So you want to pour hot metal??

Discussion in 'General foundry chat' started by Jason, Sep 14, 2019.

  1. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Drawing from a talented pool of metal casters here, I'd like to share some thoughts of my journey so far. Please crack a cold beer and write some nugget of gold here for future metal casters.

    We have lots of new folks around here and happy to have you in the family. I'm no expert by any means, but have become a student of this casting stuff for almost the last 4 years. As the old saying goes, It ain't going to suck itself! With any skill, you aren't born with this ability to create things out of metal. This stuff takes time, hard work and lots of studying. While any bozo on youtube can melt down a bag of beer cans and pour a coin from a 6dollar ebay mold, it takes some serious skill to produce USABLE parts and pieces. I am always impressed by the skill demonstrated by most of you guys. From Kellys pipes for cars, Pat's cast iron parts, HT's bad ass brass beer mugs, Zap's penchant for squid and chickens, Davids talent for incredible detail with solid molds, Kurts flawless wax work......... The list could go on and on. (don't be butthurt if ya didnt get named):p

    Anyone that pours hot metal here could have melted cans, poured an ingot and said, good enough! But that's only 1/10 of this stuff. Not many things out there pull or require such a crazy skill set as metal casting. You name it, welding, cutting, grinding, science, chemistry, math, molding procedures, safety practices, engineering, machining, creativity, artistic ability, problem solving, and even a little heart and soul to boot goes into casting! Each piece you create, duplicate, prototype, invent, improve or replace takes a piece of you with it and will carry that through it's useful or useless life. Keep this in mind when you see your finger prints in metal. All of this starts with a GOAL. AvE today posted a video that every man, young and old should watch. It's 18minutes, so we know Kelly won't watch it. While not directly related to metal casting, I bet 95% of you either heard this stuff already, were taught this when you were younger, or fingered it out along the way. If you are the kid in the basement and want to melt beer cans, you will need to watch this.
    And remember, "Don't be shitty" ~ AvE

    My nugget of gold is: Be a student of what you choose to do! If something has been written about it, read it! If something has been demonstrated, Try it! And never be afraid to criticize anything, nothing ever changes if you don't question it.

     
    PatJ, Tobho Mott and Gippeto like this.
  2. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    Don't be afraid of failure, those who don't make mistakes don't make anything.
     
    Jason likes this.
  3. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    Thanks Peedee. That makes me feel much better!

    Pete
     
  4. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    It'a true Petee. if you don't ever try for fear of failing you'll never know if you can. Learn as many mistakes from others and then make your own new ones is my mantra. That's why my new boss in my new job pumping fuel and washing cars has just discovered I can re-wire lighting, fix the electronic fault on parking sensors, climb heights everyone else is shit scared of, render and paint a wall and diagnose an ABS fault. As far as casting I screwed up a few dozen times before I found the old forum, and then screwed up a few dozen times more (and will do again when I get my casting space back up and running.

    It can't go wrong if you don't try it. it can't go right either. Besides you are much more established and accomplished in casting than I am!!!
     
  5. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Peedee knows how to "Grin F the S out of a turd sandwhich!" Good on you!
     
  6. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    I'm only two weeks in Jason, wait till I really get started ;)

    I'm nothing special but I am determined, when they bang the nails in the lid I'll be trying to find a way to knock them back out again ;)
     
  7. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    His language is a bit rough, and that takes away a bit from the message he is trying to convey, but I find him rather dead-on in so many ways.
    I can relate to much of what he says, and also verify that much of what he says is true.
    I decided to make some changes and set my sights high when I was in college, when I was taking some watered-down feel good (but worthless) courses.
    My advisor said I would never make it as an EE; my math grades were terrible.
    My parents said I would never make it in EE, I did not have the motivation to pull something like that off.

    I fooled many people, and I pulled off the EE degree.

    When I went to start my own company, several people that I trusted and admired greatly said "you will never make it, the field is too crowded; Jim started a firm just a few years ago, and he is a much better engineer than you".
    I fooled them all again, and left Jim and the rest of them in the dust.

    So I guess the moral of the story seems to be "how do you know what you can or cannot achieve if you don't try?".
    Many/most people fail at starting businesses, and so I would advise not betting the farm on a business, but you can try it without borrowing a bunch of money, and perhaps don't quit your day job if you are trying things out.

    But don't be afraid to go for it.
    I did not like being a sheep, or a lemming.
    I was told "just play the game, and tow the company line".
    The company had a lot of incompetent fools in it, and those that did best in the corporate world were political players, but the political players were the worst engineers.
    I have no trouble at all competing against political players, and I can engineer circles around them, and my clients know that, and pay big dollars for good engineering.
    Luckily my clients can see through the smoke and mirrors of the political players.
    It does not take clients long to figure it out; my projects work as advertised, and other's projects don't.
    Its not rocket science even to a client who has absolutely no understanding of engineering or design.

    Edit:
    He reminds me a lot of Bob Puhakka; perhaps they are related.
    Bob was very brutal in his assessment of the world and the people in it, and he violated every rule of political correctness (which I dearly loved).
    Almost everything Bob said in his videos I could directly relate to a life experience I had.
    Bob's story was that he was cleaning shit out of toilets in a mine, and then started testing castings for people, and found out how poor the quality of castings in the world were, and he said "I can do a lot better than this", so the shit-cleaner now sets the standards in the world for quality of metal castings.
    Its an interesting story, and there is much to be learned from the Bob Puhakkas of the world.
    And after cleaning shit out of toilets, you tend to appreciate the good things in life a lot more.
    Everyone should all be required to do some shit cleaning (pardon my french, these are Bob's words) early in life. It would probably make the world a much better place.

    .
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2019
  8. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    Seing as we have already derailed Jason's well intentioned thread.... the boss said he had some good heavy ladders to reach the apex of the building when I said I would render it for him, 'but it takes two people to put them up'. I'm guessing his look when my little 48 year old 8 1/2 stone frame was at the top of the apex 5 minutes later was a little amusing. (I dropped a few ladders as a teenager learning the 'ropes' and quickly found out brain over brute strength is a real thing)
     
  9. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    Ha ha, our favorite pastime.....
    (Sorry Jason)
    .
     
    Jason likes this.
  10. Peedee

    Peedee Silver

    To bring it back to casting..... I learnt about bound water in a plaster mould when the metal went in... and came straight back out again. Of course it made sense when someone explained to me on AA that POP holds water on a molecular level. That 'self taught lesson' cough [potentially dangerous screw up] cough was quite amusing looking back. I'm not sure the neighbours appreciated the molten shower of metal show I put on...
     
    Jason likes this.
  11. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    That's where the studying and reading that Jason talked about comes into play. We cant and dont overwhelm every newcomer in their introductory thread with everything they need to know in order to cast safely. There's just too much to learn. Were not a group of instructors and this site isn't meant to be for instruction per se. It's a place where like minded folks share their experiences and we learn from each other. There is alot of value and information in the sometimes meandering threads found here and on AA because of the varied experience of the contributors, not just in casting and the related skills, but experience in general. And when the few real professionals here (or those with the demonstrated skills) do take the time and effort to instruct, the rest of us have the good sense to pay attention.
    It's kind of amusing that people I've met that cast for a living find it hard to believe I do this for a hobby. Some machinists are like that too. But all agree that this is no kid's game, and to Jason's point you dont have to be an expert to get started but knowing the nature of the animal you're working with is number one.
    "...time, hard work, and lots of studying."

    Pete
     
    Jason likes this.
  12. OMM

    OMM Silver

    I am glad AvE put this message out to his younger following. And I’m glad he touched on “not” everything can be learned from a book. Somethings just can’t! Some Great skills are slowly getting lost.

    One of the biggest skills I see being lost is human interaction. Many of the younger generation hide behind a keyboard/smartphone. I see this in my cafeteria at work. The 18-25 type a way on a device, well the older guys sit around and chat or even play a card game.

    As for melting beer cans, that’s just a big waste of money in my parts. Any container (which contained A store-bought alcohol product) under 1 L has a refundable deposit of $.10, any container over 1 L has a refundable deposit of $.20. A lot of our metal scrappers dig through our recycling bins for what we call is empties. I talked to one guy and he said he averages between $100-$200 per five hour shift minus fuel.

    BUT..., Melting soda cans, I going to try that for my first melt! Then I’m going to alloy it with some scrap copper and turn up a custom pulley that has not been manufactured in almost 60 years. Some here might consider it a big waste of time (when I have tons of pure aluminum on hand). I’m going to pour that pulley and I might pour it 10 times (or more or less) until I get the results I want. But, I want to do this with soda cans until I fall flat on my face.
     
    Jason likes this.
  13. OMM

    OMM Silver

    This is a speech that I have frequently referred to.


    And I want to show
     
    Last edited: Sep 16, 2019

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