Casting Metals

[Norman]

Dan
I'm not that guy!!!!
What would be cool is a steam powered MB fueled with waste oil. It could be built but it's going to take a bunch of work.A 4 cylinder one would be a hoot plus a steam whistle for the cell phone drivers who need woke up! The thing that worries me is a boiler going nuclear which wouldn't be good, or a steam leak, it would burn the s hit out of ya. Maybe a enclosed engine and boiler mounted back down at the back wheel. The possibilities are endless. Could even be mounted in the wheel?
Once you get a foundry going you will find all kinds of things to think about building. Dan I know you have a lathe so the next toy is a foundry and a mill.

 

[GearNut]

The first motorcycle in recorded history was steam powered.
Motorcycle history - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Dan]

Har Norman, lol. I did wonder if that was you at first but then thought you just don't seem to be the "suspenders" type of guy. Is a great read though and did typify my growing tool and toy addiction. I actually do have a mill. Is a 3-in-one. http://images.harborfreight.com/manuals/5000-5999/5980.PDF

Now I just need the foundry!

That is an awesome artical GearNut.

 

[Norman]

I have a new metal mill a Grizzly G0619 along with a bunch of tooling to go with the mill. Building a stand for the mill too.

The stand is almost done.

Right now the mill is on a Harbor Freight lift. This is just too low and makes it a pain to run.

 

[Norman]

I built a stand for the mill and added a DRO. I went with a 2 axis dro with magnetic scales. the mill comes with a digital read out for the Z-axis built into the head. I still need to make a spindle lock to make changing out cutting bits on the spindle easier. I'm real happy with this machine and looking forwards to making a mess in the shop with it. I've even started to clean up the shop some. I bought a roller tool cabinet from Sears (it has 5 drawers price was $179.00 online price I couldn't pass that up) to store some of the mess that did hang on the peg board and stuffed all over the garage.

If you shop for tools at sears do it online the prices are usually less than in store prices and you can get discounts and the items shipped to your home town store for free most of the time. The tool box was shipped free it weighed almost 100 lbs. The tool box price in store was well over $250.00 so I saved some cash for beer money!! Naw...... I just bought more tools.

 

[Norman]

Been building a small engine from parts that I've cast. It's just a small model engine called a hit and miss.
Here's some of the parts that I've made.

head and valve with the keepers

head rod and cylinder block this thing is water cooled

front view of the cylinder I still need to make the cylinder liner.

All of the aluminum parts are cast then machined. All of the steel and brass parts are machined from scrap metal from the shop. the valves were made from a roller from a printer.
This will give you an idea of the size of one of the valves.

 

[Elmo]

Looks good Norm

 

[GearNut]

That is awesome, Norm! I love the old hit-n-miss engines and have wanted one for the longest time. Listening to them run is mechanical poetry to my ears. In my mind I have schemed up different ways of making one, but I keep hoping to find one I can restore instead.

 

[rustycase]

Really nice little project, Lord Vader!

wish I had the skill to do that.

I've been studying up on it for a while now over at metalcastingzone.
They have many articles on building a small foundry.
I hope to build one this summer.

checked on fire clay at a local supplier a few days ago.
a 50lb bag (which would be a LOT) was $14.

I'll try to fire mine with natural gas because its the cheapest fuel, here.

must weld up a few different sized crucibles from the oil-patch drill pipe hangin around...

also reading up on green sand molds and other types of casting.

Good luck!
rc

 

[MotorBicycleRacing]

Dave Rust of Arrow Motorized Cycles has cast up some
bronze trophies for the first place winners at the April 7th
Grange race.
The trophies are actually aluminium that is faux painted
bronze.

Dave casts all his reed block bodies out of aluminum in his
own foundry then machines them to fit the reeds.

The trophies really came out great!

 

[Norman]

Anyone doing any casting? I haven't done much of anything since my Rufus cat bit the dust. Just lost my motivation along with this friggin hot weather.
Ilikeabikea did give me a aluminum wheel a while back, I finally got around to melting it down and poured ingots did that last week.
Now I've got all these neat tools and can't come up with a good project, I haven't even finished the hit and miss engine. I need to remake a bunch of it cause I miss read the plans and drilled a few holes wrong but nothing that I can't fix.
I'm hoping it will cool off some here been too hot for me.
Haven't rode the mb's either, but I have been taking some rides on the hog kind of wish I was going to Sturgis this year but I have family coming to visit.

 

[GearNut]

I am sorry to hear of Rufus. May he rest in .

I haven't done any casting, but I have been reading up on the techniques some and I started saving any scrap aluminum I find.
Someone left a 14" aluminum car wheel in the parking lot of my work. I saved it from ending up in the trash compactor. That's alot of metal to cast with! So far it is the largest piece I have.

 

[Dan]

Howdy Norman, great to see ya back!

Can't wait to get started on some of this. Got good and tired of wanting to do this and about 47 other things and am building a designated work shop. Just can't do any thing of significance or time consuming in a shared space. The whole fam damily thinks the garage should be able to fit a car in it.

Silly, silly people

 

[Norman]

How about a steam engine cast in aluminum? You could also build a gas engine out of this with some modifications.
I'm using plans from a 1940's Popular Science magazine. The engine built from the plans it is supposed to be 6" tall with about a 1" bore and 1" stroke. I don't want to make it that small so I'm doubling the size of it, 2" bore and 2" stroke.

You can find these plans on line just do a little searching for vertical steam engine.

The stand cast in sand.

stand for the most part is finished just a few holes now need to be drilled/tapped and the bore honed for the cross head.

 

[Norman]

Boring steam passages from the cylinder ends to the steam chest ports.

Milling the steam ports.

 

[Norman]

Got the cylinder set up on the mill for boring the cylinder out to 2.125" in the photo I'm using the DRO to find the center of the hole to bore the cylinder.

Cylinder boring all done. I could of used the lathe but it's easier to find the center with the mill and I just wanted to try it on the mill.

You can see the sand core for the stand in the mold. The core is used so it won't take as much metal to fill the mold and I need a large hole there anyway. The cylinder is done the same way.

 

[Norman]

Pattern for the cylinder. I painted red where there is supposed to be a core print. Cores are made from sand and bonded with sodium silicate. Instead of gassing them with Co2 I let the cores set and cure from the Co2 that is in the air it just takes longer(couple of days). If I had Co2 I could gas the core and use it in just a few minutes.

Pattern for the stand

both the stand and the cylinder are split patterns and both will have a sand core

both patterns started out by gluing up wood with paper glued between the two halfs so the halfs can be split with a chisel and still be round and not egg shaped.

 

[GearNut]

This is too cool! Thank you for sharing yet another project with us, Norman.
You are an inspiration to all who want to make things by casting aluminum.
Now if only I had a mill and lathe...
I do have an angle grinder and a drill press.
If one wanted to cast in a cast iron cylinder liner, it would be in place of the sand core right? Filled with sand of course so as to not fill the cast iron bore with aluminum.

 

[Goat Herder]

Very nice. Gonna be watching this one !!

 

[Norman]

I think you should be able to cast in a iron liner and sand could be used to fill it. The only tough part is getting the ports right. I think you could add prints to the iron cylinder that will cover the ports then pour. Probably with the cylinder standing up then you might be able to not have to fill the cylinder with sand.

You could cast it with a sand core bore it then press an iron liner in. Heat the aluminum cylinder up and freeze the iron liner it might or will just fall into place, or a very light press fit. There more than one way to do it.

When doing a core for a 2 stroke cylinder you can make the core print with the port channels already on the core.