The Foundry

Here you go... Remember if your trying this stuff at home, this is dangerous! Propane, high temperatures, and molten metal are not things to be toyed with. If you seriously want to get involved, research it well and take appropriate safety precautions. And if your a minor, get your parent/guardian involved before you mess with this stuff. Remember I do not advocate doing what I have, I am simple describing what I have done with it's inherent dangers.

That being said, let's move on to the foundry.


	These were some of my first castings. A couple sizes of fly cutters AKA Gingery Miller book, a replacement handle for my Logan's compound slide, a blank which I hobbed into a worm gear (an experiment), and a small angle plate.		These are some later casting, a bit larger than my first attempts. The far left object is a blank for the backing plate for my Buck 6 jaw chuck. The center is a blank for a 5 step pulley for my flea market drill press (couldn't find 5 step pulleys so I made one). The far right object is a motor mount for the same drill press. The 3/4" rods you see are bolts with the threaded portions cut off. The bolt heads are imbedded in the casting. These slide into the drill press head for belt tensioning.

	This is blast furnace number 1. A mostly Gingery design with a propane mongo burner. Works well but larger casting were tough..		Here's furnace #2. A Speedy melt B30. It can hold a number #30 crucible but the largest I have so far is a #8. I am still perfecting the burner for this as I received it at an auction with the burner assembly missing..

	This is the molding bench with all the various tools and flasks needed to make a sand mold. Currently it loaded up with green sand, however I have about 30 lbs. of an oil based sand using bentonite and lye soap that is looking very promising. Recipe to come....		Here is the casting of the fly cutter. You still see a 1/4" thick steel core where the cutter bit should go. This was coated with soot to make removal possible.