What did you do in your shop today?

I know the danger of starting another one of these threads but I don't feel like going back to AA to post my random shop doings in the original thread.

Here's what I worked on today.

Upgrading my furnace to take the full height of the A16 crucible and upgraded my sand casting area to have a larger area to coat waxes.

 

What have I done lately?????// Not a damn thing. It's been work, christmas, family, more work, broke airplanes, and then more work.
I did pluck some pretty cool brain corals off the beach on Grand Cayman a couple of weeks ago....
When I can find some time, I'll make a cool bronze base to hold them.

 

My shop became gridlocked (again) over the years as I accumulate more stuff than I have room for (sound familiar?).

I purchased a portable garage about two years ago, and am just now getting around to organizing/setting it up.
We had good weather the other day, so I took the opportunity to break the gridlock, and started dragging stuff out into the driveway.

The neighbor said "You having a garage sale?".
My wife looked out the back door and just laughs.
Wives are not really into "stuff" if you know what I mean, especially stuff that is not their stuff (such is life and marriage).

I got the floor in the shop cleared, and can walk in there again, although I still have much work to do to organize it.
At least I can begin to organize it now.
My back was hurting for two days, but I can walk now without the cane.

Edit:
The secondary objective of this cleanup was to get my molding shed set up and functional again (it had also become gridlocked), and I was able to do that during this cleanup, so perhaps now I can move forward with making the windmill gears and lineshaft cap molds/castings.

















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Yes and you have a great shed now, so no excuses.

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Zappin The shop looks great! Yours is one I am watching closely as I have not fully decided on how I will be casting. I have seen the lost wax process on a somewhat large scale. It was in Laporte Indiana and quite a sight to see. Kelly with the lost foam is very, very impressive also and I will try that but I don’t know about going with a fully dedicated vacuum system. I must admit lost foam sort of has me scratching my head but no one can argue with the results.
Pat your place looks great also. Your camera is distorting your pictures a bit. From the pictures of what is on the lawn it looks impossible to have that much stuff in your building. Congratulations on all that work. I am with you. The first day of cleaning I was all fired up and tried to hard. Down for 3. You are an expert on packing. Best of luck! I am not sure of your exact location but the weather is getting worse today and any thing outside would be a problem.
David your new man cave is one I have been watching although I must admit I am not quite sure of its final use, Will it be a work shop foundry? It is looking very nice. I love the high sealing. You will never regret that decision. It is hard to believe they put it up so fast. Just a thought. How thick is the floor? I am sure you have throughly thought it out but beings they have not poured the floor it is a very big thing in a shop where heavy equipment is placed.
My shop was built by my late father-in-law. He was an Excellent cement finisher but poured thin. Only 3 - 4 inches in 4 sections with no lip. That is fine for what he was doing, sprint car racing, welding and light shop work. He did not put any metal in the cement at all. After 30 years there was only 1 crack. I made the mistake of putting a rather stout mill on one of the corners of one of the pours. Within 2 years I now have a large growing crack as my mill slowly moves south.
I sound like a broken record but this will be another great shop!
You guys would make great neighbors.
Joe

 

Yeah think of the fun we'd have if we were neighbors haha. Bunch of crazy guys melting stuff. We could have our own reality TV show.

I'll do a shop tour later when I'm done making rearrangements. Is there anything in particular you want to see about my setup Joe? Those sand troughs and large slurry tub have made coating a breeze. I may need to line the shelves with plastic so the slurry spatter doesn't get them too messy. Also need to figure out a better drill to help me to resuspend the slurry I nearly burned out a drill the other day. Surprised it didn't auto shut off before it overheated and started smoking.

 

A shop tour would be awesome. At this time I am still in the infant stage of learning on this process. Absolutely no hands on. I cant help but be impressed by the reproduction accuracy of lost wax and the strait forward process. It is not the easiest but the results are unsurpassed only by injection molding which is complicated, costly and has its limitations.
I have followed a few of your threads where you were working wax with heat to soften it.
Do you ever keep your wax in a low temperature controlled oven to make it easier to work? I ask because the hardness of wax varies so much with formula.
You made a type error in your post. Gun-fun? If we were neighbors I am sure we would do both. I built a nice little naval cannon a few years back. I haven’t had much sleep so I cant remember the bore size. It is around 2 inch and weighs around 150 Lb. It makes a nice bang. The kids love it. I have a 5 Lb. canon on the front lawn of the shop. It looks like a 4/5 scale civil war 6 Lb. It has a very nice 450 Lb. barrel but my wood working skills suck so the carriage is not up to standards. This year I will fix that before the fourth of July. I might make it naval style.
In any event. It would be fun. Just as long as it was not like. Junk yard wars. Where they put a time limit of 10 hours on it.
Joe