Stew wins Bronze

[sbwhart]

Hi Chaps

I had one of those urges to visit the scrap yard, some sixth sence told me there was something good waiting to be discovered.

This is what dropped in my lap 10 quid the lot: ho how the price of scrap has fallen.



Its ally bronze: the round bits a runner from some casting: the square bits I think are samples of the melt. with some hex brass trown in.

But her's the strange thing I still don't know if I've been had or not, one of the chaps at the yard is realy helpfull (the other ones a right miserable son of a bitch) any way, I ask the helpful one what it was, he said ally bronze but hang on a tick I'll check it, he went and got a strong magnet  and shure enough it was attracted by the magnet he assured me than ally bronze was slightly magnetic. Now I,ve a little metalurgical knowlege, but this is a new one on me.

Are there any  out there who can put me right on this.

As for the Brass Goblet well what do you think could be made of this Ralph,  I've had that shape imprinted on my mind now for weeks and when I saw this among a pile of brass scrap it just jumped out at me.

 

Cheers
 

Have Fun Stew

[bogstandard]

Stew,

There is usually a lot of those ali bronze test pieces down there, but I have never had the courage to get any.
I always have nightmares about unknown quantities.

I will see how you get on first.


Have you ever felt like a guinea pig? 


Bogs

[sbwhart]

Hi John

I'll give them a try, if worse come to the worse I'll save them until the price of scrap goes up: wo'd have thought I'd be a bullion dealer 

Cheers

 

Stew

[Brass_Machine]

Great score. Love the goblet! I would leave it alone and polish it up. Unless you are thinking of making your own windball??

Eric

[sbwhart]

John's guinea pig reports in. 

First on the magnetic thing, I tried a strong magnet (DTI stand) on some ally bronze from two diferent supplies:- Industrial, and John's little shop of magic, and they were both slightly magnetic. We may not understand the metalurgy behind this but its a little trick well worth remembering. 

Now for the machining trial, the best bit to try would be the round piece, that's obviously a runner from some casting process, if ther's going to be any nasties it will be in the top end of the runner as all the slag rizes to the top, that's one reason they have them. This is a heafty chunk of metal 7 1/2" by 2" diameter, so it will take some carful handling.

1:- Clean up any bad flash and find the centre of one end, this was done with a centre square, and good big centre punch mark.



2:- Putting a centre in one end, (bit unsure, could be a bit dicy  ), Clamped the bar to a big V block, and clamped the V block on the table of my drill, went like a dream centre drilled great.



3:- Set up in lathe with big rotating centre, tool was just a TPMR general purpose tip I had available, cut like a dream, even on the worst intermitant cut.



Chips flew all over the place so but a chip guard on the machine



I'm pleased to report that this is a real nice piece of ally bronze machined like a dream  with no signs of blow holes or nasty inclusions, don,t know what I'm going to make with it yet, but I'm shure it will be used.

[Darren]

Lovely......

[bogstandard]

Thanks Stew,

I will pick some up next time I am down there, now we know it can be machined.


John

BTW, what are they charging per kilo now, last time I was down there it was £2.

[sbwhart]

Hi John

I didn't take much notice of the weight, they charge me $12.5 (I'm going to have to find the pound sign on my machine) for the lot I guess it must weigh abot 4 to 5 kg so its arround $3/kg.

Cheers
 

Stew

[bogstandard]

Thanks Stew.

Looks like it is still a bit pricey.

For the £ sign you need to change from a US keyboard to UK one. Look in control panel for the keyboard.

John

[sbwhart]

Sorted

£££££££££££

Thanks
 
Stew

[Divided he ad]

FLYWHEELS!!! .....


Well that's what I'd use it for 


Looks like a real nice colour...(I don't see colours like others do!)  I think brass and bronze look nice when they start to tarnish a little, I have some Ali bronze hex that John got for me from the scrappy.... It's a real bugger to machine! Well the turning wasn't too bad, the drilling and tapping was though!

I made a torch out of it... Took ages and at one point very nearly got scrapped too!    Polished up a treat though! 

Glad your's machines well Stew, I'll await the report on drill and tap.... Should you ever do such to it?

Personally the goblet looks like it is begging to be re-born  It should look really cool spinning away (without the stem of course!)



Looking forward to seeing what you get out of this hoard Stew 




Ralph.

[sbwhart]

Hi Ralph

I was thinking of something with an elbow on it for the bronze  It'll be a good tester for my new mill when its set up

As for the goblet bin thinking  hard about how to turn it into a spinner, bit of friction turning is called for. How did to solder yours together, what are you going to do for the bits on the axis, when you come to solder them don't you think the stuff you've already soldered will melt, or did you use a high melting point solder.

I think I've got MADMODDER PROJECTITUS the symptoms are having more than one project on the go, this forum is just crazy:- it gets the old creative juices flowing. 

Cheers
 

Stew

[Divided he ad]

Hi Stew,

Something with an elbow on it.... ? Cryptic!?  you making a new bionic arm? 

The soldering of the odd shaped ball was carried out by bathing the part in a large blue flame from a blow torch and once a good heat was achieved then soft solder was used to make the joint.

I held the two parts together using a bolt through the holes lightly nipped to keep the halves in place, both were pre-fluxed and it worked quite well.

The parts I soldered in the other day were done using the same solder but a small localised flame from a mini torch (pic's can be seen in the aeolipile thread) This keeps the heat in the area I wish to solder and there should not be enough heat to melt the join in the centre due to it's greater size needing much more heat.

I'm thinking that jets could be soldered to the main body in this way due to the same heat requirements.... However, if I wanted to put the jets into the collar (as Karsten and other designs) then I would probably need to silver solder those joints to prevent the melting when the collar is soft soldered in.


MADMODDER PROJECTITUS .... Careful Stew, there is only one known cure..... The nagging woman!!! (they can put a dampener on any fun planned in the shop!!! )

Fortunately, I don't have one of those..... So I'm always trying to do too much at once and rarely finish anything on time  (I've been re-building my house for 6 years.... Should have probably had it done in two!!  )


Keep us up to date on the odd little side projects 



Ralph.

[Brass_Machine]

I think I've got MADMODDER PROJECTITUS ...

ooooo New Smiley!

 

Eric

[sbwhart]

 


 


Love it

Stew

[sbwhart]

Hi Ralph

Thanks for the info on soldering the ball together, I've got the kit to do this but when it comes to soldering I'm a bit of a brute 

Not wishing to be a bore, but with what I do for a living, I always have to consider the safety aspects of a job.

As the sphere is not a closed vesil it won't need a safety valve and were dealing with a small volumes, the pressure in the sphere will mainly be a function of its volume and jet size. I was thinking along the lines of having Jets I could change, starting with a big diameter jet to see what happens then reducing to I get something that runs. And doing a quick pressure test on the sphere with compressed air.

Will it spray hot steam/boiling water around ?? 

Can you quickly turn the heat off without being scalded?.

You need to have some sort of plan in your mind that will reduce the hazards.

Please don't be offended by this:- its aimed at people who read the forum who may not be as switched on as we are.

Have fun safely

Cheers

Stew

[Divided he ad]

No offence taken Stew.... You soldering brute you!     Soldering is a delicate art.... Big hands don't help!   


The pressure should not rise to anywhere near danger levels as it is vented to atmosphere ( should be self controlling!) it's like having the safety valve jammed open!


As long as it is not over filled it should not spray boiling water everywhere... Steam however will be forced from the jets and could burn... The operator should know or be made very aware of this!


turning off the heat will be just a stout blow on the flame.... Should stop boiling pretty fast.... Will obviously remain hot for 5-10 minutes!


Safety has all been accounted for....knowledge of the pressure etc has been researched (been meaning to make one of these for over 2 years!)  I'll be testing under safe conditions, a shield between the ball and myself! Shouldn't need it.... But there just incase (shields to maximum captain!!  ) 




Is that ok ?

I think I might copy some of this for the thread?



Ralph.

[sbwhart]

Thanks Ralph look like you've got all the angles covered, now go and boogie 

I've bin racking my brains how to use that little banna


Cheers

Stew

[bogstandard]

If you think you are going to have problems soldering it Stew, bring it round and I will silver solder it for you. But if you have already tried soft soldering, don't bother, as even the slightest residue will stop the silver soldering working.

BTW, you are going to need a rather good burner to get it steaming. The first problem is the physical size, rather a large surface area to warm up, and the second is the gauge of the material, a lot of metal to get up to temp.

John

[sbwhart]

Hi John

Thanks for the offer, I was going to silver solder it I've got a supply of different grades of solder, and a brand new unused sivert type gas torch, just havn't got round to getting the propane, thought it would be good practice for when I do my Loco boiler.

I'll return that die along with that hub thing this Tuesday if thats ok. I'd also like to have another look at that elbow engine you've got. 


My Sieg is coming today         

Cheers

Stew

[Bernd]

I've bin racking my brains how to use that little banna

Cheers

Stew

Boy Stew you sure know how to leave youself open for a shot don't you?   

Bernd

[bogstandard]

That's fine Stew.

Bet you can't wait to get the box open.




 


Hey lads!!, looks like Stew wants to make himself an E-L-B-O-W  E-N-G-I-N-E.

I will be taking bets on how long it is before it takes to the air, down the yard, and how many nails he hammers into his head, to dull the pain.


Can't wait to see this project.   


Bogs

[Divided he ad]

Oh.... That kind of elbow!!!!   


You sure know how to make life interesting Stew!! try a 7 elbow 14 cylinder version.... I don't think I've seen one of those? 



Bernd,    on the banana joke 


John,   That's cruel.... You should let stew make his own mistakes.... and then entertain us with the huge thread about getting it to work!!

Bets.... I've got 50hrs before the first part is 'air tested' (thrown long and far or straight at the wall)     



Your a braver man than I Stew   and boy have you got 





Ralph.

[sbwhart]

I've done the lurking thing on the HMEN forum, and read the trials and tribulations and done lots of this  and come up with a few ideas I want to try.

This will be a stop and start project when I want a change from the Loco and on the way I want to have a play with a spinning ball.

The only known cure for    is to finish a project.




sometime


Cheers
 
Stew



PS its come and the box's is open. 

Photos to follow when I've cooked tea, would that count as a project.

[Bernd]

Only if you make your own tea pot. 

Bernd