the foundry setup

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A Closer Look At the Foundry Setup

Here is a closer look at some of the components that make up my personal

backyard foundry. It may seem crude but boy can I get some serious workdone! How many people can melt metal and cast it into desirable objects from

their backyard??!!

This is a full view of my foundry setup inthe driveway. Granted this isn't the

best picture but you can still see themajor components. On the right side is

the furnace with its blower attachment.There are three molds to the left of

the furnace waiting to be filled with

metal (the best part!)

The coffee can on bricks (behind themolds) is for collecting the skimmed

slag. The two bricks behind the coffeecan are for holding the lid when ready

to pour the metal. The small bread pansand cup cake pan is for making ingots

with any extra metal. Notice the hooksto the left of the photo for holding and

manipulating the ladle. To the left ofthe hooks is the skimming spoon

attached to its pipe extension.

This is my homemade ladle. I made it

from a 4-inch diameter 9-inch long pieceof black steel water pipe with a capscrewed on. Notice the rings welded to

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the side. They are for holding the ladle

with the very handy lifting hooks. Andfinally there is a pouring lip on the front

of the ladle. I simply heated it until it

glowed orange then used a ball-peen

hammer to shape it.Indeed this ladle is quite a masterpiece.I've been using it for almost a year. I

can melt about 10 to 12 pounds ofaluminum in it at once. I'm not sure how

much that is volumetrically, I never

tried to figure it out. I'll get back to

you on that.

This picture is a closer look at theskimming spoon and one of the ladlemanipulating hooks made from some

scrap 1/4-inch steel rod.

This is a giant heap of scrap aluminumthat I've collected. I re-melt it which

cuts down on waste for the environmentand supplies me with free raw materials!

Once you build a foundry (which is supercheap to do) all you have to pay for is

fuel, unless you collect and burn wood in your furnace making everything free!

A close look at the picture will show you





that I get my aluminum from old lawnchairs, storm doors, rain gutters, soda

and beer cans, foil and any otheraluminum item that a less, should I say...

"mad-scientist-inclined" individual may

discard.

Now this is a beautiful site (at least tome it is.) Here are three molds fully

poured. The two on the left are made upof oil bonded sand and the one on the

right is made from homemade moldingsand.

Since my ladle is so large I need a largefurnace to go with it. My furnace is 10

inches in diameter on the inside and ituses about 1/3 of a 24-pound bag of

charcoal each use. That really adds upafter awhile so if I use the furnace I

have to make sure to get my moneys

worth by casting as much metal aspossible. I really love to make large

castings. Not only do they take

advantage of my furnace's largecapacity but they provide lovely

challenges in casting (i.e. preventingshrink cavities.)

Ah yes! Here we have a cupcake pan

with extra aluminum poured into someof the cavities. These are called ingots.





Ingots are simply "chunks" of cleanaluminum (or whatever metal you're

melting.) It is important to melt moremetal than you need to fill all of your

molds because melting too little metal

is, well... really annoying (at least fromwhat others have said.) I of course havenever made such a silly mistake! (okay,

maybe once).

Just pour the excess into your ingotmold and you'll have clean metal to re-

melt. The castings are actually a higher

quality (at least in theory) because since you are melting clean ingots you actuallyclean the metal twice. In my experience

the best castings come when the metalis skimmed until looks clean and is not

too hot.

This is a mound of clean ingots. Thereare about 40 or 50 pounds of aluminum

here.

The small rectangular ingots weigh 4

pounds each. The cup cake shaped onesare maybe 6 ounces (I didn't weigh

them) and about 8 pounds for the largerrectangles (made from a standard size

bread pan) on the left.

Here is bin of homemade molding sand. Imade it from a mixture of fireclay and

clean sifted sandbox sand. It is

tempered with just the right amount ofwater to hold together well but not so

much water as to flash evaporate andleave steam bubbles in the casting.





On the piece of paper in the bin is aclump of sand squeezed into a cylinder

shape with my hand. Well tempered

sand will hold together well, show gooddetail and break apart cleanly.

I read in a popular metalcasting book that wood flour (or baking flour if

that's all you have) should be added to the mix when making it. For the loveof god, don't do it! I didn't notice any benefits from it and worst of all it

stinks, no... reeks of funk, rot and filth like you wouldn't believe for daysuntil the rotting flour is finally eaten up by mold, fungus and various

microorganisms.

This is a bin of commercially made oil-

bonded sand. Originally it was brightorange but it darkens with use. Thesand in immediate contact with the

molten metal turns jet black and dry asthe Sahara. The manufacturer suggests

removing the blackened sand andcollecting it in a separate container to

be retempered with their "special oil"

and "resin catalyst" when enoughaccumulates. I separated it for a fewcastings but abandoned the practice

after getting tired or scraping, carvingand chipping burnt sand from the

remains of intricate ornamental casting

molds. So now I just mix it all back

together and retemper it with oil afterevery use.





Don't tell the manufacturer but I never used their "special" oil and I surely

didn't use any of the advanced "resin catalyst" that they talk about. I simplyretemper it with used cooking or motor oil or a combination of both! DO

NOT use anything more combustible than motor oil! Since I don't use anyresin catalyst the sand's consistency is slightly different but it works just

fine.

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Copyright © 2000, 2001 by Lionel Oliver II All Rights Reserved.

This site was created Sept. 28, 2000

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