Hey folks, its been a while. I remember a lot of the usernames from the old days on Alloy Avenue and even before. Its nice to be back. For those who are new to casting, Im a hobbyist who just loves to tinker. I found casting by accident, after reading a thread on a car forum where someone asked for a custom part to be made and another user talked about their home setup. I was hooked. I started like so many, made a few alloy muffins out of scrap aluminum with charcoal in a small steel bucket, an old soup can and a leaf blower. I moved onto hardcore scrounge mode and found that most cities have boiler supply houses. After finding one nearby who typically just threw remnants into the trash, I came up with a mostly full bag of some high durability castable dense refractory, some cracked soft firebrick, and a few other odds and ends. I had hit paydirt! I dont have any pics on my phone right now (theyre all in the cloud lol), but I used some of that freebie goodness along with a hot water expansion tank that was on the side of the road and an old HVAC oil burner that was donated when my mother in law switched from oil to electric heat. Ive made knock-off K Bond oilsand using the RayVin recipe and playsand from Lowes, and it works wonderfully. I use crucibles made of refractory that have held up well. Ive cast some cool car parts, a few belt buckles, and various other sundry doodads Ive not been casting much for a few years. I lost some of my workspace when we moved, and only lately have found the space to get back into casting. I hope to pick up where I left off. Once upon a time I received an old drawbar lathe from a local forum member (shoutout to Ron) that STILL needs a new faceplate to mount a chuck to. Casting that is still high on my list. It will also need a cross slide, a tool holder, a leadscrew and associated hand controls. I want to cast much of that myself. Back on Alloy Avenue, there was a user (Justin IIRC) who was working on a pretty intense iron casting operation. He was making headway on a cast iron gingery lathe project, though I dont know what ever came of that. If anyone has any updates on that one, Id love to hear em! Other than that, I plan on reading a ton and hope to reintegrate into this tiny but awesome society of maniacs.
Good to see you 4cyl.. I like seeing what others are doing. Haven't been doing much myself. I still have the Silicon I got from you 20+- years ago.
Great to hear from you 4CF! I don't know if Justin ever came over from AA. I haven't heard from him since then. Once in awhile we get a visit from a familiar AA name. Some stick some don't. A few are active here with new screen names. Some of us just moved over and carried on. Some familiar old hands like Rocco and Jammer, David and HT1 remain anchors here (no pun intended) among others and Rasper gives us a shout once in awhile, but there are also a few men who have really brought aspects of the hobby to a new level. It won't take long to discover them. I often think of you when someone asks if they can convert a home boiler burner. Welcome back. You'll like it. Same kind of gentlemen, no turds. Pete
Hey 4cyl, I was only there a handful of years but I remember you from AA. Welcome (back)! Was that Indiscriminate Scavenger at AA? Still a mystery to me how one day the lights just went off over at AA. Best, Kelly
Thanks fellas, its nice to be back! youre not kidding - SO MANY FORUMS were crushed by their move to a paid format. Funny thing is they picked the worst time to try and extort the internet. Storage was always going to get cheaper, and bandwidth was always going to get better. I cannot imagine that there were too many people willing to pay for that service.
I remember you from AA too 4cf, in fact I just stumbled across your pin on the member map last week and wondered what ever happened to you. Glad you found the new hangout! Justin (yes aka Indiscriminate Scavenger) reappeared after a long absence not long before the end of AA to show off some big heavy cast iron dining table legs he'd made in the style of antique lathe stands, then disappeared again. Welcome back! When this place was set up the photobucket scam was definitely in mind - we've got plenty of room for uploads so no free (for now) 3rd party hosting needed. I'm still pissed that they drove BobS to quit posting altogether, and of course I'm still getting regular ransom emails from those bastards. They'll never get any photo ducats from me! Every so often I still check AA in the off chance it got fixed. But it's probably been over a year since I last tried. But hey, if Mantrid and 4CF can reappear after years, why not Lionel, or Scavenger? Sadly though we did lose Dallen a while back. RIP Superdave. Jeff
The PB debacle certainly was a disaster for the historical AA forum content, but I don't think it had anything to do with the dissolution of forum itself. Either Lionel passed, suffered a debilitating medical event, or just lost interest in funding the forum. He just quit responding to any inquiry from is admins and mods without explanation. Interestingly his original site is still functioning, but has not been updated since 2018 and still references AA. Thus my comment that AA going dark is a mystery......we may never know. http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/ Best, Kelly
I did a google search on Lionel, the most recent thing I could find was August 2019. I find it curious that someone that had been quite active on the internet suddenly went dark, I wonder what happened?
Welcome 4CF! Glad to see you still at it. I have taken a hiatus to focus on machining but I still dabble as necessary. Robert
Welcome back 4Cyl. I'm kinda like you, returning from a long absence. I remember Indiscriminate Scavenger doing that serious iron casting, building an overhead crane and I think a jolt/squeezer. He was casting iron table legs patterned after equipment legs as I recall. Looking forward to your future postings.
Welcome back among friends. Found my way here a couple years ago. After not using Photobucket for years, I got a letter a few days ago saying I am suspended. Doesn't matter, I downloaded all my pics when I stopped using it. Fredo
