Metal Casting Zone

ive been casting and casting so much that i ran out of aluminium!! i scrounged a 10ft post from the local tip! it was 6 inches (150mm) by 6 inches and 1/4 inch thick. it weighed 12 kgs! but it didnt fit in the pot!!and it took 25 minutes to cut a peice 8 inches long!so i put a stainless steel bowl in fire and used a pair of tongs to pour it! very very scarey!!! i went to repeat it and found i had burnt a hole in bowl and i still had 11 kgs to go!!


i hit on the idea to use a 14inch cast iron skillet with an extention handle fitted!


molten with the "crap" showing near the handle.


the empty pan.


i dont recommend melting via this method for the faint hearted as its hard to control the pour. i "splashed "quite a bit of molten metal and started some small fires but i did melt down the whole post and cast it into smaller peices for remelting and casting.

I broke some down yesterday. I heated it to try to get it to hot shortness stage, but couldn't get it hot enough with my little torch. Just ended up beating into submission with a sledge hammer. I should have started a wood fire to put it in.

earlier in my casting career i tried to just melt it and tap it off... like iron from a cupola ! it didnt work! i had very little fire just enough to keep the cast iron pan at red heat on the bottom. ive tried to heat scrap and break it up but it normally breaks me! lol.

I can see how 'pigging' your scrap into ingots would come in handy when it comes time to cast parts.

Metalfab_101 wrote:
I can see how 'pigging' your scrap into ingots would come in handy when it comes time to cast parts.it sure does and cleans the metal of oxides. the older the scrap is the more oxides it contains.

Are you still using muffin tins for your ingot molds?

I was thinking of making some from angle iron, if I come across some I might do that. Otherwise I think I might just make some patterns and ram them up before I do a pour. That means more greensand though...

I used some sections of signpost. It worked very well but, if I use my small crucible, the ingots are too long. They heat up, break off and fall out of the crucible. I'm making some that can be broken into sections for more control. Just a wedge that goes about halfway through the ingot so I can break it in half.

i use both muffin tins ans sticks. sticks arent much good to start with whilst your furnace is heating but they are great for top ups. i use the round ingots to start with. after they are melted i follow with sticks. the "muffin" ingots if used for top up tend to splash so be extremely careful if you use them for top ups .