Two Crucible Pouring Shanks

[Carlos B]

Ha ha Yes sand casting is one of those activities that has been around for thousands of years and over time has developed its own terminology. To most people a mold box is a mold box but the correct term is "flask". I guess if you work in the industry it keeps the patternmakers, molders and furnace operators all on the same page.

Carlos

[Paul Jones]

Carlos,

Thank you for the showing us how you were able to re-purpose the over-sized set of fireplace tongs to create crucible pouring shanks. I did casting in all types of metals years ago and having well made crucible pouring shanks is a "must have" to reduce the risk of pouring accidents. Looking forward to seeing more of your casting work.

Regards,
Paul

[Toolmaker51]

C-Bag: "I find the hardest part of any new endeavor is the terminology. I NEVER would know those things were called shanks! Makes it hard to research when you don't know the term. I'll bet googling "grabber" never would have worked".

Oh, 'Grabber' would Google fine.
If you wanted a tarted-up Ford Maverick, or X-rated something or another. Yep, Google search generates a lot of WTF?; even when you know relevant terms.

[C-Bag]

Seeing this stuff makes me wish there was a setup like local glass blowers have. Where somebody has the space and equipment and share the place with several artists at one time. That way I could see if this is something I'd really get into or would just suck at. And also get those little tips from experienced folks that would ease the learning curve. Come to think of it Cal Poly is just down the road, I'll have to check and see if there is a class in casting.

[Carlos B]

Alot of colleges do offer Foundry Technology coarse's, alot more Stateside than up here. Here's a picture of a foundry set-up at a Stateside college, can't remember which. Thats a mini cupola melting iron. Someone did a nice job of building that, thats preheated blast air they are using (the piping going down the side). I have played with some ideas to build one but have never had the time or need to follow through with them.



Carlos

[nextofkin]

I tried casting aluminum and the casting seems to have a crunchie like finish dont have a pyrometer checked the heat like Dave Gingery did with a metal rod, pattern is good and sand is fine grain like sugar, using a fire extinguisher as a crucible thinking that I might need a different crucible might be getting steel transferred to aluminum melt anythoughts

[Ralphxyz]

Where does one get the crucibles? A forge is on my list, love your tools, I want some!

[Carlos B]

Sugar can come in different grain sizes, I use play box sand, it is at least as fine as most sugar types but I still find it a bit to grainy and will be changing it out this summer if I do any casting. Your mix may also need adjusting, more clay, Dave does a nice test, squeeze a handful and it should show good definition and be strong enough not to crumble when you hold it with two fingers.

Dave recommends 1350*F to 1400*F, I have never poured below 1400*F better a little higher than lower. I have a digital temp. meter that goes to 2200*F.

Here is the kind of finish that I am achieving with play sand, the saucer was just trimmed of the gate and wire brushed. Not great, I would like to improve on that.



If the extinguisher was cleaned well before use and not showing scale rust that would contaminate the melt it should be ok. I have read of others using former extinguishers.

[Carlos B]

Thank you for the kudo Ralphxyz. I'm in Ontario Canada I got my clay graphite crucible at Smelko Foundry Products LTD in Milton Ont. about 1/2 hr outside Toronto, Paul the sales person was a great help. I imagine you are in the States, finding a foundry products supplier should still be easy enough, there are also lots of sites on line that you can explore. I prefer a store front for that type of item, I want to here it ring before I pay for it.

A propane forge is on my list to for this summer also. We will see, the list is already to long .

[hemmjo]

Any internet search engine will find you as many crucibles as you can possibly use.