Anyone build a molding bench from the free Ray-Vin plans? It can be made with three sheets of 3/4" plywood: http://www.foundry.ray-vin.com/moldingbench/benchplans.pdf I cut about 2/3rd's of the necessary plywood parts this afternoon, I have one more plywood sheet to cut down into parts and then I can start assembling.
Joe ya probably need some kind of PDF reader plugin for your browser.... The link is working for me. If ya pm me your email, I'll send the document directly to you.
Looks like a good bench. One thing I would probably do is drill a bunch of holes in the top shelf sized to accept various molding tools you like to use. And I might add a little lip to the shelf too so that stuff does not vibrate and fall onto you work or into the sand box. A few cup hooks under the shelf would probably come in handy. That is about the size of my bench and I like it very much. Denis
Thanks Jason, please do so. I have a new PDF viewer. It is less than 30 days old but when I try to open the page all I get is an auto blank page. The main sight works. Now here is the strange thing. I can open any thing on the page except the bench. I did recently, as in the last 2 weeks, upgrade? To Windows 10. I will have to check that my new PDF viewer made the change intact. Joe
Glad it worked for ya Joe. You've probably got a plug in screwed up on your browser. I'm forever having to screw with mine.
it doesn't hold enough sand , has a huge foot print, but is not deep enough to handle larger molds well. the Grate system is just silly , you will always have half of them out anyway , lose the silly notched rail (8), just put in a recessed 2X4 to support the bars(12) and use a couple of 2X4s as the bars (12) , you move the rails and thus your molds to different locations where the sand is available . the 60 inch length is good the work surface appears to be at 34 inches, that is too tall unless you are a giant , remember you will have the height of your flasks on that surface working with 4 inch flask halves you will be working at 38 inches . the height of a molding bench is calculated similiar to the height of an Anvil hold your rammer in your hand with your elbow at a 90 . the bottom of the rammer should be the top of the average height of half of a mold . I'm 6 ft 2 in my bench top is 30 Inch . I want another Inch of height when hand ramming, but I measured the bench for a Pneumatic rammer that I still have not made a Go of. so pretty close, if you are a short shit your FUBAR... if you need it a little higher that is easy to accomplish. lower is real hard here you can see mine and a few other members benches BTW mine will hold about 1/3 more sand then the Ray Vin with a much smaller foot print http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?threads/molding-benches.632/ V/r HT1 P.S. mine is strong enough to survive a nuclear blast, i'm not sure the RAY-VIN will survive normal day to day use , especially if you ever get a Pneumatic rammer on it
Not a ray-vin bin, but I do have one of their projects in mind coming up... Maybe. I made my molding bench by half-copying Chirpy's and using half of a plastic 55 gallon drum for the sand bin. Mine is built into a wooden box. The box sits on a wide shelf in my shed that puts it at a comfortable height, so if I ever move it I guess I'll have to add legs. The 2X4's just sit there on ledges at the front and back edges of the bin, so they are easily adjusted or removed. Holds close to 300# of greensand when it's almost too full to use. Jeff
I like Jeffs, Looks the fastest to build. The Ray-vin looks like it's for planting bonsai trees with all that wood. Here's mine. Comes with handy lid to keep the cat from pooping in it.
Note, I don't always keep 300# of sand in my bench; that would be a great way to make most of it dry right back out again before I ever got to use 2/3 of it... On the occasions when I mull more than just what I need for a given casting session (those occur almost exclusively on weekends for this hobbyist), I try to remember to store most of it in a sealed steel 55g barrel in hopes it'll stay somewhat moist until next time. The styrofoam gasket on my lid keeps most of the critters out, but won't keep the moisture in for very long at all... Jeff
I am currently storing my sand in 5 gallon home depot buckets, the seals seem to hold moisture pretty decently.
I have one of those Smokeeters like you might see in a bingo hall or bowling alley. I gutted it so it's just an empty 4ft box with the 2 hinged lids facing up. I built a 2x4 frame to elevate and support it with a flip up plywood cover. Unfortunately I don't have enough space around it to utilize it because I have so much other crap in my barn so it's being used as a storage bin. I keep my sand in 5 gal pails or kitty litter buckets and either mold on the floor or on a moveable shop table. That works well for an occasional molder. My back prefers the kitty litter buckets to the 5 gal pails. Pete
joe yard: I sometimes have the same problem, or at least similar, when trying of open a PDF online It will sometimes puke on me the first time I try to open something. I can close the page, try it again and it works. I chalk it up to Windoze and their "infinite" wisdom. Don
Don I found the problem. I was FORCED to ? Upgrade to windows 10. When I did it started placing everything I tried to open in a temporary folder. At this time I have no good pictures of my molding bench. It is very simply 4 pieces of angel iron used as the legs and corner supports to a box that is 2' X 4' made of ½ piece of plywood split in to 2 pieces that are used for the floor of the box and shelf underneath. The sides of the box are 7" deep made from 2 - 2X4 stacked 1 on top of the other. The bottom is the same arrangement only 3.5" deep with the front 2 X 4 turned to the ground as a supporting member. The other 3 sides are turned up so parts and supplies don’t fall behind or beside it. I painted the inside with several coats of latex paint, put a rather heavy metal lid on the top with some door seal material to keep the mister in. The sand stays nice although some compartmentalization to keep the new sand separated from the sand being used would have been nice.
