new member

Hi everyone
I am a new member, but old to the process, until a cardiac arrest 2 years ago, I had 39 years under my belt. First experience casting bronze was at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario. My full time calling was as a High School, design and technology, and art teacher.
My home foundry experience started with a firebrick lined water heater shell, with a vacuum blower fueled by charcoal.
I soon graduated to propane fired blown burner melter that held a 90 lb crucible. The burner was simple, two pieces of 3" diameter black pipe joined in the middle with two reducers connected together with a 3/4" nipple. A 3/8" pipe drilled with 4 1/8" holes and welded into the burner side of the unit. The other end had a vacuum cleaner blower controlled by a gate valve. Ignition was simple, lit newspaper in the cavity, turn on blower, add propane. Worked wonders until I asked for a larger propane tank, and was refused delivery until it was changed. Never had a blow back or any problem, since it was supervised while running, but things had to change.
This may have been a wordy intro, so I'll tell more of the story later.
Just a bit of my range of experience. In bronze, I've cast tear drop flowers to life size figures. Mainly using heavy investment(plaster, ludo,sand) but also some green sand and resin bond sand. I'm looking forward to participating in conversations.

 

Welcome. Kelly said it well. Are you still melting metal? Reading your post, I can't tell for sure.

Denis

 

Hi again
I've been dealing with Tim and first his father for over 35 years. Bought my crucibles from him and some red french sand. The answer to the casting situation is simple. When I had my cardiac arrest it was time to hang up leathers. I was doing a lot of work with various artists in Ontario and after the episode they gave me space. Too much, no casting for 2 years, so basically my facility was moth balled. At 73, it's too late to start again. I do have a wealth of information which I thought I might share on such a forum. As for equipment, I have a Wayne Forge dual fuel crucible furnace that melted 200lb/hour after it was warmed up. The burner train was updated 3 years ago, just before my health problem. For the last 15 years, I was purchasing metal from Ingot Metal in Weston.

 

I'll see what I've got, spent most of my time casting not taking pics but I might have something. The immediate thing is the control panel. I'll look for more later.

 

Here a few more pics!

 

Yeah, that's pretty much my backyard. Welcome Bill, it's great to have someone with your vast experience here among us.
BTW, we love pictures here so, if you google Bill, here are couple of the pieces cast at his foundry, that pop up.

 

Hey Bill, welcome. I’m just on the other side of TO, in The Shawa.

It looks like you have an elevated platform to the top of your furnace.

 

The furnace is in a pit, the top is level with the floor. The crucible is a 70 with a capacity of 210 lb to the top. The first photo of the log type sculpture was by Simon Frank of Hamilton. The face with the lettering was sand cast and the edges of bark were lost wax, or in this case lost bark. The bark was invested and burned out. The log piece was the last thing we cast and in fact I had my cardiac arrest while installing it. As an aside, if you don't know what a CA is, it's not a heart attack, but an electrically induced stopage of the heart. It's what you do CPR for. Thanks to the artist who started pumping immediately, I'm alive. Moral of the story, if you see someone go down unconscious and not breathing, start pumping the chest to the BEEGEES "staying alive". You might save someone's life.

 

Agreed! All except for the part about the CA.

 

Welcome Mr. Bill. Good to have you here! Did you ever get to try ceramic shell? It's so lightweight compared to what you did in the past. Makes it worth the money in spades.
Hope you start casting again. We have one resident here (Richard) and he does that old school back breaking work like you did.

 

Yes, shell is lighter but has its drawbacks. Unfortunately, I don't have pics of an orioles nest that we cast. It was on a willow branch, not only did the fine stringy nest cast but the willow leaves also cast. I know that none of that would have survived the mold making process or removing the shell afterwards. Stuck with the heavy investment process because of the low cost and immediacy of making molds. Long time ago a gantry crane was built with electric hoist so moving and working with the process became less back breaking. The bulk of the molds also means they maintain heat after firing, so there are fewer cold shuts.

 

Interesting... The smallest I've cast with it was down to 1/8" thickness for some long skinny rods.. I only had one single cold shut and it was some seriously tiny rope I was replicating. Now I've had some hot tearing due to rushing or poor techniques a few times. None of which could be blamed honestly on shell.

Seeing you are a plaster guy, I got a question for you. Did you ever try dewaxing (not burnout) your solid investment by boiling a mold? Seems to me, the plaster would not be affected by extended time in boiling water after the initial cure. It's a consideration for someone else with an issue we are trying to solve is why I ask....

One thing you'll figure out we do around here, we throw out conventional practices and search for better methods through experimentation. We are not afraid to fail that's for sure. There is a lot of bad advice that has crossed over from the solid investment world that just doesn't exist with high tech shell. Being highly gas permeable keeps me outta trouble every time.