The Bucket Foundry

**WilDun** · 17th April 2020, 13:32

Originally Posted by Flettner

Yes a uniflow engine, its kind of my thing, Ive built a few in tha past. They worked reasonably well.

Aha, looking promising! - guess this is what you were describing earlier - ok, carry on and report back! - combustion chamber design might be interesting!

**Flettner** · 17th April 2020, 14:00

That and the transfers, but Ive got both those sorted.

**WilDun** · 17th April 2020, 15:26

Originally Posted by Flettner

That and the transfers, but Ive got both those sorted.

Good, I will be very interested (as I'm sure all the others will be) - original stuff - going by what you were saying earlier.

**palezu** · 18th April 2020, 02:31

Hello,
greetings from bucket foundry in Finland.
I have cast a cylinder from iron. It is for AM6 engine. Aim for 70cc capacity, can use original cylinder head and the duct design is more like "test if its doable". But I designed it for stud mounting to allow for larger(huge) exhaust ducts later.
I decided to try out casting it from iron, because this way I don't have to make a liner or try to electro plate it. After watching a lot of youtube content (mainly luckygen1001 channel) it turned out that iron is not that difficult to melt. It also gives some benefits, iron is much less prone to porosity in casting than aluminium.

Design outer shape in Fusion360 (actually this is 2nd version)

3D printed outer pattern.

Core boxes designed with Fusion360 and printed

Core assembly(not easy to invent solution how to fix transfer ducts in place and align them. The transfers are glued in place with core glue )

Mold almost ready, exhaust core missing

About 100 year old Podolsk sewing machine as a iron donor

3kg of sewing machine ready to be melted

Iron melting in action. I have spent tens of hours to build, test and develop the furnace to be able to melt iron with waste oil/diesel mix (although it looks unprofessional with the hairdryer attachment

)

Newborn cylinder out of the mould and washed:

It took 4 attempts before I managed to cast a sufficiently defect-free one. First 2 were ruined by core alignment problem and gas void because I had used epoxy as a core glue. Third one I didn't have enough iron molten. This one is different than the one in previous picture. I have already machined the surfaces, but not finished.

It had couple of leaks in water channel, but I could fix them by soldering/gluing. Exhaust duct got twisted, but it can be fixed by grinding(will result in not optimal shape, but it will do).

I have not finished the boring. Due to the virus situation I have not received my measuring equipment from china, but they should arrive.. Very excited to finish it and see how it works.

I have a couple of videos about the project with more details:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzezzkifju4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCCzsM7Y4b0

**Flettner** · 18th April 2020, 08:14

You should be well proud of yourself, thats a great job. I know the effort it takes. Thanks for posting.

**F5 Dave** · 18th April 2020, 08:35

Um, did you check the value of the sewing machine on Ebay first??.

**Flettner** · 18th April 2020, 09:14

Originally Posted by F5 Dave

Um, did you check the value of the sewing machine on Ebay first??.

Yes, my thoughts to.

**WilDun** · 18th April 2020, 09:25

palezu
Casting in iron in a home workshop is something which I would have been afraid to even think about, but you seem to have done well.
As I more or less said, I have never melted iron but I have machined a lot of it over my working life and it's beautiful stuff to turn and mill (if you don't mind the free carbon dust!)
Good luck with your project.

**palezu** · 21st April 2020, 19:48

Thanks for your comments.

F5 Dave
Um, did you check the value of the sewing machine on Ebay first??.

No

I bought it for 20 euros from a private seller. Those seem to come up regularly for sale for about 20-50 euros and nobody seems to want them. Here they are popular for using as a home decoration but nothing else. I also thought that those vintage sewing machines would be worth a lot more, but apparently not. Then after I had already melted it, I googled the machine and found one which was for sale for about 500$ I think, so I don't know, maybe someone could have paid a good price for it

But it provided very high quality iron for my casting project. I heard from a youtube iron melter that these are one of the best sources of cast iron for hobby melting. I tried one melt previously from old chinese cylinders and a car turbo outlet manifold and these produced hard white cast iron in thin parts of casting, but this cylinder is soft and good iron completely.

**F5 Dave** · 21st April 2020, 20:30

Might be worth finding a couple more and putting them away for 10 years. Especially if every other bugger is melting them into oblivion helping out your investment.

Sure that sort of thing here would cost a bomb.

**husaberg** · 21st April 2020, 20:43

Originally Posted by F5 Dave

Might be worth finding a couple more and putting them away for 10 years. Especially if every other bugger is melting them into oblivion helping out your investment.

Sure that sort of thing here would cost a bomb.

Lots here in the country collect the treadle bases (also cast iron)along with non electric irons and old plows, horse drawn mowers and Gridles ,potbelly stoves for garden ornaments, but the sewing machines themselves not so much.
https://www.trademe.co.nz/crafts/sew...2598998017.htm
https://www.trademe.co.nz/home-livin...2586730125.htm
https://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-c...2586899817.htm
https://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-c...2586592712.htm

i would have thought old pumps and other detritus at salvage yards would be okay. but who even sews shit anyway, only thing i ever have to sew is teddy bear repairs

**WilDun** · 21st April 2020, 22:13

Originally Posted by F5 Dave

Might be worth finding a couple more and putting them away for 10 years. Especially if every other bugger is melting them into oblivion helping out your investment.

Sure that sort of thing here would cost a bomb.

Dave, not much fear of them being all being melted down, - I have found that a lot of people love the idea of metal casting, but when it gets to the nitty gritty and hard yakker, watching foundry work on You Tube is a lot easier! - quite a rare pastime I think! (The moulds probably find it very fulfilling though!).