Metal Casting Zone

Just thought everyone would want to see a project that I am now involved in. Through chance, I met the gentleman who is the chairman of the restoration comittee for a lombard log hauler owned by the Leonard's Mills Living History Museum. ( www.leonardsmills.com ) This is what it is: www.umit.maine.edu/~herbert.crosby/lombard2/LINN.jpg For some reason or other the second half of that link doesn't want to work. Type the whole thing out to see it.

For a further history, follow the links on the Leonard's Mills site.
I am going to be making patterns for and casting in iron (aluminum first) some parts for this monster. I actually have the originals now for measurements. I have completed and cast in aluminum one part already, the hand hole cover. It was one of the easier ones to do. Two of the parts are going to be challenging, the rings for the hand hole and the ash (please note spelling) hole cover. They both have to fit the curve of the boiler, an 18" radius.
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/handholecoverandringview1.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/ashholering.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/ashholecover.jpg
They were probably broken several times in use, and somebody then removed them with a hammer or something. They are in pretty rough shape. I also have the cover for the front of the cylinders, I don't have any pics of it yet.
Here's a few pics of the pattern and the mold up, and the finished part (so far).
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/HHCpatternstart.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/hhcpatterncopeside.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/hhcpatterndragside.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/readytofillcope.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/rammingcopewithsprueandrisersinplac.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/readytoclose.jpg
FYI, you can kind of see it in the above pic, but I almost lost this mold to dropout, I put the cope half back on and luckily the sand stuck back together. I had just reconditioned my sand after it had dried out over the winter.
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/readytopour.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/poured.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/bottomlooksokay.jpg
i157.photobucket.com/albums/t54/OddDuckFoundry/Cameoutnice.jpg


As you can see, even with the dropout it came out okay with a little elbow grease. I will post as I go along, I have been asked to take a lot of pics and document the process as best I can, and I will share my experiences with everyone.

this great!!! ive never seen one of those before!! im a member of a steam shed/museum and we restore steam engines. so please keep us posted. any chance of a pic before restoration!!! i think one made in model steam would look great! i dont think you will have any trouble casting the protypes. cast iron will be a challenge!!

Mr Lynch was kind enough to loan me the original parts, and I have been studying them some. What is interesting to me is that I am suprised that the engineers who built it and designed the parts didn't (or couldn't) figure out where the rings would fail. Here's the new pics:



Yes, I hot glued the ring back together, I wanted to get a better idea of the curve and the measurements, and the hot glue peels right off. Taint pretty, but it worked. Couldn't hurt it any worse.





The above looks like an original repair to me, they put the bolt hole at the thinnest part of the curve, making a weak spot. Hmm. I wonder if the expansion of the boiler when it was hot caused the rings to flex a bit as well. Cast iron doesn't flex too good apparently.




And this one and the fourth one up show much better the patternmaking challenge I have before me. I have thought of several different methods, though.




Again, this one looks like it was an original repair, not something done recently.
This next bad boy is going to be another challenge, it is the cover that holds the insulation in on the front of the cylinder. The band surrounding it is a repair, I think it was an attempt to keep it from splitting down the side after the chunk came out of the face. You can barely see the part number cast onto the front of it (a partial 93 near the center, the 9 is broken and my camera is old). The repair inside is relatively modern, I think.








I am trying to get a few more projects out of the way, and then I will get back to some serious patternmaking. I am going to redo the hand hole cover pattern I made, after getting a close look at the original and taking some more measurements I don't think my new one is very accurate. If I'm going to do it, I might as well do it right.
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ive been doing some reading up on this engine. im not sure if i would put the breaks down to bad design. as i understand the lombard it worked in snow country! if the iron was hot and it snowed on it!!!! for one. then to actually remove the plates for restoration maybe someone was bit keen with the oxy torch??? plus 100 yrs of course!! im not sure the engineers designed it to last a hundred yrs .plus being new then (100yrs ago)patterns and parts were available as they will be once you have completed them!

Xl, you may very well be correct, It might have been temp differentials that contributed to the breaking. Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to second guess the guys who first built them, I'm just wondering if maybe adding a bit thicker section there would help. And, yes, parts will once again be available if you have one moldering in your garage and want to get it up and running!
As far as replacement parts go, however, you will note that these ones have been repaired quite some time ago. Knowing a bit about the mindset of the old fellas around here even if a warehouse of parts had been available, they would have fixed it themselves. We're frugal up around here (read: cheap bastards) and if you can fix it yourself, you do. Also, there wasn't UPS or Fedex back then, it was quite the trip into the back woods, and they probably had to get it back up and running NOW. If it weren't hauling , it wasn't making money.

keep us posted with your progress.its a very worthwhile project. is the engine owned by the museum or is it private. the steam shed im involved with houses six mobile engines but 2 are privately owned. here is a pic of one to be restored being towed up to the shed.

Xl, as far as I know it is owned by the museum. Restoration work has been in fits and starts, from what I understand. They sent the boiler to a company in Canada as a template to build an exact replica (updated to modern safety standards, of course) and Mr. Lynch told me that cost almost $70,000. I work a little cheaper than that...
I like those old traction engines. Is the one in the middle assisting, or being assisted as well?

thats about right for a boiler. the engine is in the middle is being assisted by the crane as there is a small but sharp hill next up to the steam shed and the one that is at the end is half as big again as the one in the middle. the engine under steam was restored by the engineers of the the austalian defense force and was given to us for safe keeping. it takes years to restore engines and a lot of fund raising. we receive govt grants to help out! some of our casting work is done by the hobby foundry very close to where i stood to take the pic.i must take some pics of the foundry and post them. every sunday 10 or so members get to together make their molds and share a communal melt! its open to public viewing. they use greensand and a gas furnace.

Not neccessarily anything to do with casting, but it relates to this post, my dad told me about a month or so ago that he knew where there was an old boiler in the woods, and remembered right where it was. We went to see if we could find it again this past Saturday, and here is what we found:

Please note the possible cause of death of this particular hunk of iron a little ways down the boiler from the firebox. It must have been one hell of a bang. I am fairly sure it must have been an actual steam explosion, here's the pics of the tear and the inside showing the pipes:


So, all you folks who play around with live steam, there's your cautionary tale.
I am tentatively identifying it as a Lombard boiler, I have pics in to a few people who should know for sure. There was not much else left, just some bits of metal lying around and a lot of coal.

wow!!!!if its a lombard boiler it needs to be placed in the museum for preservation! it looks promising ..right shape .. with a blown boiler!!! blown boilers are very rare to find nowadays anyway! most blown boilers have a documented history as "blown" boilers are notifiable world wide! i wonder what this boiler has to say for its self!!!waa it dragged into the bush "to keep it quiet!!" or is it lying where it blew??