The story of My foundry

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi Lads  

I have found some of the photos of my , furnace/foundry set up build ,,,,,, some may fined something of interset in them , first off , when i build stuff like this ,i don't work to any real plan , just an idea in my head of what i am after , what materials i have at hand or can scrounge up, thats why things end up the size they are .Some times i get lucky and things work out ok .

I have always loved casting my own parts ,its great to recycle crap into some thing useful , anyway here is a few shots of my old furnace set up, i built it many years ago from bits and bobs from the junk yard , i did splash out and by a new elctric motor for the blower unit i made .

Some of the castings produced with the furnace ,The furnace works great doing ally to iron , just it was a bit small in capacity .


Getting to the piont , i want to do bigger castings/ pour more than one or two castings in one melt , so i need to make a furnace to take diss A16 crucible or bigger


I started with an old chemical drum , the type with a seperate lid ,18" dia ,cutting a section off to make the mian body , and a section for the lid so the bead run in the middle of the lid , this is so the castable has some thing to key too



Not wanting to waist the loverly rolled bead of the top of the drum i trimmed it up and fitted it by spot welding , to the main body , to make it a bit more rigid



Then i made up the lid lift / swivel lever , this works of a cam on the lever and pushes on a rod fixed to the main body , when the lever is moved down the lid lifts verticaly 1/2 " and is easerly rotated out the way


Next the rod for the main body , and some handels


The blast pie



all the metal work done


the center former



If your still  awake  , now its time for the castable , i filled the bottom of main body 3" thick , let it go green ,then fitted the center form



the lid ,much of the same


The former removed

The lid was fitted and ajusted to give a level lift and some clearance between the cam and rod so the lid will seal flat on the body



I made up a trolley for it so i could wheel it out side ( not my best idea /british weather ) also the plants were not too happy



It did not stop on the trolley long , after some thought , i decided that i must have it so i could run the furnace indoors , after lots of messing about trying different ways of getting the heat out the shop , melting parts of my new shop ,  i decided to add some insulation to the main body and exhust the hot gasses out the back of the furnace through the shop wall . so a new stand was made , handels removed and lever repostioned .




Hope that was not to long of a post

Regards Rob

[Gadget]

Great post Rob. I may be using some of your ideas on my next generation furnace. I like the lifting mechanism on the lid.
Dan

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi Me agian 

Thanks Dan , the lid is easily lifted and rotated with two fingers on the lever , also it save having to fined some were for a red hot lid when you come to remove the crucible .

Moulding sand storage was always a problem , i used to store it in big plastic drums , bit of a pian in the butt , so i knocked up a moulding bech with sand storage built in , works much better , sand dose dot get everywere now , and not in shot is a small adition to the bench which has a joiners vice fitted , so the moulding bench doubles up for patten making


Cheers Rob

[Darren]

Thanks Rob, Very nice work .... again !! 

How much of the "cement" castable? did you use in this?

[Rob.Wilson]

More stuff

For those who are un able to get hold of castable stuff , this may be the way to go , i had some fire bricks lying about so i thought i would make a furnace from them , this is based on one i used when i was a young  lad living with my foles , its from one of the workshop seires books , This furnace fitted with a grate and burning coke will melt cast iron

Bricks , no idea how many, sorry its the wrong way round  

welded up base to fit two rows of bricks

Lid made from C section

build up bricks , leaving hole for blower (crucible in shot is too big for this furnace )


make steel rapper to keep it all together , the rapper fits into the base and is fassend up one edge

the lid was filled with Ganister

Anyway you get the idea  ,,,,,OH if anyone WANTS the above please PM me , free to good home ,,,,,MADMODDERS MEMBERS ONLY

Cheers Rob

way to much typing for me  

[Rob.Wilson]

Thanks Rob, Very nice work .... again !! 

How much of the "cement" castable? did you use in this?

Hi Darren ,   i used a fare few bags  , 10 i think ,,,,,,,, the castable is rated to 1700c , its what they use to line steel smelting furnaces , 


Cheers Rob

[Darren]

Wow, that is a few, I see now where the bricks become attractive, if you can find them 

[Bernd]

Nice pictures and explanation Rob.

You've got me itching to start up a furnace again. I had built Dave Gingery's charcoal furnce many years ago. Metled some ally but never made anything. Still have the furnce. I did convert it to use propane though.

Thanks for all the typing and I didn't fall asleep. 

Bernd

[Rob.Wilson]

Thanks Bernd ,,,,,,,


Drag your furnace out and fire it up    , sometimes the patterns for the job can be very simple , For one of many engine projects , i wanted a bronze flywheel rim and base , two minutes with some fake wood ,3/4" thick  MDF and i cut out a ring and base pattern , I had a pile of worn out bronze bushes i had collected , into the pot they went .



This way there was less machinig and waist than from solid

And the riser can be put to good use too , in all there was not allot of waist from the casting ,


How much would it cost to bye lumps of bronze that size ?  This way i used some scrap and about £2 worth of LPG , more fun too  


Regards Rob

OH and when you cock the part up as i do , you can hide/fix your mistake by melting it down

[dsquire]

Rob

Woke up this morning and grabbed a    and headed to the computer to see what everyone in MadModder land has been up to around the world. First one that I hit on was this one. Wow! This build is right up there with all your other projects, first class all the way. The castings shown in the 3rd picture down also look pretty sharp. I imagine with this new furnace that we are going to see some awesome castings in the future. 

Thanks for the great post Rob.

Cheers 

Don

[Stilldrillin]

Crackin` post Rob..... 

Thank you! 

David D

[Joe d]

Hey Rob

Glad you found the photos... that's a grand setup there.    New chimney working out OK?

Cheers, Joe

[Artie]

Wow, I have to say, that as another caster of brass, these are TOP NOTCH results! Extremely fine finish which is damned hard to get with brass...whatever you are doing Rob (good temp control I suspect), you are doing it very well. I have never quite got that fine a result, close but not quite. 

Cheers mate

Rob T (not w)

[Brass_Machine]

 

That is just amazing Rob! Wish you were closer so I could come over and hound you to teach me.

Nice stuff 

Eric

[Dean W]

I'll bet there are a lot of us who would like to pay you a visit, Rob.  Top write up, and certainly top work!
Thanks a lot.  Very interesting.

Dean

[slowcoach]

Fantastic write up and excellent pictures Rob. Got to get into casting  . We have a lots of small scrap bits of  brass at our place just waiting to be melted down. 

Cheers
Rob 

[framey]

wow thats awesome
make them up to sell id be intrested in buying one 

[Rob.Wilson]

Many Thanks lads  for all your comments and interest in this post  

I hope that sharing the tail so far (more to come)  may help inspire others to have ago at setting up there own foundry and casting up some parts.

Thanks Don , ,   I am pleased with the way the Ridder Ericson engine casting came out , it took a few goes to get there , I could  take some better photos of the engine and patterns , if anyone wants a look ,,,,,,, OH yes BIGGER castings  

Thanks David D and Joe ,,,,,,,,,,I still have to try out the chimney , hopefully over this up  coming long weekend .

Hi Rob T   ,,,,,,,,, No,,,,,,,, hats off to you    , you are melting and  casting Brass  which is allot harder to get right , than the Bronze i cast the above parts from . I would say Brass is the hardest of the metals the amateur is likely to cast and get right
             For those that don't no , Rob .T , mentioned good temp control when casting Brass , this is because if you over heat Brass , the Zinc starts to boil off , and also when  you  over heat Brass you tend to end up with allot of dissolved gas in the molten metal , leading to poor quality castings full of porosity ,  I have not been so successful with Brass , so i melt Bronze instead , it dose melt at a higher temp , but its allot more forgiving .I will be trying my hand at brass again .

Cheers Eric and Dean ,,,,,,,,,If anyone is ever in the  NE  England please feel to call in for a brew and a chat  

Rob (Slowcoach) Go for it , tizz great fun   If your scarp is not swarf you may as well cast it up ,,,,,,if anyone is going to use swarf , first it needs a wash and THOUROLY DRIED, then you have to start with a good half full pot of molten metal , because if you just fill the pot with swarf and heat it up you end up with nothing , due to the very large surface area and the swarf being thin in section , it just oxidises away to nothing , so you fill up brown paper bags with swarf , scrunched up tight , then you plunge the parcel into the molten metal ,holding it under the surface , allot of faff for a little metal .

Thanks Rob W  

[Rob.Wilson]

wow thats awesome
make them up to sell id be intrested in buying one 

Hi and thanks framey

It takes a fare bit of time and materials  to build the furnace ,most of which i scrounged up , so i have no idea of the real cost , then there is shipping , i am no bussines man and  i just do the odd job in my shop to help with its up keep, i would rather help others out make one for them selves ,,,,,,, or if anyone needs something cast , cast it up for them .

Cheers Rob

[Bernd]

........ so you fill up brown paper bags with swarf , scrunched up tight , then you plunge the parcel into the molten metal ,holding it under the surface , allot of faff for a little metal .

Thanks Rob W  

Wow Rob, you must have steel hands to do that.      (BTW kids, don't do this at home. )

Bernd

[framey]

wow thats awesome
make them up to sell id be intrested in buying one 

Hi and thanks framey

It takes a fare bit of time and materials  to build the furnace ,most of which i scrounged up , so i have no idea of the real cost , then there is shipping , i am no bussines man and  i just do the odd job in my shop to help with its up keep, i would rather help others out make one for them selves ,,,,,,, or if anyone needs something cast , cast it up for them .

Cheers Rob

i might have to take you up on that offer of casting bits lol

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi framey

Shout up if you or anyone  need something cast , i will give it my best shot ,,,,,,,,,,, i could do with more things to cast 

Cheers Rob

[Stilldrillin]

Hi framey

Shout up if you or anyone  need something cast , i will give it my best shot ,,,,,,,,,,, i could do with more things to cast 

Cheers Rob

Rob,

I think this would look better with twin flywheels...... Wot cher reckon? 




Aluminium, 4.5" dia....... 

David D

[Rob.Wilson]

Hi Dave    thats a cool , hot air engine 


Looks great as is ,,,,,,,,,,but twin fly wheels would balance the over all look .  Do you want the same style 5 spokes ?   How thick ?  what size Hub ?



Cheers Rob

[Stilldrillin]

Pm, imminent Rob...... 

David D