Metal Casting Zone

Hi guys, love the web page... i recently discovered the gingery books and have fallen in love with the whole idea.

ok, my first question... where the heck do u guys buy green molding sand? google seems to be failing me, or perhaps it is the other way around... not sure.

anyway, any useful links to places that sell silica sand 75+ mesh with bensoite / coal dust pre-mixed in like a 100 pound bag would be really helpful. i am planning on building the gingery charcoal foundry this monday if i can find the supplies in the next couple days.

cheers,
Eric.

P.S. I live in the Seattle, WA area so local sources would be most useful. thx.

Small outfit that ships quite a bit. I don't know if they have exactly what you need but give them call. I buy iron oxides from them at good prices.

Clay Art Center, Inc. - 2636 Pioneer Way East - Tacoma, WA 98404
1 800 952-8030 fax 253 922-5349
Business hours 9:00-5:30 Monday-Friday, Saturday 10:00-2:00

Also search your key words here in the forums and you will likely hit some postings. And lastly search through www.bing.com they and www.google.com often show results the other does not.

You could check at Home Depot or Lowes, sometimes they have a fine play sand. Other times they just have the dirty coarse stuff. Check in with the qwick crete too, they offer a fine sand. For bentonite I used ground up cheap cat litter. Ground it up in a blender a little at a time.
Then I found it at a pottery supply like Stephen said. My source is Columbus Clay, in Columbus, Ohio. They have Bentonite and silica sand in at least 3 different mesh.

Welcome to the forum.

ok, thx for the info. i have found a source of bentonite near me... it is a product called Quick-Gel. it is 200 mesh wyoming calcium bentonite i believe. so it is looking like i am going to have to mix my own green sand. i can get a 50 pound bag for $14 which seems completely reasonable and i believe that should last me a very long time.

one article i read on mixing your own green molding sand said that u had to mix it alot in some kind of tumbling machine for a couple hours... i am hoping that i can just hand mix it with a trowel in a wheel barrow. what do you guys do? do u buy pre-mixed green molding sand or do you guys end up mixing your own?

thx for the quick replies btw.

Oil bonded sand needs mulling for a while. Green sand just needs mixed well. I got one of those auger bits from Lowes. it's abouit 2" diameter and is for drilling into the ground to plant Tulips and other bulbs. I put it on my electric drill and mixed it dry and then added a little water at a time until it got close to what I wanted. Squeeze a ball of sand in your hand and if it doesn't stick to your fingers and breaks clean then it's about right. It seems to get better after it sits a few days. Be careful with the water it doen't take as much as you might think. just a little at a time. You only need about 5 pounds of Bentonite to 50 pounds of sand. Or a 10:1 ratio by weight.
Mine dries out between casts so I add a little water and mix it up and it's good to go.

thx for the tip jammer, was wondering how best to mix this stuff up.

so it turns out that Seattle Pottery Supply has just about everything i needed. i bought 100 pounds of olivine 180 mesh sand, 10 pounds of bentonite and 25 pounds of fire clay (lincoln brand i believe). i hope i got enough fire clay for the charcoal foundry.

question: to make the refractory, can i use the olivine to mix with my fire clay or is 180 mesh going to be too fine?