The Bucket Foundry

[Flettner]

Probably not being fair to the granddaughter as we should be building the rocket useing a three dimensional printer but that is not going to happen on my watch. Posting the making of this rocket should be good in that it will show the use of a single core simple mold. In this case I haven't bothered pouring a new resin part in the core box, I've decided to just use the original part (shape) and build up from there.

[Flettner]

Better give the poor sod that is going to fly this rocket a window to look out

[ken seeber]

Maybe you really want this,



but not this:

[Flettner]

Getting all beaded up

[Flettner]

Our of interest, US chrome will hard chrome onto 7075 and titanium but at a cost. Approx $800 US to plate a titanium tube 36 dia, 150 long. Same tube in 7075 approx $200 US

[Flettner]

Thickness added, 4mm.

[Flettner]

Sand molding box with stuffers to divide into three parts. Pack one first, harden, then pull a stuffer out and repeat. And again for the third side. Fresh sand will not stick to the hardened sand so the hardened sand blocks will separate cleanly.

[WilDun]

Sand molding box with stuffers to divide into three parts. Pack one first, harden, then pull a stuffer out and repeat. And again for the third side. Fresh sand will not stick to the hardened sand so the hardened sand blocks will separate cleanly.

Quite surprised that the fresh sand doesn't stick to the hardened stuff - learning something new here every day! so I guess you are completely sold on using CO2 sand moulds now? Nice to see you have time for the small projects as well.
I am still in disarray and have been for quite a while (since the hospitalization etc at last Christmas / new year) - I need a push to get going again I guess! - but I'll get there.
Ken is nearly as old as me and still going flat out - I'll have to give myself a kick up the ass!!

[Flettner]

Disarray, that's my workshop this Christmas everything is getting hauled out of the shed but only some things are going back. Ruthless, now that is another word

[WilDun]

Disarray, that's my workshop this Christmas everything is getting hauled out of the shed but only some things are going back. Ruthless, now that is another word

'Ruthless' is not a word in my vocabulary, but if the rest of my family get access to my garage and it's contents then that will be the operative word.
It happened about 5 years ago when we moved house and a lot of my prized possessions mysteriously disappeared including my air compressor and a few other important devices!
Think I'll need to lock up my furnace and foundry stuff as it doesn't look anything like what things 'need' to look like these days, ie bright colours, chrome and sparkling lights!
Maybe I should park it under the lemon tree to make it look better

[Flettner]

Doctor Neil suggests pattern therapy, sawdust and Bondi fumes, good for you, perhaps not but better than TV
Plumbago, carbon powder rubbed into the surface of the pattern to make it real slippery against the sand.

[Flettner]

Three piece mold taking shape, mix the sodium silicate at 2.5 to 3 %. Big tube is to make a hole for the runner (inlet) and the small holes made by the welding wire are for gassing the sand, get the gas right into the middle of the sand mold

[Flettner]

Still needs a top and a bottom but without these sand cores inside it would be just one solid cast lump. This is where the core prints do their job holding the core in place so the metal can flow around it. The core prints are the parts of the core that stick out of the mold to the outside. Core prints also act as a vent/conduit to let hot gases out from the core without having the gas go through the molten metal (and buggering it up).

[WilDun]

Still needs a top and a bottom but without these sand cores inside it would be just one solid cast lump. This is where the core prints do their job holding the core in place so the metal can flow around it. The core prints are the parts of the core that stick out of the mold to the outside. Core prints also act as a vent/conduit to let hot gases out from the core without having the gas go through the molten metal (and buggering it up).

Meanwhile, back at the beginners section .......
Finally got my ass into gear and back into the foundry work today - first time in nearly a year! I forced myself to make a new lid for my furnace out of this and that (a few handfuls of refracttory mortar, a few handfuls of coarse river sand for the part where the flames hit and filled the rest with a mixture of ready mixed concrete (courtesy of Placemakers) slightly modified with a few handfuls of polystyrene beads - just for a laugh really!
Very exact science required for this refractory technology! ......... we'll see how it goes anyway!

Oh, and who do you get the plumbago from ? sure looks good (and slippery).

[Flettner]

Plumbago, I've got a shit load, I'll organise to send you some as well as the LM13. I've got to go to the second round of the Vinduro this weekend at River Head, I'm picking up the LM13 from some guy's back yard on the way home, 100kg. I intend to cast a few cylinders.