Sea Coal Matters for Cast Iron

Morgan Super Salamander A20 and soon to be A25 as I want to pour 60 pounds. In theory, I could melt 60 in the A20, but would be at or close to brim full—-and therefore awkward.

 

Unfortunately, I have to remove the chimney after pours. It is fairly light but adds 5 or ten minutes to post-pour cleanup.

There are too many places for water to seep into the furnace. I do have a metal cap for the furnace that tolerates being set on the still-glowing furnace. The chimney is 30ga galvanized lined with rigidized ceramic wool. Unlined it would not last long.

Denis

 

Here’s an added note on the sea coal:
The only place in driving distance selling sea coal that I had been able to find in the past was located about 40 miles north in Surrey BC. That had been a fairly convenient place to buy it and the price was OK at 20 USD for 50 pounds. Today I called the supplier in BC asking if there was any way they knew of that I could buy coal from them given the fact that the border is closed and likely to remained closed for a good while to non-essential travel (that would be me). The salesperson said their store in Portland carried the same product. I was surprised and told her I had called Portland two and maybe three times in the past few years only to be told they did not carry sea coal. She suggested I call again as she felt sure they had it.

I called Portland this morning and got the same answer—-nope. But then I related my BC call and the gal, with a puzzled tone, asked me if there were any other names for the product as the computer keys started clattering in the background. In a moment she said “Well, there it is. We have 150 bags!” Same price.

I am not sure what the moral of this story is. But, since the coal is an essential part of my process and shipping it from places like Pennsylvania is horribly expensive, I am glad to know I can still get it locally. My son works in Portland and frequently makes the trip north to Bellingham. It is easy for him to be the delivery guy since the supplier is only 5 mins off the freeway. No more worries as my supply is now down to my last 50#

Denis

 

That's good to hear Denis. I guess I would liken that to a trip to most "auto parts stores" this day and age. If you don't have the make, model and year of vehicle ... no dice. Many of those folks in those stores would try and look up blinker fluid, as long as you gave them the make, model and year.

 

Does anyone know if anthracite coal dust would work or must it be bituminous? I'm assuming it's only the carbon content that is useful in casting as opposed to the other matter found in bit coal.
Denis, how fine is your sea coal? Flakey or fine dust?
Pete

 

I think sea-coal is just coal from any particular seam, from anywhere in the world, which has washed ashore.

 

So I wonder if that means sea coal is special due to the prolonged exposure to sea water, perhaps that alters the chemistry of what would otherwise be ordinary bituminous coal.

 

OK, from what I have read on the subject, seacoal is not special in any way except that there are regions, like the Firth of Forth, where there are seams of coal exposed on the ocean floor near land. Wave and tidal action erodes those seams and eventually pieces of coal wash up on shore nearby. In those areas for centuries (eons?) the locals had easy pickings for gathering heating and cooking fuel. And in English speaking areas is commonly referred to as seacoal. That name distinguishes it from charcoal which can also be called "coal." Whether the material in the Firth of Forth is bituminous or not I do not know. As someone above said, I strongly suspect it matters little whether it is bituminous or anthracite with the important quality of the material being concentrated and relatively pure carbon.

I have been asked the question about the relative fineness of the commercial seacoal I buy and have really struggled to answer that question in a meaningful way. Today I got the idea of maybe making a video to demo the coal relative to common granulated sugar like we all buy in the grocery store:



That is the best I can do so far. Anyone have any better way to quantitate it short of a set of graduated mesh strainers.

Denis

 

Thanks for the demonstration Denis. I appreciate the information.

Pete

 

I always thought that the sea washing it up was important, maybe for washing out some impurity, but if it's just bitumus coal, it should be much easier to find.

 

Seems I just read a thread somewhere (thought it was here, but I can’t find it) about somebody rinsing powdered coal to remove the sulfur, similar to the natural process that produces sea coal.

 

Would the mechanical properties of charcoal or graphite (i.e. too soft) preclude using them in place of sea coal?

 

Adequate amounts of graphite on cores, for instance, mimic nicely the beneficial effects of sea coal.

You have to brush on enough to make a deep gray tint. But in reality that is not many grams of graphite to cause that surface discoloration. Various folks here hjave used graphite washes on molds with good results. I do not know the details, but perhaps they will pipe up if they see the thread progressing.

Denis

 

I think low ash bituminous coal converted to coke by cooking off volatiles would be the closest subsitute: I have a small drum of peanut coking coal that would be ideal once crushed.

 

We use seacoal in a pre-blended mix. I do not know the percentage or anything but can tell you that it helps the peel and castings need much less shot blasting with it. If it gets too high we will see streaks caused by excessive gas. The blue flame is common for us. We no longer use cores of any kind but we used to have to ignite the gases coming out of the vents on core jobs, so the blue flame of the seacoal is kind of unnoticed. I have seen several people talking about flask and materials used to make them so i will offer some ideas on it. We made ours out of cast iron. We cast them two at a time and would keep stock on them. All different sizes and shapes were used but the method was the same. One end was cast with a bolt in it for use as a stud and the other side had a slot which had to be drilled to accept the stud. If I get a chance I will mock one up and post it.

 

I found the introduction and review of literature portions of this PDF quite interesting and pertinent to our discussion, but that was all I could read let alone absorb in one sitting! Lol.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...FjALegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw38Q3o1ccIUQ9qbwxDYQlqt

Pete

 

Whoa, some real science. Interesting. Thanks.

Denis