The International Hobby Metal Casting ezine.
Brought To You By:
Col Croucher, administrator of: www.myhomefoundry.com
Australia.
Volume:05. Number: 54. April 2008.
You are blessed with good fortune if you have built up a good workshop where you can create & build things, yes consider your self lucky, I don't know about you, but I take for granted the ability to be able to make almost anything I want in my workshop/foundry, I have enjoyed working with metal all of my life and I find it difficult to understand why other's can't do the same. Your workshop provides total freedom of expression in metal
But then if you stop and think for a moment, not everyone is endowed with the same skill set, we are all different, and we all have different needs & wants.
A couple of weekends back I had a young friend call me on the phone, he needed some help in casting some simple but special parts for a project he was building, he is pretty handy with tools and I gave home some hints on how to make the patterns, so when he arrived at the workshop we just had to nut out how to do the green sand moulds, so began a short, quick metal casting lesson for my young friend, as I described the various techniques and methods of sand casting to him, and answering the many questions he had, we finally had the sand moulds made up and then we were ready to melt some metal ready to pour. To someone who is an old hand at metal casting, and there are several subscribers on this list who are, the process of making up some sand moulds ready for pouring is really quite simple, you just don't think much about what you have to do... which only comes with much practice... like when you are driving the car.
But I could not help but wonder and admire my young friends excitement at what the possibilities of metal casting presented to the individual if you want to create special one off projects. For starters, there's no need to trudge all over the town or country side trying to find someone who will listen to your needs. When you have your own workshop and foundry set up things just start to happen for you, and when you get the feel of producing good metal castings, it is not that hard to make your hobby pay for itself, both in paid jobs and being able to produce your own castings for a very low cost.
A few days ago I received an Internet order for a product that I make for a certain model British car, the gentleman concerned had already invested $1295.00US in other unique parts that we also produce, then he placed an order for $177.00 for some other small vital parts that he required, because of the small demand for these parts, larger foundries are just not interested in reproducing these parts, and like most old cars, over time spare parts become scarce and hard to find, and there are few producers who are willing to tool up to reproduce the parts, so we end up with the orders, and being a small niche they are very profitable and simple to make, the small home cottage foundry can easily specialise and cast small runs of products or parts and make good money, or perhaps to share among other same make club members, if the members are willing to share the production costs, many things are possible.
There have been several owners of small to medium workshop enterprises who have purchased and downloaded our ebook package simply because they want to learn how to build and set up their own foundry in order to cast small runs of special products they either want to sell, or to make unique cast parts required for their own projects.
This is what got me to thinking about why you/we/I are so lucky to have a good workshop. Within one hour of the Internet order I mentioned above being placed I was out in the foundry preparing to cast these small parts, the order was for four, but we decided to cast a set of eight just to make it all worthwhile because the spare items will be sold pretty soon also. (You can see the photos below)
Within about two hours of the order being received the furnace was prepared and lit up, the green sand moulds were made, the patterns are mounted patterns complete with gates and detachable risers and sprues, so it does not take very long to get things organised and ready for a casting run. The following day was spent machining and finishing the castings ready to be airfreighted to the customer in the USA.
Now, all of the above was pretty easy, OK, you might say that is alright for me, I have all the cool foundry gear, well that is not quite correct, in the beginnning I had some real primitive foundry gear, but the gear I use now for all my foundry projects is exactly what you will find explained in the Metal Casting Made easy ebooks package, nothing more nothing less. Yes, I have a lathe, plus a few other machine tools and things, but many home workshops have lathes & Milling machines these days. Once your foundry has been built and established it is there ready and waiting to be cranked up at a moments notice.
It basically comes down to learning and applying certain skills and applying them to do what you want to do in life; we encourage everyone to become self-proficient in the home workshop, it is a sound investment that will repay itself many times over during your Lifetime, I guarantee it!
I could not imagine not being able to do and make all of the things that are possible in the home workshop. And if you think about it as time moves forward, people with the practical knowledge will be ahead of the pack when it comes down to being self sufficient and looking after your self and your family.
Col.
Get Your Knowledge &
MHF Membership right here.
From
Patterns To Finished Castings
Drag side of mounted patterns and runner.
Cope side of
mounted patterns, ingates and sprue locating hole, which is directly
opposite the cross runner above.
Castings attached to
gates & runners fresh from the green sand moulds.
Raw castings with ingates, sprues and
runners removed.
Two sets of cast
aluminium door hinges machined and finished ready to use.
The Results Of The Ezine Survey.
Thank you to the people who took the time to respond, there were several subscribers who said they would not subscribe to the ezine if even a small monthly fee was involved, more than half of respondents said that a small monthly subscription fee would not worry them, other's offered suggestions on ways to offset production time and costs, the various comments and suggestions certainly provided a good cross section of individual views, but a couple suggested that the internet is where you get stuff for free, no matter what it is, well all I can say to that is, we wont miss their free subscription!
So, I guess you are wondering what we are going to do with our subscriber subscriptions, at this point things will stay as they are, IE, subscription will remain free for the time being, but that could change in the future as we are still looking at different ideas & options. If there is going to be any change in the near future, a notice will be sent out before hand.
Foundry Pattern Letter & Numeral Supply In Australia.
Hasco Foundry.
1122 Doveton Street North
Ballarat, Victoria,
Australia 3350
Phone / Fax + 61 3 53324084:
8am-5pm.Mon to Fri.
Email: hasco@iinet.net.au
Internet: www.hasco.com.au
Nice people to deal with.
Col.
Reference Book.
The Casting & Patination Of Bronze Sculpture: Mud Fire Metal.
By: Steve Russell.
Hardcover: 368 pages.
This book could be just what you are looking for if you wish to perfect the art of bronze sculpture. It is not cheap: Price $125.00. In Stock. Hennessy & Ingalls.
New technology for casting magnesium automotive components.
In a previous issue we have touched on this new industry casting method, (T Mag) you can read more about it here: CSIRO.
Wanted:
Your Casting Project Pictures, and a short description about the how, why & when, c'mon, it wont take you long to put something together. Contact us through the about page.
Reward Offered. But let it be a Surprise?
I hope the past month or so has been good for your projects, and whatever else you wanted to achieve, keep up the good work and we will speak to you again soon.
Cheers
Col.