper base. The patina is chemical and the gold interior is gold leaf. My failed (and sometimes dangerous) experimentation has led me here to try metal casting. I may be dumb enough to experiment with dangerous procedures, but I'm at least smart enough to wear the proper protective gear. So after splattering copper all over the place more than once, I figured I better ask the pro's. This led me to Colins wonderful ebook publication on the net. So much information supplied for such a reasonable price. I host a free online forum at: www.metalartistforum.com you can find many talented metal artists there that are more than willing to share what they know. Sharing our knowledge is what keeps our arts evolving! Matt Weber-Metal Artist http://www.dellaterrastudios.com Editors Note: Matt has commissioned work located at the following locations: Vision Gallery: http://www.visiongallery.org/ Art on Boston: http://www.artonboston.com/ There are two pieces currently on display at the Chandler Sculpture Walk: http://www.chandleraz.gov/newsrelease.aspx?N_UID=957 Matt also has a public commission to re-create light fixtures for a historic home and visitors centre in Chandler, AZ. USA. Thank you Matt, your work is imaginative & creative. Col Croucher. Ed. Turning Your Foundry Skills Into Cash. If you have been involved in the foundry scene for any length of time, at some stage you will receive a request from someone to cast a broken or worn part. This is not an unusual request, as in all enthusiast circles word quickly gets around that so an so can do this or that with metal, and as time goes on people will make their way to your workshop with some old broken part in their hand almost begging you to make a new replica part for them. Once you have had a reasonable amount of experience behind you and you feel confident in what you are doing, then perhaps it is time to start looking at ways to make your hobby pay, now I 'm not suggesting for a moment that you hang a bronze shingle out the front of your place advertising " Joe Bloggs Cast Parts” or anything like that, but you can give gentle hints to the right people in the right circles and before you know it you will have your first paid commission. How much or how little work you are willing to take on depends entirely what you want to do, you may not even want to take on a paid job for fear of making a mess of things and getting all embarrassed about a possible failure, well don’t let it, the fear of failure has prevented more people than anything else from being able to achieve success. If you start out with small, easy to do projects first, you will be sure of success, build your confidence and skills, then move onto something a little more upmarket, you will soon find your comfort zone and be able to do the things you want to do, but all things being equal, your pouring capacity will govern entirely what you will be able to produce in your small foundry. But have a think about it, there are many ways in which you can convert your hard earned hobby foundry skills into ready cash, you may even want to start making art castings and sell them at local markets, on Ebay and other online auction sites, even in your local newspaper. But the big market for cast parts is the vintage Car, Truck, & Motor Cycle scene, there are thousands of parts on these old vehicles that are no longer available... start looking around and asking people in the know who are active in these areas, they will soon tell you what's hot, and what's not. Imagine if every now and again you could land a job that produces a few hundred dollars worth of casting work, it is not that hard to do, and you will feel another side of the success coin.... that of being paid for your skill & efforts. This is just food for thought if you feel the time is right for you to move on from just fiddling around in the workshop making things for yourself, and a new desire to produce some serious work. With careful consideration of the skills that you have, as well as the equipment that you have built, I would say that there are several small projects that you could take on to make some dollars from your metal craft skills, if you have bought all of our ebooks, and absorbed, practiced and almost perfected your system, then you should not be confronted with to many problems, but keep it small and manageable, don't let it become a monster. We have illustrated in this ezine from time to time the paid foundry commissions that we have produced in our own foundry here in OZ using the exact equipment; techniques and methods explained in the ebooks, if it can be done in OZ, it could be done anywhere around the globe. Good luck. If you are a new ezine subscriber, you are probably thinking where all the past issues are, well please hang in there, we are working on a new ezine archive directory on our server! Many thanks to the article contributors above, you have helped make The Hot Metal ezine what it is today. And if there are any other ezine readers who would like to contibute, feel free to send us your story at any time, just send us an email through the contact form on the web site about page and I will give you another email address to send your article and pictures along to us. I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year. Col. PS. See you late in January. PPS. Have you been thinking about setting up your foundry? You can save a few dollars right now with our three day Christmas special... it's happening now. http://www.myhomefoundry.com/library.html

Significant Articles From Previous Ezines.