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| Melting iron in a larger crucible. |
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| ironman:
Meldonmech I will still use coal dust sand mixture for iron castings. S. Heslop I don't have any close ups of the casting as I have machined it already. vtsteam You break them when you can't see them glowing red and then dip them in water so they are easier to handle. Because the iron is being poured into sand molds a sand wedge mold is being used. If the iron was being poured into iron molds then the test has to be in iron. The test can done while melting or after the pour. In past I have had trouble with the same iron, so I now how much ferrosilicon to add. One of the castings was machined on my mill/drill and was really soft to mill. |
| Pete49:
I have a question regarding the making of cast iron. First I'll add that I am not looking to do iron at all maybe brass one day but not yet. How do you get your iron for melting? surely not using ore? steel offcuts? please enlighten me. Just a thing that has been puzzling me since I saw a melt being done on a time team show once. Pete |
| vtsteam:
Pete, don't want to answer for Ironman -- just to let you know what I've found here for iron -- it seems to be everywhere as scrap. Engine blocks, a piece of some kind of rail that I thought was steel turned out to be iron, some kinds of waste pipe, farm equipment, boilers, and steam radiators. And heaven forbid, precision machinery. It's pretty easy to break up moderate and thin section cast iron with a sledge hammer -- one way of telling if something is iron instead of steel -- like the rail I found is that it breaks with a crumbly looking surface rather than bends or dents like steel. I'm using radiator pieces because I'm a beginner and I thought they might be easier to start with. Because radiators were originally poured in extremely thin sections, I imagine it is easier to melt and will pour more fluidly and has enough carbon to remain gray iron without additions, than thicker section iron may. I may not be saying this properly -- ironman can correct! Ironman, thank you for your wedge answers. I will try to do that, too, when I get to melting thicker iron. I do have ferro-silicon, but haven't used it yet. I remember something about your using thin copper magnet wire sometimes to drop additions into the melt "on a string" so to speak. |
| ironman:
Pete49 Steel can be used if it is recarburized also cast iron can be turned back into steel by removing the excess carbon. |
| Pete49:
thank you both for the answers. :mmr: When I saw the medieval re-enactment of the smelting of iron on time team they used ore found in the region. That's what prompted me to ask. As an aside I have a lot of hematite ore near here though I think the freight may be the killer :lol: Pete |
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