The Bucket Foundry

[Flettner]

With a rack and pinion driven by a stepper motor, the motor must constantly be powered in order to keep the cylinder in position.
A screw, i.e. a worm wheel drive, is self-locking, so the forces acting upon the cylinder will not act upon the stepper motor, so the motor can rest now and then.

TV is an invention of the devil. Facebook is even worse. And what about forums ?

Yes, Ha Ha, the forums are my new TV.

[WilDun]

Yes, Ha Ha, the forums are my new TV.

I have a completely frozen neck and spine, (steel rods and screws etc.) and I do a lot of sleeping in front of the computer, often for an hour at a time) because the main thing which wakes people up if sleeping upright is the head flopping over - mine doesn't do that and I could actually sit there asleep for hours! (even when on the forum!) - then I wake up suddenly and continue my quest to improve the Ryger, which is hard to do when you haven't found how it actually works as yet!

[Flettner]

It's all go here now, another cast again tonight this time CC601. Five water jackets and three crank cases, run out of metal for the last ones Never mind there will be another day to cast. No external fire this time, steel fuel line to the furnace now, all went well, having a beer and will open them up later. Got some phone video this time also.

https://youtu.be/kx_1auvMyCw

[WilDun]

With a rack and pinion driven by a stepper motor, the motor must constantly be powered in order to keep the cylinder in position.
A screw, i.e. a worm wheel drive, is self-locking, so the forces acting upon the cylinder will not act upon the stepper motor, so the motor can rest now and then.

Frits, - guess you're talking about a stepper driving a wormwheel with a pinion on the output shaft which engages with the rack, this should make everyone happy and give Flettner a chance to use his hobbing machine as well = a happy compromise for everyone!
Or......how about just a plain leadscrew, somehow attached to a stepper?

[WilDun]

It's all go here now, having a beer and will open them up later.

You sure don't piss around Neil! - Well earned beer!

Off to Sydney for a few days to see my son who lives there - looking forward to seeing some more pics of the progress in the foundry department when I get back!

[ken seeber]

You sure don't piss around Neil! - Well earned beer!

Off to Sydney for a few days to see my son who lives there - looking forward to seeing some more pics of the progress in the foundry department when I get back!

Willy, don't forget to drop in to Perth on your way back. We'll give you a beer and a guided tour on how it's done in Way Ahead

[Flettner]

The metal parts ready for fettling and then off to heat treatment. I'll have to do another pour next week to finish off all the parts needed.

[tjbw]

You sure don't piss around Neil! - Well earned beer!

Off to Sydney for a few days to see my son who lives there - looking forward to seeing some more pics of the progress in the foundry department when I get back!

Yes, brilliant job on the castings

Cheers, prost, campi

[WilDun]

Willy, don't forget to drop in to Perth on your way back. We'll give you a beer and a guided tour on how it's done in Way Ahead

Thanks Ken, I'd be keen to drop in and who knows ... one day maybe.
A few years ago when another son was on his big OE, he got a temp job delivering phone books in Aus and when he had done Melbourne and Adelaide etc he and his mate drove across the Nullarbor in a truck going through different towns etc to Perth and finally ending up at Port Headland!
He then had to drive all the way back (collecting a roo and a couple of cows on the way back), much to the delight of the locals - they arrived in a ute with a couple of chainsaws on board and made short work of them! full freezers for months!
He did warn me to give driving across the Nullarbor a miss though!

Got an old schoolmate who lives in Perth too - haven't seen him for well over 50 years - he says it's the nicest place on earth (must be the "Way Ahead").

[WilDun]

The metal parts ready for fettling and then off to heat treatment. I'll have to do another pour next week to finish off all the parts needed.

All looking good and probably looking even better soon.

BTW, Looks like some of those 'feeders' have gone down quite a lot, proves that there's definitely a need for them. I think I went wrong there and got voids in the casting by not realizing in the first place just how important they are - that coupled with not leaving the melt long enough to heat up to the right temperature! ....... lesson learnt .... next time.

But not this weekend - Off to OZ in the morning.

[Michael Moore]

Neil, you mentioned using LM13 for the recent cylinder castings and CC601 for crankcases. That appears to be our 336 and A356 (UK LM25) alloys, respectively. Are you using the LM13 because of the lower coefficient of temperature expansion? Does it cast and machine about the same as the A356/LM25?

thanks,
Michael

[Flettner]

Neil, you mentioned using LM13 for the recent cylinder castings and CC601 for crankcases. That appears to be our 336 and A356 (UK LM25) alloys, respectively. Are you using the LM13 because of the lower coefficient of temperature expansion? Does it cast and machine about the same as the A356/LM25?

thanks,
Michael

Yes LM13 for cylinders, low coefficient of expansion and real nice to plate to. CC601 for everything else, strong (when heat treated), machines well (LM13 for example is much harder on tooling with the high silicon content). CC601 in T6 (heat treated) state machines very well. I would make air cooled heads from CC601 for example.

[Michael Moore]

Thanks for the confirmation.

Yesterday my friend Jeff and I cast 3 Kawasaki triple heads in A356. Two came out looking pretty nice, and the third will have some defects trimmed off when narrowed to be the middle head and then need just a spot or two of TIG on some fin edges. We were chuffed to have made some "real" parts. Jeff put a lot of work into the pattern and match boards and the molds were ChemBond NaSiO3 catalyzed sand with a ceramic/graphite foam filter at the base of the sprue.

This was the first time we'd used the A356 for a part instead of mystery scrap for artwork. The pours were kind of hot as we weren't sure how much the temperature would keep rising in the metal once the crucible was pulled from the furnace, and it went up more than we expected. We also tried an argon lance but results from that are not conclusive. We need to do a couple of heads without gassing so we can compare the two sets.

I should have some photos in a day or two. Now I need to find more definite times for the T6 heat treat cycle, 6-12 hours for the solution part is a pretty wide band.

cheers,
Michael

[Michael Moore]

A few photos of the patterns/flasks/molds/parts.

[Michael Moore]

A few more.