Metal Casting Zone

ive reached that point with my casting that its time to make my first crucible!
ive been melting and casting heaps of brass lately but!! its taken its toll on my small steel crucible. ive been getting 1 to 2 pours out of my steel pot before i suffer a "pot leak" ...ive tried everything but still i get a leak. its not easy here in australia to buy a crucible. but i have just ordered a no.2 clay graphite one $50 au plus postage!!! i reckon that ive wasted over 60 hours of labour because of "pot leak" since i discovered i could melt and cast brass in small amounts. im fine with aluminium but brass!!!??? plus i have heaps of orders for small brass castings! so.......!! following vince gingery methods ive made a mold but i cast it in aluminium its been a massive job!!! all i have to do is polish it! ive already ground up some firebrick! got some fireclay! i will take pics later today and of the forming /ramming ect as i go along. im hoping that i can make plenty of crucibles so i can use a new one every pour or two! the old crucibles will be ground up ..fireclay added and rammed up as new crucibles.... cost??? approx $2 each plus labour!

Good to know you are keeping busy. I'm still playing with the small furnace and haven't used the big one for a while. I'm finding a need to do several small melts too. I did have a short pour on a verticle flask I was trying to make, I may try it again next week.

wow. excited for the results and photos.

I cant wait to see how your crucible comes out, im surprised your steel ones are being ate up so quickly, the ones I have made from 304 ss show very little evidence of wear after a good number of melts and thats about it.
I have been doind some casting as well and will post some pics as soon as i finish machining the parts. your going to love this project but its going to take me quite some time to finish it but it will be worth it and the rewards will be of great value lol ill explain that one when i post the first pics of my new project

aonemarine wrote:
I cant wait to see how your crucible comes out, im surprised your steel ones are being ate up so quickly, the ones I have made from 304 ss show very little evidence of wear after a good number of melts and thats about it.
I have been doind some casting as well and will post some pics as soon as i finish machining the parts. your going to love this project but its going to take me quite some time to finish it but it will be worth it and the rewards will be of great value lol ill explain that one when i post the first pics of my new project lol i cant wait! casting is taking a bit of a back seat for a while. my problem is i can cast more than i can machine!i have heaps of casting to machine.

thanks guys. well my wife and i "rammed up our crucibles yesterday. sorry no pics of the process. as my wife was involved pics were limited. however... she is a wheelchair so i set it up for her. i did the assembly and she did the ramming and general supervision!!! so as i type they are in the oven.....2 hrs at 50 deg c 2 hrs at 100 and then 2 hrs at 250 !! then i will fire one in the furnace. im estimating them at a no 1 and will hold 2 1/2 brass "garden taps" (melted of course. lol)this has been the size ive been working with.




so for the record..... i had some fire bricks (composition unknown) as a base. i ground some to sand (6 soup tins full) and put them through my strainer. added 4 tins of fire clay and 4 tins of water after i had dissolved 4 tablespoons of potash into the water.mixed well and left overnight.

you can see the mold in the pic apart of course (5 kgs of aluminium in that one. lol.)i will post more after ive fired one maybe later today...so as we say.... the proof is in the melting.

excitedly waiting for the results. They look good. Thicker then I had imagined.

Looks great, Fire em up and move em out...
Is that your ramming tool in the picture?

Just a hint to help keep it from cracking, fire it with the opening down, in other words upside down. Put a piece of cardboard between it and the floor of your furnace to make sure it doesn't stick to it. I'm interested in the results as well, I have yet to make the follow-up to my cruciform rig, I was going to do it on my vacation but doing the rest of my roof sucked up all the time. Sometime in the near future, though. The nice thing about the Gingery method is that it does work, even if the mold is a bit cumbersome. Good luck with the firing!

Jammer wrote:
Looks great, Fire em up and move em out...
Is that your ramming tool in the picture?yes jammer ...im going to cast one in aluminium.