2/4/2016

TheFoundrySetup

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A Closer Look At the Foundry Setup

Here is a closer look at some of the components that make up my personal

backyard foundry. It may seem crude but boy can I get some serious work
done! How many people can melt metal and cast it into desirable objects from
their backyard??!!

This is a full view of my foundry setup in

the driveway. Granted this isn't the
best picture but you can still see the
major components. On the right side is
the furnace with its blower attachment.
There are three molds to the left of
the furnace waiting to be filled with
metal (the best part!)
The coffee can on bricks (behind the
molds) is for collecting the skimmed
slag. The two bricks behind the coffee
can are for holding the lid when ready
to pour the metal. The small bread pans
and cup cake pan is for making ingots
with any extra metal. Notice the hooks
to the left of the photo for holding and
manipulating the ladle. To the left of
the hooks is the skimming spoon
attached to its pipe extension.
This is my homemade ladle. I made it
from a 4-inch diameter 9-inch long piece
of black steel water pipe with a cap
screwed on. Notice the rings welded to
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the side. They are for holding the ladle

with the very handy lifting hooks. And
finally there is a pouring lip on the front
of the ladle. I simply heated it until it
glowed orange then used a ball-peen
hammer to shape it.
Indeed this ladle is quite a masterpiece.
I've been using it for almost a year. I
can melt about 10 to 12 pounds of
aluminum in it at once. I'm not sure how
much that is volumetrically, I never
tried to figure it out. I'll get back to
you on that.

This picture is a closer look at the

skimming spoon and one of the ladle
manipulating hooks made from some
scrap 1/4-inch steel rod.

This is a giant heap of scrap aluminum

that I've collected. I re-melt it which
cuts down on waste for the environment
and supplies me with free raw materials!
Once you build a foundry (which is super
cheap to do) all you have to pay for is
fuel, unless you collect and burn wood in
your furnace making everything free!
A close look at the picture will show you
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that I get my aluminum from old lawn

chairs, storm doors, rain gutters, soda
and beer cans, foil and any other
aluminum item that a less, should I say...
"mad-scientist-inclined" individual may
discard.

Now this is a beautiful site (at least to

me it is.) Here are three molds fully
poured. The two on the left are made up
of oil bonded sand and the one on the
right is made from homemade molding
sand.
Since my ladle is so large I need a large
furnace to go with it. My furnace is 10
inches in diameter on the inside and it
uses about 1/3 of a 24-pound bag of
charcoal each use. That really adds up
after awhile so if I use the furnace I
have to make sure to get my moneys
worth by casting as much metal as
possible. I really love to make large
castings. Not only do they take
advantage of my furnace's large
capacity but they provide lovely
challenges in casting (i.e. preventing
shrink cavities.)
Ah yes! Here we have a cupcake pan
with extra aluminum poured into some
of the cavities. These are called ingots.
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Ingots are simply "chunks" of clean

aluminum (or whatever metal you're
melting.) It is important to melt more
metal than you need to fill all of your
molds because melting too little metal
is, well... really annoying (at least from
what others have said.) I of course have
never made such a silly mistake! (okay,
maybe once).
Just pour the excess into your ingot
mold and you'll have clean metal to remelt. The castings are actually a higher
quality (at least in theory) because since
you are melting clean ingots you actually
clean the metal twice. In my experience
the best castings come when the metal
is skimmed until looks clean and is not
too hot.
This is a mound of clean ingots. There
are about 40 or 50 pounds of aluminum
here.
The small rectangular ingots weigh 4
pounds each. The cup cake shaped ones
are maybe 6 ounces (I didn't weigh
them) and about 8 pounds for the larger
rectangles (made from a standard size
bread pan) on the left.
Here is bin of homemade molding sand. I
made it from a mixture of fireclay and
clean sifted sandbox sand. It is
tempered with just the right amount of
water to hold together well but not so
much water as to flash evaporate and
leave steam bubbles in the casting.
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On the piece of paper in the bin is a

clump of sand squeezed into a cylinder
shape with my hand. Well tempered
sand will hold together well, show good
detail and break apart cleanly.

I read in a popular metalcasting book that wood flour (or baking flour if
that's all you have) should be added to the mix when making it. For the love
of god, don't do it! I didn't notice any benefits from it and worst of all it
stinks, no... reeks of funk, rot and filth like you wouldn't believe for days
until the rotting flour is finally eaten up by mold, fungus and various
microorganisms.
This is a bin of commercially made oilbonded sand. Originally it was bright
orange but it darkens with use. The
sand in immediate contact with the
molten metal turns jet black and dry as
the Sahara. The manufacturer suggests
removing the blackened sand and
collecting it in a separate container to
be retempered with their "special oil"
and "resin catalyst" when enough
accumulates. I separated it for a few
castings but abandoned the practice
after getting tired or scraping, carving
and chipping burnt sand from the
remains of intricate ornamental casting
molds. So now I just mix it all back
together and retemper it with oil after
every use.

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Don't tell the manufacturer but I never used their "special" oil and I surely
didn't use any of the advanced "resin catalyst" that they talk about. I simply
retemper it with used cooking or motor oil or a combination of both! DO
NOT use anything more combustible than motor oil! Since I don't use any
resin catalyst the sand's consistency is slightly different but it works just
fine.
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Copyright2000,2001byLionelOliverIIAllRightsReserved.
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