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Forums » Off-topic discussion » Look what I can do... 1 2

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  July 30, 2009 7:25 p.m. 4cylndrfury Dork

  Heres how I spent my morning:

  built a fire in my furnace:
  
  then I melted some scrap Aluminum:
  
  Filing my fancy pants crucible with shiny goodness:
  
  And cast some ingots in a mini muffin pan:
  
  And let em cool till I could hold it in my hand:
  

  That melt produced 6 ingots at a total of 4.5 lbs. This was my first firing and my first attempt at back yard metal casting. Id say I did an alright job if I do say so myself, and I do. I built a furnace for free, used $10 worth of kitchen stuff, burned scrap lumber I already own but had no use for, and melted some metal I woulda thrown away otherwise. Not too shabby.

  I got jazzed on the idea from a thread a few months back where someone wanted a decorative timing cover without a lot of cost. Cant remember the details, but I was hooked after looking into it and finding backyardmetalcasting.com.

  Ideally I want to build my own metal working lathe, and cast/fabricate my own aluminum underdrive pulleys, make some universal shift knobs, and maybe some decorative placques and other hullabaloo. Theres miles to go before I get to that point, but you gotta start somewhere.

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  July 30, 2009 7:56 p.m. EastCoastMojo Dork

  What you need now is a good slingshot

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  July 30, 2009 7:59 p.m. hotrodlarry Reader

  EastCoastMojo wrote:

  What you need now is a good slingshot

  or a potato gun, whichever...

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  July 30, 2009 8:06 p.m. RossD Reader

  I'd have to admitt, that looks all the way cool. I've often wanted to makes my own castings since I worked at a pattern shop back in high school. Now you can make knock off Hurst shifter handles that say "Horst".

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  July 30, 2009 8:39 p.m. 4cylndrfury Dork

  ^^or a knock off V8 that sez Chebroley

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  July 31, 2009 4:58 a.m. NYG95GA SuperDork

  That's major cool.

  Well, once you can hold it in your hand..

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  July 31, 2009 8:33 a.m. P71 SuperDork

  Awesome!

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  July 31, 2009 10:26 a.m. Woody SuperDork

  Very cool, but I might hesitate before making pulleys. I wouldn't want to machine something that rotates at crank speed out of a billet that I cast myself.

  I'm just sayin'...

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  July 31, 2009 11:44 a.m. pete240z Dork

  my high school had a foundry and we packed sand molds and then poured them at the end of class.

  Since it was the late 1970's; a lot of belt buckles were made. But I still remember enjoying the foundry work. The rest of the class was lathe/mill/drill/welding. Metals I, II, III, IV.

  They have since removed all that equipment from my high school, because I think it is now illegal to teach this stuff.

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  July 31, 2009 12:43 p.m. poopshovel SuperDork

  Dude. That's really, really, really cool.

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  July 31, 2009 2:48 p.m. slantvaliant Reader

  In my junior high metal shop class, we made chisels, sheet metal tool boxes, and did some casting. No welding except for the spot welds, and no machine work, though.
  Now the old shop full of computers and a small robotics lab.

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  July 31, 2009 3:43 p.m. Tommy Suddard SonDork

  No shop in my highschool.

  The closest thing is a robotics program. They have some tools, but... Here's my favorite scoldings from the past year: "Tommy! You could hurt yourself with that screwdriver. You have to wear safety goggles." "Tommy! You need a fire extinguisher next to that. And gloves!" (watching someone drill a hole in a piece of metal in a vice on a drill press) etc, etc.

  Of course, we weren't allowed to use any of the tools except the screwdrivers until we were 18. Even vice grips. I had to show a lot of the 18 year olds how to use the tools.

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  Aug. 20, 2009 3:34 p.m. Dr. Hess PowerDork

  My high school had a metal shop. They cast a lot of stuff out of aluminum, soldered, welded, etc.
  

  Combine the recent high school observations with the fact that Vice Grips (r) are now made in China and the conclusion is that we are totally screwed.

  Hey, 4cylndrfury, what are you using for a crucible?

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  Aug. 20, 2009 3:37 p.m. DILYSI Dave UltimaDork

  Tommy Suddard wrote:

  No shop in my highschool.

  The closest thing is a robotics program. They have some tools, but... Here's my favorite scoldings from the past year: "Tommy! You could hurt yourself with that screwdriver. You have to wear safety goggles." "Tommy! You need a fire extinguisher next to that. And gloves!" (watching someone drill a hole in a piece of metal in a vice on a drill press) etc, etc.

  Of course, we weren't allowed to use any of the tools except the screwdrivers until we were 18. Even vice grips. I had to show a lot of the 18 year olds how to use the tools.

  This makes me a sad panda...

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  Aug. 20, 2009 3:42 p.m. OrangeRazor New Reader

  Metal casting = way cool! I want to try casting my own bullets for reloading someday.

  My high school had shop classes, but they were at the career center, for folks who knew they weren't going to go to college. It was such horsepuckey. I really wanted to take the classes but I also wanted to take AP classes for college...in retrospect I think the shop classes would've served me better!

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  Aug. 20, 2009 3:49 p.m. Dr. Hess PowerDork

  Making boolits yourself is easy, inexpensive and straight forward. You can roll your own for basically free to a penny each (including lube). I've been doing it myself since I was 13. With the price of store-bought boolits and bullets these days, there isn't much other choice.

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  Aug. 20, 2009 4:38 p.m. andrave Reader

  the link was so badass that I just wasted 35 mins of company time.

  that looks like fun.

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  Aug. 20, 2009 6:43 p.m. cb Reader

  would a burner from an old grill make enough heat?

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  Aug. 21, 2009 5:36 a.m. 914Driver SuperDork

  Tommy Suddard wrote:

  Of course, we weren't allowed to use any of the tools except the screwdrivers until we were 18. Even vice grips. I had to show a lot of the 18 year olds how to use the tools.

  I see the Nintendo generation every few months in the new Machinist apprentice classes. A few couldn't figure out how to get a chuck key into a drill press chuck. No mechanical experience.

  Yes, sad.

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  Aug. 21, 2009 5:40 a.m. 914Driver SuperDork

  cb wrote:

  would a burner from an old grill make enough heat?

  Probably, aluminum melts at 1220' F.

  [pssst. Don't use an aluminum pot/i]

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  Aug. 21, 2009 10:32 p.m. cb Reader

  thank u

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  Aug. 27, 2009 7:12 a.m. 4cylndrfury Dork

  SO I played with metal a little more...Photos: Here is a Pulley I trird using the "lost foam" method. You create youre one off piece out of foam (this was polystyrene - styrofoam- from a shipping container). After youve created the piece to cast, you hot glue on a "sprue" - to fill thru - and a "riser" or vent to release the gasses caused by burning the foam out (sorry no pics in this state). Then you dunk the piece in some kind of hardening paste. I used drywall mud thinned about 30% by just plain old tap water. A few layers of that and dry overnight, and youve got yourself a mold. Bury the mold in play sand so the tops of the sprue and riser are poking out, melt metal and go.This was going to be a pulley for turning a fan shaft for a blower I want to create in order to make my furnace more efficient than the desk fan I currently use. I learned a few things in this casting...the drywall mud produces highly detailed results, and sometimes thats not a good thing. Here it is next to my car keys for scale: Here is a close up of that detail (sorry for the poopie photo quality...camera phones less than a megapixel The foam was turned into a pulley shape by using my drill as a makeshift lathe and a razor blade as the cutter. This didnt as much cut off foam as it pulled it off. This left the surface very bumpy and full of voids (oxymoron anyone?), which the mud picked up in great detail. almost want to keep this as a "trophy", but thats a lot of good Aluminum that I can recast again. I think next time I'll use blue foam board used for insulating houses...supposedly doesnt produce nearly as crumbly a surface....oh yeah, and I have to rebuild my little furnace again. I need to refine my refractory recipe as it doesnt last for more than a few melts before the binders burn out and it falls apart. Good news is I have reached temps enough to melt the bronze pipe that takes the air from my fan into the furnace, and to begin to crystalize the silica in the cement Ive been using in the furnace into early stages of glass...it gets all green and shiny...sweet That’s pretty friggin hot Melted pipe: Glass is the lighter greenish color mixed in with the black ash:

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  Aug. 27, 2009 7:13 a.m. 4cylndrfury Dork

  dunno why thats all in italics?^^

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  Sept. 16, 2009 7:24 a.m. 4cylndrfury Dork

  OK, another update...

  Im trying to build a burner for my furnace that will burn waste vegetable oil from a local fast food joint. Its a very clean combustion if you can get it to atomize in enough air. In order to move said air I need a blower. Well, I have an old vacuum cleaner whose motor works but the plastic housing cracked ruining the impeller, so it wasnt getting suction... bingo - motor for a blower. now Im gonna cast 2 plates that will sandwich a center housing that will form a crude blower housing, and using the impeller from my recently deceased sump pump, Im hoping to create enough pressure on a small volume - forcing the air through a 1 1/2" square tube with a venturi at the end tapering to a 1/4" hole, and gravity feeding the oil into the venturi about 1" behind the orifice.

  ok, so heres the photos -

  the plate:

  Its pretty thin - 3/16" or so:

  Anyway, theres something elemental feeling about melting metal and using a technology as old as the bible to turn that metal into something useful...well except for the electric blowers and stamped stainless steel crucibles and what not

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  Sept. 16, 2009 7:26 a.m. 4cylndrfury Dork

  LOL still not sure about the ITALICS????

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