The International Hobby Metal Casting ezine.
Brought To You By:
Col Croucher, administrator of: www.myhomefoundry.com
Australia.
July-09. Number: 68.
Hello fellow Metal Caster.
Recently some emails arrived at my inbox inquiring about the ezine, senders thought they had missed some issues, I explained that other commitments had taken priority, sad but true, there are only so many hours in each day in which we can do things.
If you could view the entire sixty odd issues of the hot metal ezine, most people would understand the rich resource of shared information available, if you are new to the ezine & new to metal casting, the complete set of ezines are stored in the members section of the web
site, free lifetime MHF membership is given to people who purchase the metal casting ebook package, for some reason there are people who don't join for one reason or another, others simply forget, but you can still join if you have purchased the package in the past, please contact us, all we need for your membership validation is proof of your original purchase receipt. (Pay Pal or Clickbank), pretty simple really.
So here we are back again with the July issue thanks to Dyson Watkins for submitting photographs of an interesting workshop project he designed and built, you'll be able to read more about that below.
Lately we have also had a few blacksmith workers who are curious to find out how to combine foundry work with blacksmithing, my guess is that a blacksmith should not have too much trouble with hobby foundry skills, after all, they are used to handling hot metal, maybe not molten metal, but super red hot metal for sure.
It never ceases to amaze me how the metal craft movement just keeps on growing, I am sure a whole new generation of young blokes are being exposed to something they can really relate to.... creating and building things with their hands, I also know for a fact that several of our clients consist of father - son metal craft partnerships, and what a great way for a father & son to share a common creative interest.
It is hard to believe we are now into July... more than halfway through the year, I would like winter to hang around for a long time yet, we had a gutful of the atrocious stinking hot weather we had last summer here in Australia, the firestorm that ripped through several communities is still pretty fresh in a lot of peoples minds. We don’t want to see that kind of thing again in a hurry.
That's enough of my ramble for now; I know you are busy, you can read about this month’s feature project below.
Enjoy.
Col.
Feature Article: Dyson Watkins.
Near Swansea. Wales. UK.
Workshop Projects.
There are only two castings on the cutter grinder, both being on the vertical column. The stand was salvaged from an old metrology stand. The slide came from my junk box and was originally from a Myford seven lathe. The remainder was made in the workshop. I have also made some attachments for it, one for generating radius shaped tool tipped lathe tools, the other for sharpening slitting saws.
The whole thing came about after buying a milling machine. The milling cutters I had were blunt, and would have cost quite a lot to have them re-ground. The ideas for the grinder then evolved. I attach another couple of pics, some of my wood turning lathe showing the tailstock body that was cast. I have already published an article describing the construction of the lathe (minus the tailstock.
Most would-be constructors might not have casting facilities, and I added a section on making the tailstock from a fabrication. The large sized steady for the Myford lathe was made when I needed to support a large diameter tube, too big for the standard sized version. The hand wheel was a replacement for my son's mortising machine. A photo of the pattern being turned I attached together with the finished hand wheel replacement.
Nice work Dyson, just goes to show what can be created in the home workshop when you put your mind to it, a very innovative and very handy machine accessory to have in the workshop.
Ed.
Note:
Dyson has also published a book about building a wood turning lathe, the article was first published in 'Model Engineers Workshop' magazine issue No. 2. I have since then included it in my book titled 'Workshop Projects' which came on the market about a year ago and published by Camden Miniature Steam Publishers. It is on the web. The cutter grinder project was published in M.E.W. issues 132, 134, and 135 and the lathe steady also came out in issue 135. If you are looking for a great project to work on then perhaps this will fill the bill.
The projects below are probably more advanced than the average hobby worker would tackle, but there is no harm done, if in the future, you set your goals to attempt to do advanced projects as shown below.
If you are ready to give hobby foundry a go then your wait is over.
Get All The Info You Need Here.
Plus a Whole Heap More Info In The Members Section.
Two-part lathe steady
pattern ready for moulding.
Casting
removed & cooling in the sand.
Completed
lathe steady,
ready to be put to work.
Sliding column
casting for cutter grinding machine.
Numbers & graduations on collar of
height adjustment screw.
The completed milling cutter
sharpening machine.
Imagine for a moment, you have just made/created a beautiful metal object. Most metals, if left exposed to the elements will tarnish, suffer from rust, and generally discolour & lose the lustre that most metals are known for.
How Do You Protect The Metal Surface?
- Spray Paint your metal creation.
- Send the part away
to be chrome plated.
- Perhaps zinc plate.
- Nickel-plate.
- If it's aluminium, maybe colour anodize the part.
- Or just buff, polish & lacquer. Sometimes a natural clear finish lacquer on metal can be a very effective way to preserve and protect, a method used extensively by people who build metal furniture, a product available here in Australia is called Tectyl Rust Preventive, it is a clear hard film for aluminium and other metals, available at auto stores.
Photos below illustrate a Jane (Aust) electroplating kit in action.
 The simple electroplating bath set up. |
 Mains power supply with adjustable voltage. |
 Bright Zinc Plated Machined Components. |
The chemistry and zinc anodes are all supplied in the kit which also comes complete with plenty of instructions and advice.
The machined plates above were zinc plated in the Jane electroplating bath, a friend and I set this up to small automotive nuts, bolts, brackets and other small components. Zinc is probably the easiest to do, however there are several other types of plating kits available. there is one thing that is paramount with plating, the base metal surface has to perfect, if it has pitting, roughness and poorly prepared then expect far less than perfect results.
Is DIY plating worth it, absolutely, the plates above cost $5.00 each at a commercial electro plater, DIY electroplating is a mere fraction of that.... and the turn around time can be one hour or less.
There are several companies (Aust, USA, Can, UK etc) who supply hobby electroplating kits ranging from small to large size, depending how serious you want to get, start exploring from the list below.
Jane Kits Australia.
http://www.janekits.com.au/mainframe.php
Nickel Pating Kits, Zinc Plating Kits, Copper Plating Kits, Gold Plating. Power Supplies, Electrolytes, Anodes & Polishing Supplies.
Brush plating is a way of electroplating gold, silver, copper and other
metals without the use of a tank. http://www.goldn.com.au/
http://australia.caswellplating.com/store.php/categories/plating-kits
http://www.mrcybermall.com/machine_tool_parts/link1.html
myhomefoundry does not have any financial interest or commercial connection with any company listed above, the links are supplied as a source for you to begin your search if you are at all interested in exploring the art of electroplating .
Until next time, all the best and good luck with your projects... don't forget to email your photos & articles to us.
Col.