Casting a Bearing Cap in Iron

Discussion in 'Sand Casting' started by PatJ, Dec 5, 2018.

  1. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    Dang, I forgot to turn on the video camera.
    Its easy to lose focus in the heat of the battle.
    These iron pours are anything but routine for me at this stage, although they are a whole lot more routine than when I started a few years back, and predicable now, but still nerve racking.

    I can relax with aluminum, and hardly wear any leathers.
    Melting iron is just a very intensely hot affair, even with full leathers on.

    I did take a video of the burner startup, which was easy, so I will upload that.

    I hope the castings go well, else I will be making more molds tomorrow.

    Edit:
    This is the first daytime pour I have done in a long time, and I much prefer a night pour because I can see what is going on with the burner setting via the flames out the lid, and see what is going on with the melt far better at night.

    And a day pour is hot and Hades too with the sun bearing down on you.

    They say "you can't see anything at night", but the reality is that I could not see the critical stuff very well during the day.

    Day pours are not for me.

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  2. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    Started the burner at 12:05, and poured at 1:27, so that was a little on the slow side, but I filled the crucible more than usual too.
    After skimming, the crucible was about 3/4 full, and I could feel the difference from a lighter pour when trying to handle the pouring shank.

    I had good clean pours, with no interruptions.

    The bearing cap bubbled up the sprue a little bit towards the end of the pour.
    Bubbles are generally not a good sign, but we will keep our fingers crossed.

    About 2.4 oz of ferro for probably 20 lbs of iron.

    The patched lid worked well.

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  3. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I feel the same way about pouring at night. I can see the important stuff easier.
    ;) Fingers crossed.
     
  4. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    Its easy to get into a rush at the end, where you are trying to skim and pour before more slag forms, and before the melt gets too cool.
    I try to do most of the skimming with the crucible in the furnace and the burner running (with the lid open).

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  5. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    For the siphon-nozzle non-believers, I got a video of the burner startup.
    It really could not be easier or faster to start this burner.
    Zero to full output in probably less than 30 seconds (we will see if this agrees with the video).

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  6. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    Next time I am going to use my dashcam video camera, since I can start it before I start the burner, and it has enough memory to run for hours without filling up the card.
    My regular camera filled up the card last time right before I poured, which is why I did not start it this time at the beginning.
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  7. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    I cut off two pieces of heavy wall pipe and used those as sprue funnels.
    I did not use sprue extensions above the top of the cope like I have done in the past, since ironsides and others don't seem to use them.

    rImg_5760.jpg


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    Tobho Mott likes this.
  8. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    A few photos.
    You can see from one of the last photos that not all concrete explodes with you spill iron on it, although some concrete will.

    The larger mold is some stuff that Chirpy wanted cast in iron.
    I am pushing him to upgrade to iron work.

    Its really hot with the lid open and the burner running, but its not so hot that I can't skim that way.
    It does require a long skimmer handle though.

    No runouts, so that is good, although the joint on the larger mold did crack from the heat.
    The cement on the joint between the cope and the drag only has to last a minute or so, until the metal solidifies, and it is used to seal the joint and prevent runout.


    r20190911_122222.jpg


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    Last edited: Sep 11, 2019
    Tobho Mott likes this.
  9. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    This is is what is in the larger mold, and it was made from the patterns that Chirpy sent me last year (he is very patient).
    A couple of straight edges.

    rImg_5719.jpg

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  10. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    The pour into the large mold seemed to take a while, and I was beginning to wonder if it was going to come up in the risers.
    I tried to use smaller gates than I normally use.

    I tried to not oversize the gates in the bearing cap too, so perhaps that is why it took so long to fill.
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  11. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Well???? Crack that sucker open!
     
  12. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Hey Pat if you are running out of memory on your video camera, check it's settings and back it down to 720. No need for 4k:D
     
  13. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    Hey, now that is a good idea.

    I can't open the molds until tomorrow because otherwise the metal will cool too fast and be difficult to machine.
    I made that mistake on the last part that I needed to machine.

    Bummer I know.
    The waiting game.

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  14. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Interesting. Sounds as exciting as dealing with glass. Even though glass is annealed, you still have to cool very slowly through its strain point. Something to do with molecules lining up to use the bathroom or whatnot.o_O
     
  15. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    I am uploading the pre-pour video.

    I had two large square pieces of cardboard under the crucible, and so that blocked the flame path a bit and caused a flame-out when I started the burner the first time.
    I left the flame-out in the video so that those watching can see the procedure for restarting the burner if there is a flame-out.
    Its no big deal, just turn off the compressed air and oil, wait a few seconds, and then relight the paper towel with diesel on it.

    And I restarted the burner, turned on the blower, and then sat there for several seconds with nothing happening until I remembered to close the dump valve at the blower (mental lapse).

    I start the burner with the blower off, then once the burner is lit, I start the burner, which provides slight pressure to the furnace, and finally I close the dump valve, which provides full combustion air to the furnace.

    And something else I noticed.
    The paper towels always fly out of the furnace, which is no big deal, but you can see in the video, and I did not notice it at the time, one of the burning paper towels lands right under the fuel filter, and about melts it. Yikes !!
    Watch out for your paper towels when you start the burner.

    Apparently water got under the cover and got some of the ceramic blanket wet at the tuyere, so that smoked for a while.
    Normally there is no smoke at the tuyere, or anywhere else.
    And by the end of the video, the ceramic blanket has dried, and there is no more smoking.

    All the equipment ran well.
    And as usual, I did not make any adjustments to the burner during the melt.
    I think the burn rate was a little less than 3.0 gal/hr.
    I don't check the fuel flow rate any more, since I use the same blower setting every time (the lowest speed setting on the Toro leaf blower).

    Its good to have consistency from one melt to another, and this burner arrangement is very consistent.

    I will have the video uploaded in a minute.

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    Last edited: Sep 11, 2019
  16. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    I think the slow cooling allows the graphite to remain dispersed in the casting.
    I forget the exact terminology used to describe this.

    Pulling a casting out of the sand quickly makes it very tough to machine.
    I guess with enough ferro you could perhaps get away with removing the casting from the sand quickly, but you may get excessive shrinkage too.

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  17. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    Here is the pre-pour video.
    (see description in post #75)

    I am pissed that I forgot to turn on the camera, but suffice it to say it was a clean pour for both molds, which was my goal, ie: no interrupted pours, and a steady flow that kept the sprue full during the entire pour.
    The metal funnels seemed to work well, and there were no leaks from under them even though they were not adhered to the mold.

    Edit:
    Don't ya'll be laughing at my farmboy hat.
    It was hot out there, and I needed all the shade I could get.

    Edit02:
    Its basically about 5 seconds to start the burner and go to full power.
    I don't warm things up slowly, but rather go full power from startup.
    Ramping up the heat slowly does not seem to accomplish anything.

     
    Last edited: Sep 11, 2019
    Tobho Mott and Jason like this.
  18. Jammer

    Jammer Silver Banner Member

    Still waiting...

    Nice Hat.
    impatient-smiley-emoticon.gif
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2019
  19. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    The molds are cool to the touch, so I am getting ready to do a break out and see what we got.

    Man I hate the drama of these pours.
    I am more into the instant gratification thing, sort of like a vending machine; put in your money, out pops the finished product (candy bar usually in my case) ready for instant eating.
    Foundry work is not for the impatient, and I am a pretty impatient person.

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  20. Jason

    Jason Gold

    DO IT DO IT!!! You know you wanna look!
     

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