Probably abusing my posting privileges with this. But, I must say that having my 8 year-old grandson wanting to go back out to the foundry this week to pound sand after a pouring session last week was more than I could keep to myself. Had a great time. He begged for a second mold. So, we made a simple cope and drag into which he carved his initial. Pouring it will be on his next sleep-over in a week. Cutting a pouring basin. Please forgive my grampa-ness. Denis
And out to the foundry with my 8-year-old grandson again. Making a cannon seemed a very good ploy to spark some interest and believe me it worked. He and I had worked up a pattern set to make a Civil-War-era toy cannon and wheels. Tomorrow we'll be in the machine shop cleaning up the castings, turning the axles, boring out wheel "bearings", etc. No boring of the barrel though. Too tempting in a few years... He loved it and I sure had a good time. Oh, the riser did what it needed to do. An attempt a few months ago resulted in shrinks in the cannon. No riser then. Denis
What kid wouldn't love that? You play with dirt and fire all without getting in trouble for doing it! He's a lucky kid and you're a great grampa. When I was about the same age as him, I toured the foundry at a GM engine plant with my dad. I found it absolutely fascinating, it always stuck with me and 50 years later I'm here on this forum, chances are I would not be had it not been for that tour when I was 8 years old.
Today we cleaned up the castings by doing some filing and some lathe and mill work. We turned the trunnions between centers and milled the holes in the wheels using the DRO and a calculated bolt circle. We also cleaned up the rims and drilled the hubs. Still need to clean up the end of the cannon---to be done between centers and using a steady rest. That will be later this week. He loves it. We will leave 90% the surface of the cannon as cast. Denis
We did a bit more machining on the cannon today. First we turned the cannon between centers on its long axis to establish a smooth round reference surface on the muzzle end. Then we used the 4-jaw on the butt end and held the muzzle in the steady so we could face the muzzle and bore it to lighten it so it would balance on the butt end. This was a good chance for my grandson to see the steady used and another chance to do turning on centers. There is no touch hole and this is never intended to be fired as it would be more like a grenade than a cannon I think. He and I made a second casting last week and he's asking to machine it next sleepover---oh, darn ;-) Denis
