The Bucket Foundry

[husaberg]

Try that with aluminium.

You still got the sheep on fire video Neil? was it at the start of the thread or just pics.....

[Flettner]

No, never was a video just an illuminating story. Molten aluminium and water will explode, just try it and see for yourself. The reaction makes hydrogen and oxxgen, quite unstable I think.
Right, no more motorcycles for a while, just finished the Acerbis four hour and may be a little incapacitated for a while. Crashed just 20 meters from the finish, a highside, ( after four hours ), I did get up and finish but the crash certainly hasn't helped ones mobility.

[WilDun]

No, never was a video just an illuminating story. Molten aluminium and water will explode, just try it and see for yourself. The reaction makes hydrogen and oxxgen, quite unstable I think.
Right, no more motorcycles for a while, just finished the Acerbis four hour and may be a little incapacitated for a while. Crashed just 20 meters from the finish, a highside, ( after four hours ), I did get up and finish but the crash certainly hasn't helped ones mobility.

Yeah, it's all good fun in your twenties but later on it becomes harder to pick yourself up, (ie you go "splat" instead of "boing boing").
Seems to me that quite a few guys in these threads have found that! - time to preserve yourself and keep up the sterling work in the shop!
As for putting water anywhere near molten metal - no thanks, (chemical reaction or not!).

[husaberg]

Yeah, it's all good fun in your twenties but later on it becomes harder to pick yourself up, (ie you go "splat" instead of "boing boing").
Seems to me that quite a few guys in these threads have found that! - time to preserve yourself and keep up the sterling work in the shop!
As for putting water anywhere near molten metal - no thanks, (chemical reaction or not!).

I have seen something pretty cool with super hot molten stuff and a hand dipped in water and it not burning the hand can't rememr exactly what it was.but i guess it works like the fire walking, Anyway not that keen to try and happy to learn from others mistakes rather than reapeating them and expecting a different outcome........
When i get home i will post a pic for Neil to look over.......

The rear of the gearbox casting are they a form on internal gates?
it is likely diecast of course......

[WilDun]

Molten aluminium and water will explode, just try it and see for yourself. The reaction makes hydrogen and oxxgen, quite unstable I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2qJzDYsQfck

Now I don't quite know that to think (except that I'm not going to try it!)

Seems it does produce hydrogen for sure, but then in certain situations it also seems the water may never touch the actual molten metal, because of a strong barrier set up by aluminium oxide forming on the outside of the molten metal. (guess that's also the reason why ally is difficult to gas weld).
Those guys, if they weren't sure what would happen, were taking a big risk really wouldn't you say?!

[ken seeber]

Our experiences with hot metal and water:

1. The ladle was sprayed with dycoat, which was thinned with water. This had not dried completely, particularly at the very bottom of the ladle. I'll say unknowingly. This was then immersed into the molten aluminium in the crucible. Reasonably spectacular results when the moisture flashed to steam, spraying liquid Al all around the foundry room.. No-one injured, but a good lesson. Make sure everything is thoroughly dried (ie even above 100 deg C for a bit) before immersing it into molten metal.

2. Molten metal into water, a different story. From the ladle, we poured small amounts of metal into a bucket of water. Nothing dramatic, just a bit of fizzing. However, the product was pretty neat, thin randomly formed shells of metal....almost an art form. See pic.

Ladles. When we pour pistons, we start with a full crucible (A150 size) and then ladle it out, a piston at a time, until the crucible is near empty. To accommodate the varying depth of metal, we made an articulated ladle. The 2 pics show this in the two extreme positions. It is actuated by the left hand sliding an outer sleeve over the main rod/handle. It is quite natural and easy to use.

No charge fellas !

[Flettner]

Well, second part to the " don't use that bloody furnace again " was we had an explosion while tipping excess alloy into a pot on the ground. There was a little dampness in the pot. NEVER tip molten alloy into a wet pot!!! The alloy went straight up into the air, must have gone quite high as it took a while to rain down again. My mate ran into the shed while I ran out into the paddock ( being NZ it was with the sheep ) > The alloy was still quite hot and I got burnt in the hair and down one boot. Unfortunately the wife saw it all and along with the crack in the crucible that was the end of that!! No sheep caught fire.

Here it is, off twostrokeMX.com

[WilDun]

It looks like the jury has returned with a guilty verdict on moisture with molten ally - guess I'll be pretty cautious about it all now after hearing all that!
I keep saying that I won't ever take any risks but, there was the little incident with the wax a couple of weeks ago and tonight my jersey got caught in the leadscrew of my little lathe and had me just about kissing the bed before I managed to switch it off (wool is stronger than I thought!).
STILL HAVEN'T LEARNT even after years and years of operating these things!!

FLETTNER, will look forward to the link you talked about (probably a lesson in it for me). - How's the old body holding up?

KEN, I'm impressed with the ladle you made, I was thinking I might be able to work out a similar system which could be applied to tongs for a small crucible such as the one I'm going to use for one off jobs. (think it's 6" dia) - then I'd only need one set of tongs for the whole operation.
Might give that some thought tomorrow.

[Michael Moore]

I just got a copy of this non-ferrous foundry practices manual and put it on my website here:

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/m...oundry-Man.pdf

It is about a 2.8mb download and it looks to have a wealth of information.

cheers,
Michael

[WilDun]

I just got a copy of this non-ferrous foundry practices manual and put it on my website here:

http://www.eurospares.com/graphics/m...oundry-Man.pdf

It is about a 2.8mb download and it looks to have a wealth of information.

cheers,
Michael

Thanks Mike, that's really good of you!
I tried to download that one a while ago but had some trouble with the download (can't remember what) and left it.
Now there's no problem and as you say, there is definitely a mine of info in it.
I believe there is also a ferrous handbook downloadable from FOSECO, but I won't be needing it.

[Flettner]

Nothing happening?
I've gone off on a tangent and am finnishing off my autogyro, but will get back to patterns soon.

[WilDun]

Nothing happening?
I've gone off on a tangent and am finnishing off my autogyro, but will get back to patterns soon.

Not a lot been happening here (grandchildren duties) but doing a little when I can, got what seems to be an acceptable machinable wax product now, time will tell. The wax thing is just something to prevent me having to do the harder stuff associated with the furnace I guess!
I have always had at least two or three projects going on in my head (as opposed to my hands) and the older I get the more this happens, need to concentrate on one thing! (but talking to myself is like talking to a brick wall).

I think YL has got on to other things as well or maybe he's concentrating on getting the bucket running ok. or ...... got the 'look' regarding the foundry, (as you do),
Fact is, not a lot of people are deeply interested in foundry work, - some like me are extremely interested but haven't been flushed with success in this area so far.

Thanks for all the help and guidance and keeping this thing going, we appreciate this even if we don't always follow your instructions to a tee
You still going to use the flat four in the autogyro?

Sorry, I talk too much and don't do enough!

[Yow Ling]

I get more distracted than a fish,Ive been tidying my bucket up for King of Ruapuna this weekend, everyone keeps telling me my bucket looks like a heap of shit. I lent it to Dennis Charlett for the Greymouth srteet race and it came back clean as a whistle, probably worth 3hp

Then while I was in the right mood , I gave my RD350 a bit of a birthday couple of new plugs , balance carbs , tidy up the ugly wiring,

Moved on to the tZ250, fitted egt, drain oil, fit new brake master, and some other stuff.

The foundry stuff had to take a back seat

[WilDun]

YL, Bike looking good, you've got 3? - no wonder no foundry work!

Was wishing I could go back and really get into road racing, but that's a long forgotten dream, wouldn't even dare to throw a leg over a racer now!
The Moto 3 final races really got me going again, it's all or nothing with them, great stuff, even if they are four strokes!
Our Aussie mate, Miller will be a formidable guy in future in Moto GP. I would say, maybe not next year but the next one I should think. Reckon he might give even Marquez (Mark) a run for his money!

Furnace should be getting fired up one of these days (as always)

[F5 Dave]

Three? -Ha. If he was married it would be like yeah sure dear, there's only Three bikes in the shed. I've painted a couple.