Alloy Choices

Home enthusiasts discuss their Foundry & Casting work.

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RONALD
Posts: 754
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2003 7:27 am

Alloy Choices

Post by RONALD »

As hobbyists, as of yet, we can melt and cast any metals we can get our hands on, but for the professional it's a different story.

For the professional metal caster having the right alloy can mean the difference between profit and bankruptcy.

http://www.afsinc.org/news/news.cfm?ItemNumber=19089
mikeehlert
Posts: 109
Joined: Thu May 28, 2015 5:17 pm
Location: Los Alamitos, CA

Re: Alloy Choices

Post by mikeehlert »

RONALD wrote:As hobbyists, as of yet, we can melt and cast any metals we can get our hands on, but for the professional it's a different story.

For the professional metal caster having the right alloy can mean the difference between profit and bankruptcy.

http://www.afsinc.org/news/news.cfm?ItemNumber=19089
Hummmmm
"UCLA Sustainable Technology & Policy Program, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, under the direction of Dr. Peter Sinsheimer."

I would expect a wider view than indicated in the link from such an institution.
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steamin10
Posts: 6712
Joined: Sun Jun 08, 2003 11:52 pm
Location: NW Indiana. Close to Lake Michigan S. tip

Re: Alloy Choices

Post by steamin10 »

In my opinion this is a very political football promoted by book engineers against practical knowledge of founding with 100+ years of results. This is a power struggle, as the governing body has waked away from the table.
To simplify some of this, the lead has become a bogie man, without consideration of some technical aspects being ignored. Plumbing brass is leaded, at low levels, to aid in machining, and production costs. Unleaded hard brass is hard on tooling, the tool life is extended by several factors with leading. There are problems with long life with bismuth additions as proposed, and that is an expensive metal, unstable in its own right.

Currently, all city water supplies make additions of some protective chemicals, that hold lead pipe to its oxides, so that old piping does not shed lead into the water supply. Formerly, 60/40 tin-lead solder was used for all copper piping out into the 80's. After the lead blow up, it was discovered, that most of the lead available at the home tap, was from the brass itself, leaching a few parts per million at the faucet or valves. This water is expelled with the first burp of water through such taps, and do not significantly contribute to the general water flow. If the first burst is captured, ( like putting a coffee pot under the tap and then turning it on,) you now capture whatever is exposed to those fittings. Further old testing of water supply systems, showed that 'aged' piping joint with 60/40 compounds were stable, and incapable of shedding much lead into the waters that flowed though those joints, because the lead had eroded and was gone essentially lowering the contamination rate, and the areas involved were small compared to overall volumes. The contest becomes who decides the test standard that reflects real world use.

Flint Mich, is going into fits because their water treatment is tainted, not by the lead piping that serves the area, but because of contaminated water source. Once lead is in the water, it is hard to remove on a mass scale. Gary, Indiana has many water feeds, that are lead pipe. Mostly in the secondary lines, as the mains have been changed out over time, the city being over 120 yrs old. They control the water quality from Lake Michigan, with treatment, and outfalls that are directed mostly to the Mississippi basin.

Anyway, I hope I have shed some light on what the major squabble is on the lead and plumbing alloy problems.
Big Dave, former Millwright, Electrician, Environmental conditioning, and back yard Fixxit guy. Now retired, persuing boats, trains, and broken relics.
We have enough youth, how about a fountain of Smart. My computer beat me at chess, but not kickboxing
It is not getting caught in the rain, its learning to dance in it. People saying good morning, should have to prove it.
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