I bought a crucible, and built a very heavy (ludicrously heavy) cast refractory furnace, and a naturally aspirated propane burner.

Bought a 100 lb. propane tank.

Tried to melt iron.

2nd Iron Attempt: Failure (no combustion air blower used; I had no idea one was required)

2nd Aluminum Casting Attempt:

I had a 3D printed pattern made for my green twin engine build, and so I started trying to see if I could cast that piece.

I got the wise idea that I could improve the surface finish of the casting by spraying the petrobond mold with a mixture of alcohol and graphite.

This was my first attempt at a two piece mold, using the cope and the drag, and vertical sprue to feed metal to the mold cavity.

Result: The alcohol flashed and created a "surface of the moon" casting.

MAJOR Failure. Learn from my mistakes, and don't repeat these blunders.

3rd Attempt to Cast Aluminum:

I tried to cast another green twin flywheel in alumimum, and this time I used straight petrobond.

This flywheel turned out pretty decent.

Result: First usable cast aluminum part that I made.

A bit rough in places, but I called this a SUCCESS, relatively speaking.

Edited By PatJ on 03/07/2022 09:18:40

Edited By PatJ on 03/07/2022 09:19:15

I made a pattern for the base of the green twin engine I was building.

I discovered sodium silicate could be used for a core, and so this core was made from sodium silicate and hardware store sand.

The remainder of the mold was made using petrobond.

I had no idea that hydraulic forces can lift the cope up off the drag, and so I did not use weights on top of the flask.

The cope lifted, some of the aluminum ran out.

The core was not secure, but it did not actually float.

The hardware store sand produced a dreadful finish on the inside of the casting.

Result: Failure on many levels. (No Pain, No Gain, as they say.)

Aluminum Casting Demonstration:

A friend of my brother's got all excited about my new casting abilities, and insisted on a demonstration.

I was a bit nervous, for good reason, because I still had very little idea of what exactly I was doing.

I discovered (after the pour) that if the same diameter pins were used on either side of cope and drag, then the cope could be installed in a position that was 180 degrees off, and thus the upper part of the casting is shifted over about 1" from the lower part of the casting.

My brother's friend was not impressed, and he never came around again for any more castings sessions,LOL.

One of those fair-weather casting friends I guess; always there for the glory; never to be seen for the failures, LOL.

Results: Abject Failure, but important lesson learned. Use a 1/4" pin on the left side of the flask, and a 3/8" pin on the right side of the flask. Orientation problem solved.

Edited By PatJ on 03/07/2022 09:50:40

Another attempt to cast the green twin base.

I was still making rookie mistakes.

This time the melt was too hot, and so the metal degraded the petrobond, and ruined a lot of the surface finish.

Result: Failure, very poor quality surface finish, but complete mold fill.

Having had some limited success with casting 356 aluminum, I decided to set my sights on casting gray iron.

I made my own siphon nozzle burner using a cutting torch tip, with the oil flowing through the center tip hole, and the compressed air flowing through the outer ring of holes.

This burner actually worked very well, but unfortunately I had no idea about what the optimum fuel/combustion air/compressed air levels where, and so I literally just stumbled through this melt with blind luck.

This was my first iron pour, and I used petrobond.

Petrobond can be used sometimes with iron, but it does not stand up to iron temperatures well, and so I did have a few sand inclusions in this casting, which I filled with JBWeld.

Result:

For a first attempt at an iron pour, I considered this a success, with a few defects that could be repaired.

I opened the mold while the iron was still hot (after removing my facemask), and the cloud of smoke burst into flames just as I leaned forward to look at the casting. I saw the flames coming and closed my eyes, and that is the only reason they don't call me Stevie Wonder now. Petrobond smoke is highly flamable; remember that.

The iron machined easily, even though I did not use ferrosilicon, being unaware of it at the time.

I made a pressurized diesel fuel tank from a NEW 40 lb propane tank (don't cut or drill into a used propane tank; it will explode), and this helped stabilize the burner.

I went to the used sporting goods store and purchased several weights to use on the top of the flask.

Crucible was a Morgan Salamander Super B30 (bilge shape).

Iron was Class 40 iron bar stock.

Fuel was diesel with home-made siphon nozzle burner.

Edited By PatJ on 03/07/2022 10:24:45

Edited By PatJ on 03/07/2022 10:25:28

Thanks Dave-

I get asked that question a lot.

I fear the moisture that would be in the sand more than I fear the concrete exploding.

I have spilled a lot of metal including iron on my driveway, and since it is rather old concrete, it does not explode.

Spilling molten metal on wet sand could definitely explode, and you would only need a slight amount of moisture in the sand.

I know of an iron caster in Australia who has poured iron over concrete for 20 years, with no sand, and he agrees with me that sand is not necessary.

I have seen someone spill aluminum on some relatively new and hard concrete, and it did spald the surface.

I also saw someone use concrete to build a furnace, in lieu of castable refractory, and that furnace did explode violently.

The sand would probably serve more as a protection for the driveway, but my driveway is not so great, so I don't worry about it. And sand gets tracked everywhere, and gets into everything, and so I never use it.

Glad you like the posts. I have learned as more from looking at casting failure photos then from looking at casting successes. With casting failure photos, you can sometimes identify what is causing your problems.

.

Thanks Dave, I really was about to throw in the towel before I figured out iron.

If it were not for the guy from Australia (goes by the screen name ironsided/luckygen, etc) and another local buddy of mine who started doing iron, I probably would have given up.

This story goes on forever, is the reason I broke it out from the other thread.

Noel-

My welds look bad, but they are solid. I have some really good all-position 6011 rods, and I leave quite a bit of gap so as to get a full penetration weld. I have never had any weld fail, so don't let the looks deceive you.

The slag has not been chipped off the weld yet, is why they look so rough.

My first furnace used a mild steel shell, and they are prone to corrosion, especially if left outdoors.

I should have bought a stainless 55 gallon drum for a shell, but hindsight is 20/20.

All of my foundry equipment is most definitely function over form.

My goal is to repeatedly make perfect iron castings, and since my fabrication time is very limited, I focus on the end product casting.

There was a bit of beer left over in one keg, and it looked and smelled to be drinkable, but I reluctantly poured it out.

It is great to see all these foundry threads. I have long dreamed of roping more folks into this hobby.

It is not necessarily easy, but loads of fun for sure.

.

Edited By PatJ on 03/07/2022 15:46:43