Some of you may remember that the wife and I went out to Wyoming on a prairie dog hunt. We had a great time. on the second day it was very very windy. So much so that my wife's rifled blew off the shooting bench when she went back to the truck to get more ammunition. This damage the scope Beyond repair so I purchased a new scope which had a 30 mm tube diameter. Most of the older Scopes are 1 inch tube diameter. Anyway I got a new set of rings transferred my old scope to her rifle. And put the new rings on my Savage 22-250. One of the things that you need to do with a new set of scope rings is to lap them in so that they don't twist or pinch the tube of the rifle scope. One of the things that I have done on several of the sand casts I have done, is to save the sprues and also to make holes in the sand of varying sizes and fill them up with aluminum so that I will have round stock for lathe projects. I found an appropriate sized piece of cast stock, you can see the selection in the first picture, and turned it out to 30 mm on my lathe. Fortunately I had one that was just long enough. I then threaded the bar and put a bolt and it so that I could use this as a handle. The next photo shows the scope rings mounted on the rifle and lapping compound on the 30 mm bar, The can of lapping compound is that green can. I used the fine grit. the final photo shows the tops on the scope mounts and the lapping process underway. You just snug the rings down lightly and twist and move the bar back and fourth. The rings are themselves aluminum so they cut pretty easily. I got my new scope mounted but I haven't had a chance to take it to the range yet. It is light years ahead of my of my old scope being about 40 years newer and much more advanced in technology and quality of Optics.
You gotta think ahead. Sometimes you just happen on an idea and wonder why the heck you never thought of it before! I been saving scraps of cut off metal...especially steel, for using as gussets etc in welding, never thought of making stock before. Most everything you can cast can be made by welding things up...a welder is a fabulous tool....but you have to have the right sized stock for some projects.....with casting you have one raw material and you can pretty much make whatever sized stock or part you need. That is one of the best things I have found about foundry work.
I totally agree Stevan. I've been working for a long time to set the garage up. With a tig machine, Bridgeport, engine lathe and ability to cast metal, the only thing that limits me is knowledge. I'd like to stay on the artsy fartsy road, but would not think twice if I have to turn it into a weapons shop. I have a neighbor that makes some cool gnarly custom shit in his garage. That's a good friend to have! When ya run outta prairie rats to pick off, I'll tell you about a place in west texas that will keep you busy for 6months! The city will probably even provide you all the free ammo you can use. Those little rat bastards cause serious damage out here and the plaque has been reported just 100miles from me, 2 people here died last year from it.
When I first made my foam cutter I cut a whole mess of different sized disks out of 2" pink insulation. Also a bunch of square and rectangular shapes. I actually used a number of them like conventional sand patterns and rammed up a few molds in petrobond. I removed the patterns because I wouldn't stink up my sand with foam, but they pulled ok. So the aluminum castings turned out as well as you would expect from fast and loose molding, but I ended up with a pretty good supply of turning and milling stock. Using sprues and pouringwell material seems like a fine idea at first, but I don't trust it to not have voids and inclusions in it. Although there's no evidence of any problems in any of the castings, my latest bronze pour had some serious funk in the sprues and runners. But if someone is making the effort to cast machining stock it makes sense to use machinable alloy (extruded aluminum works for me) and to cast various sizes so they're not spending hours cutting away material to make their "convenience" part. Pete
