Foundry

[Joe Sull]

I made this furnace last year and pretty much finished it. I was planning on making
flintlock parts with it. It dosen't cost that much to make this setup. I found some
blue clay in a pit close by and lined the furnace with a mixture of silica sand and the
clay. Blue clay is a good refractory but not this blue clay. It won't reach the 2600
degrees f without turning to glass and melting.





I made a waste oil burner called "The Brute" This thing will CRANK! It's freaky just
to light it up. I drip waste oil into a tube that is super heated with a propane torch
that I also made called "The Mako". I use a hair dryer as a blower.
To start it up, I heat the drip tube to cherry red. Turn the blower on low then ingnite the torch.
I can tell when the oil vapor is super heated. It actually changes color to a greenish vapor.



I made two furnaces, one is the melting and one is for lost wax burnout. They will both take
1900 deg f the way they are and that is plenty for aluminum. I think I can try my hand at making
some bike parts.









I need a crucible and the proper tongs which I can make. I need a few other things too like mold frames
I'll get this stuff together and maybe make some foot pegs and stuff like that.

Anybody doing any foundry? Theres a lot to it and a great subject if anybody's interested I mean.

[ribbert]

Joe, I love this stuff. Not so much what it does but how you made it and the fact you made it at all. I love the "can do' attitude.  Not a bought part to be seen. 100% scavenged and recycled parts.
That you scratch build you pistols is one thing but making your own furnace to cast the parts is something else.

I love this shot showing the leveraged, self levelling, insulated handled raising mechanism. Simple, home made and 100% effective.

The "I need a furnace, I think I'll just pop out to the backyard an knock one up" attitude is disappearing all too fast as goods become cheaper and time more valuable.

Great stuff indeed.

Noel

[movenon]

Keep up the great work. I also love it.
George

[Firehawk068]

You are F'in Brilliant!
I love that you made this stuff yourself................in the backyard....................
Something that I don't have any knowledge of, but would be plenty handy if I did.............(Hell, I don't even have a welder yet!)
Anyone want to loan me a welder, and teach me how to weld?

[simi_ed]

You'd be surprised what you can learn about welding if you spend some time browsing the web.  I found several series of videos about wire-feed welding.  I learned enough to be dangerous before I even struck an arc with my wire welder, and after bit of experimentation I was able do the job I set out to do.  Harbor  China Freight has a decent selection of welders for reasonable $$$.  Or you could browse CL and get lucky ( I mean a welder!).  
My next welding project involves wheel pullers for stuck rototiller wheels.

Joe, nice job on the furnii!  That's what it takes if your gonna make your own ____ ( fill in the blank).  Anybody ever hear of John Britten?  This Kiwi cast a motorcycle in his yard!  And a damn impressive motorcycle at that!

[Capn Ron]

I absolutely LOVE this sort of backyard tech!!  ...And if you end up forging FJ footpegs...or any other motorcycle parts in that thing...We want to see the process!

The best way to learn welding is just to start welding.  I picked up a 220V Lincoln 175 Mig with gas many years ago because I was tired of not being able to completely fabricate in metal.  With a welder and a bunch of scrap metal, I started playing.  Ohhh, Now I get that concept!  Then I'd go to something bigger and try to destroy it...Ahhh...that's what a bad weld looks like...I'll work on that!  At this point, I'm comfortable in putting together simple things on my rock crawler...Roll cages, frame mounts, shock hoops, suspension links and the like.  I'm no expert, but my welds are looking pretty good and I'm no longer afraid of taking on a metal project.

Keep us posted on what you end up making there!!

Cap'n Ron. . .

[bcguide]

check out welding tips and tricks for some great vids on how to weld

[Dan Filetti]

Very nice, I admire the effort.  I would like to see more, please do keep posting -especially as you begin to make stuff.

Dan

[Joe Sull]

I can show how I made some stuff over the next couple of days and then we'll put it away
till theres better weather. I would be surprised to learn that you guys didn't get to do foundry
in high school.
The brain in the brute waste oil torch is the oil dripper. A run up to the hardware store and get
some nipples and tees fittings and a valve.







This valve isn't good for this torch. As it heats up and the viscosity changes, more oil gets released
It burns rich and the carbon settles in the melt- and it smokes like hell!
I'll be changing this out for a needle valve in the spring.



The drip tube is just whacked off and  plugged, that's a sealed weld.





Stay tuned!

[Joe Sull]

Turbulator; It needs one. It goes in front of the air feed tube and easy to make.



It just sits in the reducer. It's not anchored but snug.



Crappy pic. I used a piece of sheet metal the length of the circumference and cut with sheers.
bent to look good.

The blower is a hair dryer that rigged with a dimmer switch. It needs one cause you only need
5 cfm and less when you start the torch.



I use this rig for my forge too. You just stick in over the air in pipe and let it hang.

The propane Mako is actually intricate.



The slots have to be uniform and without burrs inside. Drill thru 1/4" on the side- theres
another drill thru 1" back from the end of the nipple. It's a 6" nipple. I had to add more
slots and a few more hole in back to get the right burn.



The orifice that delivers the gas is a .028 MIG tip turned inside and held with compression fittings
then screwed into a jag. Some sort of regulator would be nice too.

The pipe that's over the nipple is important. It has to be flared. I can't remember what I drove it onto
but it doesn't need that much flare to work. You need an air space between the inner and outer tube.
Drilled holes in the outer tube and set wire so that the outer tube can slide with some resistance and
yet maintain the uniform air space.





It's hard to see in this pic but I ended up adding 4 more slots to make slots 5 in top and 5 on bottom.
Drilled thru 1/4" again making 2 more holes on the sides. This torch has a duel purpose. It will heat
the burnout furnace to 1700 cleanly and it will superheat the drip tube.

[Joe Sull]

To heat the drip tube efficiently, I needed to make it's own little furnace. Hold the heat in and
turn the burner down low. I found 2 paint cans. One, I cut the top off and the other, I cut the bottom off.
I slipped one inside the other and made one tall can. Formed the vents and inside then potted the
clay mix in. I also potted the cover. Theres wire attached to the lid so the clay will stay put.



Then I fired it.





Screwed the lid down with self tappers and made a strap to hole it up around the drip tube.

[Bones]

Your a clever man Joe, sort of like a Deer Island version of Mc' Guyver. The way you can improvise and use basic stuff to fix things, like the rotor casing on your bike using an old can and some filler, to making a furnace using cans, sand, pipe fittings, etc....is brilliant. You possess a skill that harkers from the old days where if you needed something that wasn't available, or couldn't afford, then out of nessisity you made it. Good stuff.

                                                                  Tony.

[Joe Sull]

Hi Tony;
You know what blows my mind, In India, tribal people do lost wax bronze casting in the ground with coal and belows. They mix clay and cow dung to make there investment. The big thing that they have going for them is the clay in that area is the best refractory. "Fire clay" is what I need.
I could spend $2000 dollars to get the same result they get. Over engineering makes it all very technical, so they can make money out of nothing. It's way overthought.

When I was in high school we had foundry. It was a good experience but I had to buy a book on the subject to relearn.





The refractory is everything - dictates what is capable. I need to spend money on fire clay just to get up to brass or bronze temps.
For melting temps on iron, 2600, it will cost $600- $800 to line my furnace. The safety gear at that temp cost big money too.
The "investment" for lost wax casting to withstand those temps is very technical.

I thought the clay I found was good but it's not. I can buy Masonry fireclay cement which will get me to 2200 and that will do bronze. $25/ 50lb bags I'll need at least 10 bags.

I can do aluminum and make some bike parts. Hands on experience will be good.

[Klavdy]

Excellent stuff.
Seen this?

[The General]

Excellent stuff.
Seen this?

What a terrible way to die! Big risk of the aluminium getting into the sub-terranean water table too! ... Next they`ll be trying it on koala bear habitats! .... this is all wrong wrong wrong!