How the hell do you only have 2 subs? One of them is ME! Let's see some more of your work. Those of you that don't know HT1, he is our resident brass expert! Show him some love!
That's a pretty cool vid, how close was your hand to the crucible?, was it an A25?. Also from the title I thought this would be about a fight between prison inmates.
if you watch my first youtube video pouring brass, you can see my hand is about 20-22 inches from the crucible, that is an A16, I really need to move up, but everytime I get close to building a new furnace, something gets in the way, normally finances V/r HT1
I have not started to really put out video, there is a learning curve to getting them right, I have made many more videos, you can see them on my Facebook and Instagram , but they are mostly the same. we have discussed Videos before, the issue is sand casting is so time consuming , making quality video's regularly is very difficult for a single person, and you are never going to get popular enough on youtube to make any money, So in my case I have concentrated on making product, product does not sell on Youtube....on facebook and instagram I do well without a big sink in my limited time. I think there are two differeent products craftsman( whatever you are making) and video content. on the content maker side of the house as metal casting goes, there seems to be a vaccum, I would like to fill it I personnally really hate the ingot videos, and the pouring Molten metal into dumb shit, and that is what you see when you do any youtube searches on the subject. Metal casting needs a jimmy diresta to carry the torch . Now to pull this off you need to get a weekly or better, quality video up, I thought this to be impossible for a single person, I even floated the Idea of a shared channel. no interest here (shrug) Watching alot of maker video during covid, I struck on an Idea that may allow me to make alot of videos, and with some serious editing be able to get a video a week up without taking away from my production time. My time is really valuable all this said, Youtubes new rules, make this a very steep climb, you need 1000 Subscribers, before you can make a dime . but perhaps, my videos, will lead a few more sales of my real products V/r HT1 P.S. Thanks for the support
I feel your pain, got a speeding fine in the mail Friday and Saturday, I had two furnace fuel system failures in a row and had to stop with an A25 about 3/4 full of half melted iron, not sure if it'll survive. I can lift a crucible effortlessly when it's hot and the adrenaline flows but had difficulty when it's all cooled down.
if it froze in the crucible its Fubar, when you remelt it the odds of the crucible failing is about 70% . in the Navy we always tossed them metal and all, now, I would have to try and at least recover the Metal $$$ V/r HT1
Thanks for confirming my suspicions, I let it cool slowly in the furnace for four hours and heard a few loud "tink" sounds over time....I can see a gap between the iron slug and the crucible inside but I don't hold much hope for it. First time round the grubscrew on the fuel pump pulley vibrated loose, second time I somehow rolled the plinth on it's side trying to position the crucible and had to shut down and pull the crucible out to fix it. Eventually it wasn't getting any hotter so I shut down and discovered I'd melted the brass fuel nozzle assembly by forgetting to withdraw it up the tuyere before shutdown at some point. After it cooled down there was no sign of the 1.5" dia. brass manifold, it got slagged in the furnace.
The problem is that when the metal starts to heat it will expand before it melts damaging the crucible more , you may not be able to see the damage, because the bottom tends to pop off . for cast iron I would scrap it all, for Brass, I would have to try and save the metal , Keep in mind the Damage a full heat of cast Fe in the bottom of your furnace would do, My Monalithic furnace with a large rear drain, probably no problem, if you are running Kaowool, you might completely destroy the furnace , if your burner is too low, you might kill the burner too, lots of risk Best of Luck, sorry about your bad day V/r HT1
Mark, I very much doubt this would work. But, if you can see some gap between the metal and the crucible, there is just a chance that inverting the crucible and with the long axis of the crucible quite vertical and dropping repeatedly it from about 6 inches height onto some clay-like surface or maybe just backyard soil might be enough to use the inertia of the iron to loosen it in the crucible and cause it drop out. The clay/soil would avoid extreme point loading making it less likely to crack the crucible. What have you got to lose? Otherwise I would think you could salvage the iron by just breaking away the crucible if it cracks on your removal attempts. Denis
Weren't there a couple threads over at AA about freezing the whole lot and then dropping it like Denis suggests? The iron must have a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than the crucible so putting it in your freezer over night may provide a little additional shrinkage/contraction of the iron needed to break it loose. Odds of success probably aren't good but the odds of breaking it by reheating seem almost certain so not much to lose. Best, Kelly
Sorry for the late reply, it's 7am here now. HT1: it was a load of broken brake rotors and not that hot so there may be lots of air gaps and voids in the crucible. I know you're right about this but I'm slow learner, at least the furnace is built with crucible failures in mind: it has a hatch cover on the bottom so the plinth can be knocked out and a new one fitted. Denis, I'll try bumping it upside down, did not occur to me to try that. I'm inclined to risk it in the furnace even if I know it's a lost cause as I'm still trying to melt iron reliably: the first few successes have not been easy to reproduce, in hindsight I may have heat damaged the nozzles earlier and not noticed it. Anyway I'd better not hijack this thread any more. Kelly: it's worth a try will report back on the results
HT1 keep it up, I hope you keep making videos. I was on a camping trip trying not to look at my phone when this thread started, or I'd have said so sooner. Jeff
Finally got a little time to watch some vids on here! Awesome job! You guys really make me want to start pouring at home!
Too many projects at the moment but have an old building that I think would make a great foundry when I get a chance. Not to mention two year old who has to help me with everything. She loves fixing things. The other day I turned my back for 15 seconds to get a tool and she started fixing the 220 welder receptacle with a screwdriver. I nearly shat myself and decided I wasn't nearly as good multitasking as I thought.
