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A Tale of Two Castings

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vtsteam:
Photo of the latest casting (with sprue) and the one from the day before with fins ground off.

I'm going to attempt to get both pistons and cylinders from the same pattern. And in fact, two pistons from one of the castings. I need a third one of these, assuming all goes well, to yield two pistons and two cylinders. What could go wrong?  :lol:

tom osselton:
Looks like you have this downpact.

vtsteam:
Thanks Tom!  :beer:

Weather's cooled off too much to want to cast for a couple days, but looking forward to reducing a backlog of things I want to do with the furnace. Just got to get the lathes capable of dealing with the output...

vtsteam:
I cut one of the castings into two pieces to make hot and cold pistons for the Rider engine. I turned it on my new lathe (well, the one I built, not so new, but not the Gingery. I'm going to have to name it and stop calling it the "new lathe") and it turned beautifully!!!!  :ddb:

Oh I am so happy! A furnace I built, machining an iron casting I made from a pattern I built, for an engine I'm making, using scrap iron from a broken rail I found buried in the ground, and to have it come out like this, it's just a thrill!,

My new lathe is so solid and precise feeling, it's a joy. Small but really solid and smooth to operate, it definitely is whole other world than from Gingery (which I still have a lot of affection for, however).

And the furnace is so fast! 20 minutes for eight pounds of iron. It all just finally gives me the capability I've always wanted. To imagine anything, and then be able to just make it from scratch -- that's such a feeling of independent capability in this day and age of increasingly enforced dependencies.

Okay enough jabbering. Here's the simple little piece of cast iron, roughed out on the outside to eventually become a piston. It sawed out nicely on the bandsaw before mounting on the lathe (two pistons from one tube shaped casting, and two cylinders will come from identical castings. There's enough thickness in the pattern to do all four parts.

This piece will eventually get bored out as well, and the outside turned down further to match the cylinder bore.

tom osselton:
Looks good!

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