The Bucket Foundry

**Flettner** · 17th January 2014, 13:42

Originally Posted by Yow Ling

Hi Will, furnace wise I just found one on trademe I had to make a new burner for it, I had a 3 phase industrial blower which I run at 6hz , its just a babys breath but its all it can handle.

making a burner was pretty simple , the body is made from a USD fork tube, jet is just a 2mm hole.

Still only have my steel tube crucible , when I get a barrel cast I will pay the man to do it properly, when you find a good range of crucibles put up a link here , my furnace is 300 deep and 250 diameter

My idea for casting a cylinder is to use a Suzuki one as the pattern for the outside and just make some cores for a 3 port exhaust and Use vinamold to take a copy of the existing transfers and alter them a little.
Havnt quite figured out the waterjacket yet.
I understand the say nothing till you have something to show , but Im quite a way into this with nothing to show and its too late to turn back !

Dyno goes and is pretty cool tool to have in the shed, my Mrs wont let me ride in the driveway anymore after a small accident and hospital stay, anyway dyno is much more honest than my roadside dyno.

When I build my cylinders, I don't know what the outside is going to look like ( apart from the important bits like the flanges etc ), as it's a function of all the cores glued together, then thickness added. Start from the inside out, do all the cores first, then the outside wil be what it needs to be ( to cover everything with metal thickness ) . Thats what the plastic beads do, make room ( in the sand mould ) for metal to flow between the cores and the outside shape. Bead diameter will dictate wall thickness in the finished casting.

**WilDun** · 17th January 2014, 15:49

Originally Posted by Flettner

Thats what the plastic beads do, make room ( in the sand mould ) for metal to flow between the cores and the outside shape. Bead diameter will dictate wall thickness in the finished casting.

FLETTNER
Sorry, I may have missed something somewhere, I do understand that the plastic beads are used to build up a space for the metal to form the wall which holds everything in one piece ie between the core and pattern, (it's all new to me ) but what kind and size of plastic beads are you talking about? it seems to me that you use just one layer of beads to gauge the wall thickness and keep it uniform and I'm supposing that you use them in conjunction with some sort of filler/resin? Are they polystyrene beads? expanded? micro balloon type filler? -I'm learning something new here every day!

Do you ever make use of expandable polystyrene beads? seems they are available now (maybe have been for a while) - I dunno.

I think I found where you got the inspiration for the sleeve valve engine by the way, I heard about that engine before and didn't go into finding the details about it but I hadn't realised it was a two stroke! - asking a lot of that sleeve at crank speeds!

Then again, maybe I've gone completely off track with everything

Cheers,
Will.

**F5 Dave** · 17th January 2014, 16:05

Great. - Now we have to hear his Transvestite story again

**Flettner** · 17th January 2014, 18:05

Twice is bad enough!
I use BB gun pellets, aprox 6mm dia, hot glue and bondi fill.

**WilDun** · 17th January 2014, 21:43

Came back to check out bikes after a lot of years away, I haven't had time to go through everything as yet, but bikes and techniques appear to have changed for the better over the years,...... people haven't.......
Same old story, some are clever and arrogant when young, then become old and silly before their time - seen them self destruct so many times! - not pleasant to watch!

**husaberg** · 17th January 2014, 21:51

Originally Posted by WilDun

Came back to check out bikes after a lot of years away, I haven't had time to go through everything as yet, but bikes and techniques appear to have changed for the better over the years,...... people haven't.......
Same old story, some are clever and arrogant when young, then become old and silly before their time - seen them self destruct so many times! - not pleasant to watch!

The idea of the plastic beads is to build up a uniform layer equivalent to the diameter of the beads.
its not a filler but allows to sand down to a certain measurement with ease. they have to be hard to let you know when you send down. i think the expanded poly balls might also melt with some fillers i know polystyrene hates petrol got instance.

Neils use of beads is fiendishly clever in in its shear simplicity... (slipped in a pantyhose joke) oh and an underwear one.....

**WilDun** · 17th January 2014, 22:16

Originally Posted by husaberg

The idea of the plastic beads is to build up a uniform layer equivalent to the diameter of the beads.
its not a filler but allows to sand down to a certain measurement with ease. they have to be hard to let you know when you send down. i think the expanded poly balls might also melt with some fillers i know polystyrene hates petrol got instance.

Neils use of beads is fiendishly clever in in its shear simplicity... (slipped in a pantyhose joke) oh and an underwear one.....

HUSABERG,
Yes that is a good idea of Neil's, never had a BB gun so haven't seen the pellets (as yet), It takes a lot of mental acrobatics to visualise this stuff if you're not used to it, but I think I'm beginning to grasp it!

I could think of another use for a BB gun here too, but maybe I'd better keep it to myself!

**190mech** · 17th January 2014, 22:36

Will,There are lots of pics showing the plastic BB's in use on the Team ESE thread;

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...-tuner/page880

Many details are posted on pages before that one!

**WilDun** · 17th January 2014, 23:05

Originally Posted by 190mech

Will,There are lots of pics showing the plastic BB's in use on the Team ESE thread;

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/sh...-tuner/page880

Many details are posted on pages before that one!

Thanks 190 Mech, Flettner, Husaberg, Yow Ling, TZ, Bert and all you others who took the time to give me sensible answers and are bearing with me.
As you can see, I just haven't had time to do anything other than glance through this mass of stuff and have missed a lot. I'm beginning to go through it more thoroughly now and have more of an understanding of how the plastic pellets are used etc.

Cheers,
Will.

**WilDun** · 21st January 2014, 22:39

Originally Posted by husaberg

i think the expanded poly balls might also melt with some fillers i know polystyrene hates petrol for instance.

Yes, I guessed that, but I was just wondering if anyone has come across expandable polystyrene beads/pellets (not for this application of course but I could use them on another project).
Anyone know where they might be available?

**Cheesy** · 22nd January 2014, 07:26

Originally Posted by WilDun

Yes, I guessed that, but I was just wondering if anyone has come across expandable polystyrene beads/pellets (not for this application of course but I could use them on another project).
Anyone know where they might be available?

You mean like bean bags? try the Warehouse they have them 40L bags I think

**WilDun** · 22nd January 2014, 07:38

Originally Posted by Cheesy

You mean like bean bags? try the Warehouse they have them 40L bags I think

Not really sure what I mean to be truthful, but I believe that with heat,or maybe some sort of gas, they will expand and produce expanded polystyrene as we know it.
If they are contained within a mould then it ends up whatever shape you desire. The packaging companies may use this system to secure goods in boxes - I don't know, but I just thought someone might know more about this stuff, as I heard that it is available.

Will.

**Yow Ling** · 22nd January 2014, 08:39

Will, I have seen what you are talking about at a factory that makes cycle helmets , unexpanded they are hard beads quite small, in the mould they are expanded with steam.
Places that make portacom style building panels , somebody will be blowing the expanded polystyrene for F+P for the washing maching packaging. For my purposes I have some urethane casting mmaterial coming this week, quite a different thing though

**WilDun** · 22nd January 2014, 13:01

Originally Posted by Yow Ling

Will, I have seen what you are talking about at a factory that makes cycle helmets , unexpanded they are hard beads quite small, in the mould they are expanded with steam.
I have some urethane casting material coming this week, quite a different thing though

Yes, those are the beads I'm talking about, but I guess I'l have to try the packaging people or someone like that, they don't appear to be on sale anywhere.
Yes I think I know the urethane type stuff you'te talking about, - I was asked once to turn some rubbery stuff called "lurethane" (which is a brand name) on the lathe - that was a mission, I think I actually ended up grinding it!
Is that going to replace the material you were trying out at the beginning of the thread?

Will.