Daily Fabrication Thread

[711ac]

It does extend around 9'!
I used to live near a guy that "scrapped" some very nice things from JLG/Grove crane. The place was full of top rate stuff. There were at least 3 20' containers full of cylinders! It was easy to spend 3-4 hours walking around the yard dreaming up uses for this "scrap"🥳

[711ac]

Are you worried about the weight on the roof?

That's a dandy building 👍

I bet that V plow works like a dream 💪

No it was the constant dripping. That's my sawmill building but right now it's my firewood building. 😆
The splitter is inside and the small stuff that just needs cut to length is outside (under the eave) on my firewood table and my wood rack is in between.  


This picture was early winter but if it's not raining or snowing it works better with that table on the other side of the rack outside. 👍

[wisconsitom]

Nice scrap indeed!

[Don P]

I decided to try to mold and cast some scoops. I was on the vertical part of the curve today  :D

I didn't trust my sand to stick well enough for this, although I should try one. I mixed a little plaster of paris in with sand and made a fair mold but wet. I was looking for something tapered to make the pour and vent holes and spotted a cheap bed frame i had drug home for the angle iron. The feet were perfect for the job. I should have made a bigger box, its too close the the edges. I've made the lower mold (cope?) and am making the upper (drag?)


 


The holes in the lower mold are an abandoned idea for filling, i didn't use them.


 

While I fired up and melted I had the mold halves on bricks on the woodstove in the shop drying, but i rushed it and it was obvious as I started pouring, it wanted to spit and boil, 1000 degree metal meets too damp sand. I poured on the left, overfilled trying to pump it through the thin mold cavity to the 2 vents, that worked ok.



 


Really better than expected.


 

almost sculpture, nah, I need a scoop  :D



 

I used it to scoop sand to make another mold. I'll stick that mold in the oven to dry and warm before the next attempt.


 

Nothing much, but it was fun  ;D

[Old Greenhorn]

Don, that is an impressive attempt and came very close.
I am sure you know all this but the challenges with that particular shape you have are formidable. Thin section for for the scoop that covers a large area and big changes in elevation are tough enough, but then you have the thick handle. For something that big, I think you really want a few more sprues. Also with aluminum, humidity matters, both the ambient, as well as the moisture in the molten aluminum. When hot molten material comes up against wet sand, the moisture is heated and the moisture will boil which separates the H from the O and the H turns to gas and settles in the molten aluminum (it's called precipitated hydrogen) as pockets (voids) so too much moisture is not good. Also for some reason I never understood, too little moisture in the aluminum is also no good. You can't add water to molten aluminum, it will cause a steam explosion. But ALL the the foundries I worked with had bins of potatoes (yes, I said potatoes, spuds, white tubars) at each casting station and they would shove a weighted fork into a good sized spud and put it in the melted aluminum where it would heat and release (slowly) whatever moisture was in it. The number of spuds depended on what they were casting. Things made from aluminum can be even lighter if they are filled with bubbles evenly spaced. Apparently that is desirable in some applications.
In your case I would say you want it just wet enough to hold the sand together and no more. But I know you know that and have said as much.
I haven't done a sand casting since high school (1972), but my grandfather made patterns for all kinds of castings for things he designed, particularly boat props, and built in his basement shop. It saved a lot of machining for him. He would bring the pattern and enough scrap material to cover the job, to the foundry and get his stuff cast. I wish I still had one or two of his patterns, they were all beauties.
As I said, the first attempt is impressive. The next one could be the home run. You do some amazing stuff.

[Don P]

Thanks Tom, I amazed Mom a time or two as well  :D.
Well, it's gonna have to wait till I get to town again, I just broke the mold trying to get the pattern scoop out, it stuck. I used saran wrap as a mold release the first time, got froggy and tried wax this time for a nicer finish.

 The original bottom mold is good I'll just need to remake the top. I'll pick up some salt substitute while 
there and try a little to see if it noticeably degasses the metal. So far from my vast experience it seems more porous if I don't give it a good superheat right before pouring, it looks like a cold solder joint so I'm not sure of what I'm looking at. I used the rest of the heat yesterday to melt more of the scrap and pour it into pieces of angle iron as a form. This cleans it up and makes it easier to remelt. I have no real idea if I'm improving it or not but I think so, there is less dross later. I have a few pounds of high aluminum dross (skimmings) that I guess they will take at the scrapyard.

[moodnacreek]

Looks like an attempt  I made at pouring a babbit bearing without heating the shaft and box. Casting is something I know nothing about but I always wanted to do cast iron and i suppose that is not easy. If I lived closer to Don I would try to bribe him with Bellsaw parts to cast parts for me.

[NOCO Jim]

Don, What are you using for a furnace?  
Care to share a pic or two?

[Don P]

Go back one page to reply 1115 and I put a pic up there. It is about full of charcoal when I start, that was towards the end. I just got back from the dentist and Lowes with some more plaster of paris... I'm not saying that is great mold making material but, ignorance is bliss  :D. I do have a cement mold curing from yesterday. I put a half dozen small vents in it. I think Doug is onto something, I'm going to dry the mold in the oven and pour with it warm.

My wife's brother did this when he was young. One of his hobbies was lost wax casting. He would carve the wax, mold around it, melt the wax out and cast the piece in silver.


 

Sorry for the dust and patina, he did pretty much every feather.

I'll get better pics of the furnace set up next time I fire it. The furnace is just behind the truck in front of the barn in that pic. The high tunnel is the white blob to the right.

Meanwhile, Dad emailed that their shop was donated a Craftsman belt/disc sander with the 9" aluminum disc missing. He was asking me to do a parts search. Bupkus. Unless one of y'all is sitting on a parts one I might have another non paying family job to pour  :D.

[Don P]

@NOCO Jim 
I fired up and kinda melted again today. I need to make more charcoal. I learned today that damp, fine charcoal is about like trying to burn dirt  :D. Ah well, the raw material grows on trees. Part of todays melt was Courage, a galled Kohler Courage to be exact  ;D

 For the blower and setup I have right now the chunks need to be about 1"+ and sifted of fines. I killed the draft with too tight a charcoal pack. I did get a few pics of the furnace.

This is the parts, firebrick and the lining of an old oil furnace, anything sort of refractory will work, for awhile;




Assembled;

 

 

I have the old pot over the crucible most of the time as well as a scrap of roofing tin loosely over the entire can, trying to hold heat in. Watch leaning over the furnace especially when the blower is on. If you smell burning fur, its you. With welding gloves on, don't touch stuff for any length of time, its hot enough to burn right through them.



 

I made a couple of molds and had them in front of the woodstove all week, which I think we had 2 fires this week, and baked them for about 3 hours this morning at 215°, still too wet!


 

The molds were too cold, too much moisture, but both were a little better than last try. I'm going to try straight sand with sodium silicate solution in it next time I think. The plaster is just too wet for this. The cement was slightly better but still boiling which is not good!



 

I tried another melt to make Dad a sander disc. Between trying to melt quite a bit and the poor charcoal quality I froze and unfroze the crucible a couple of times and made a cold pour just to get it out of the crucible. So next up is to make more charcoal and sift it.

[NOCO Jim]

You look to be having fun, Don, and learning a fair bit.  
Thanks for sharing pics of your efforts.
I have never melted with charcoal.  I use a coal forge nearly daily and have, in the past, done lost wax and sand casting with a home built propane furnace.  
It's clear you understand how basic the tools can be to achieve results.  I think continuing to work with green sand methods might be beneficial for you.   Cope and drag boxes, a sand box, a few hand tools. Pretty simple!
I noticed when I was casting regularly, as you are noticing now, that the pattern you are working with will tell you what it wants in order to get you the results you  are looking for.
You may have heard of Dave Gingery but, if not, I believe there are vids to enjoy on the youtube.

[711ac]

Metal fatigue on the tractor snowplow lift cylinder mount.
That's a 5"×7" tube, 1/4" wall thicknesses.

From the minor rust on the "tear", it didn't happen all at once, I figure at most it started to fail plowing the previous storm. Failure in this wasn't even a minor thought on my "radar" and it went unnoticed.


I find it amazing that the bolts didn't fail first. This setup is about 8 years old.

I cut out a nice spot recessed so that the new 1/2" thick plate would finish off flush with the tube.

I extended the repair plate forward to allow for gussets. This is the bottom.

I like gussets!

Now to the part I absolutely hate, painting!
The same reciever hitch will get bolted back on.

[NE Woodburner]

Nice work and better than new!

[Walnut Beast]

Looks great 711 👍

[711ac]

 

Don't look too closely at the paint job. 😆
We might have a whopper snow Tuesday - Thursday.  Should be really fun, right now I need 4wd to get out to the road...not!

[Walnut Beast]

Looks pretty good to me 711! Nice job!

[rusticretreater]

Fine work.  Its always fulfilling to be able to handle these things yourself.  Its not a problem. Its a design opportunity!

[Crusarius]

That looks sick!!!

[PoginyHill]

Normally I log in the winter with my FEL off and use front weights. I had done this primarily for easier maneuvering in the woods. With my roads complete and my log loading trailer, that's not as much of an issue. I started leaving my front end loader with the bucket on. Overall I like the set-up, but it still makes for a very large turning radius and (me operating) the bucket doesn't do very well pushing logs/tree stems into a decent pile. So I decided to build a pusher plate to reduce the overhang of the bucket and a good place to put a vice for chainsaw sharpening.

The ATV plow and skid-steer quick attach plate came "at no additional cost" when I bought my used compact tractor. (B2401) I added two tines on the bottom to easier lift a log off the ground onto a pile. I've not attached it yet to my tractor, so I don't know if there will be interference when I curl the loader backward. But I don't anticipate needing to curl much, if at all.



 

The extensions are 2X3 tube and are there to protect the vice and prevent logs from rolling over the plow and onto the FEL cylinders. The vice rotates, so I'll likely leave it 90deg when not in use to provide a bit more clearance from hitting logs.


 

I didn't paint the SSQA plate - almost unused when I got it. Painted the fabricated stuff Caterpillar yellow just for fun.

[NE Woodburner]

Nice work and looks like it will be a handy addition in the woods.

[Walnut Beast]

Looks great! Nice job 👍 

[Don P]

I'm working on the motor for the gristmill. I needed a low speed motor and a speed reducing jackshaft and finally a flat belt pulley. I need to work on the shaft a little more to get rid of an upset 'shroom but I'm trying to figure out how to secure the old IHC LA tractor pulley to the 1-3/16" shaft.



 

 

[moodnacreek]

I suppose the pully is slightly loose on the shaft. If that is the case grind a slightly oversize key tapered one side to make a gib key to be hammered in. I would also use 609 locktite . If the clearance is not too much that will set up and hold. To remove it must be heated.

[Don P]

It'll slide on once I get the belled end smoothed down. The problem is there is no setscrew. I think this was from an International LA and I'm guessing it bolted to a drive plate with those 3 end holes which are tapped. I can drill a hole thru the surface of the pulley then a small hole in the hub and tap it for a setscrew but I'm hoping for something easier. Maybe a collar on the shaft on each end of the pulley. I picked up a belt at Lowes this evening. I'm hoping with the shaft spinning it won't take long to fix the end of the shaft. 

[thecfarm]

That should help out on the front of the tractor.
How right you are about turning with a loader that sticks out about 6 feet in front.
But most times I have wood in it when I come out. Going in sometimes I have a load of rocks for a wet spot or an uneven place.