My foundry set up

Home enthusiasts discuss their Foundry & Casting work.

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RobWilson
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Jul 07, 2010 3:07 pm
Location: UK Newcastle

My foundry set up

Post by RobWilson »

Hi Lads  :wave:

I have found some of the photos of my , furnace/foundry set up build ,,,,,, some may fined something of interset in them , first off , when i build stuff like this ,i don't work to any real plan , just an idea in my head of what i am after , what materials i have at hand or can scrounge up, thats why things end up the size they are .Some times i get lucky and things work out ok .

I have always loved casting my own parts ,its great to recycle crap into some thing useful , anyway here is a few shots of my old furnace set up, i built it many years ago from bits and bobs from the junk yard , i did splash out and by a new elctric motor for the blower unit i made .
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Some of the castings produced with the furnace ,The furnace works great doing ally to iron , just it was a bit small in capacity .
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Getting to the piont , i want to do bigger castings/ pour more than one or two castings in one melt , so i need to make a furnace to take diss A16 crucible or bigger
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I started with an old chemical drum , the type with a seperate lid ,18" dia ,cutting a section off to make the mian body , and a section for the lid so the bead run in the middle of the lid , this is so the castable has some thing to key too
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Not wanting to waist the loverly rolled bead of the top of the drum i trimmed it up and fitted it by spot welding , to the main body , to make it a bit more rigid

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Then i made up the lid lift / swivel lever , this works of a cam on the lever and pushes on a rod fixed to the main body , when the lever is moved down the lid lifts verticaly 1/2 " and is easerly rotated out the way
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Next the rod for the main body , and some handels
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The blast pie
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all the metal work done
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the center former

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If your still  awake  , now its time for the castable , i filled the bottom of main body 3" thick , let it go green ,then fitted the center form
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the lid ,much of the same
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The former removed Image

The lid was fitted and ajusted to give a level lift and some clearance between the cam and rod so the lid will seal flat on the body

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I made up a trolley for it so i could wheel it out side ( not my best idea /british weather ) also the plants were not too happy

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It did not stop on the trolley long , after some thought , i decided that i must have it so i could run the furnace indoors , after lots of messing about trying different ways of getting the heat out the shop , melting parts of my new shop ,  i decided to add some insulation to the main body and exhust the hot gasses out the back of the furnace through the shop wall . so a new stand was made , handels removed and lever repostioned .
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Moulding sand storage was always a problem , i used to store it in big plastic drums , bit of a pian in the butt , so i knocked up a moulding bech with sand storage built in , works much better , sand dose dot get everywere now , and not in shot is a small adition to the bench which has a joiners vice fitted , so the moulding bench doubles up for patten making
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Now the British weather is not a problem :D

Hope that was not to long of a post

Regards Rob
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Fender
Posts: 3084
Joined: Wed May 02, 2007 8:33 pm
Location: Chattanooga TN

Re: My foundry set up

Post by Fender »

Hey Rob,
Very informative and interesting post, but the images cause the text to spill off the page. Can you resize the photos so this doesn't happen?
Thanks,
Dan Watson
Chattanooga, TN
dly31
Posts: 1052
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2004 11:29 pm
Location: Northeast Alabama

Re: My foundry set up

Post by dly31 »

Everything really looks professional, both in design and manufacture. I would take it all to be factory built. You do good work.

Don Young
Don Young
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Harold_V
Posts: 20231
Joined: Fri Dec 20, 2002 11:02 pm
Location: Onalaska, WA USA

Re: My foundry set up

Post by Harold_V »

Fender wrote:Hey Rob,
Very informative and interesting post, but the images cause the text to spill off the page. Can you resize the photos so this doesn't happen?
Thanks,
The photos have been posted within acceptable limits, but they were posted such that two displayed in a common line in a few occasions. I have edited his post such that they now appear single file, so you should be able to read the post without text spread. Please advise if that is not the case.

Rob, I can't thank you enough for such a fine post. Your furnace (prior to adding the external insulation) is very similar in design to one I built a long time ago. It sure brought back some pleasant memories for me!

Harold

edit: clarified comments on the furnace
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
hammermill
Posts: 2938
Joined: Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:43 pm
Location: pendleton or

Re: My foundry set up

Post by hammermill »

excellent and i like the tru wall venting and stack idea.
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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: My foundry set up

Post by steamin10 »

Any through wall design will have an inherant fire danger, if nothing but from prolonged radiant heat, and a furnace may run steady for hours. Careful consideration must be given to this problem. My planned dedicated space for a foundry has a galvanized hood of some size to be fitted with a blower to mix and evacuate smoke and hot gas from the area to the outdoors. It is a reclaim from a restaurant kitchen, flat in back and angle in front. About 36" by 6ft. A puffer fan blower unit will create a draft to move things along. This could be a salvage from a window AC unit, and made to venturi into the exhaust to avoid high heat levels through the unit itself, since it will be most likely plastic.
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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