I ran across this tech article on the Internet on how to build your own small foundry at home. For those of you who actually have LAND and don't have to deal with neighbors and home-owners ***ociations, this could be a neat thing to build. I recall metalshop in junior high and how we made castings of all kinds of worthless ornamental junk using a small yet great foundry set-up....I'd love to set up a small dedicated foundry if I ever got the space. But odds are I'd use it once or twice, and it would just sit there. There just doesn't seem to be small mom & pop foundrys anymore where you can get a part cast out of br*** or aluminum. Anyway, here's the article: http://www.atmsite.org/contrib/Sapp/foundry/foundry.html Patrick
John butler of the Green's Bayou Foundry gave a lecture at The Houston Home Metal Shop Club in Aug 2005. He said if you bring sand molds ready-to-pour, they will pour cast iron for a small fee on Saturdays.
I so remember the "moon" pedals and such we cast in our high school shop, still have mine.... The school closed the metal shop, and the ag shop, so a couple of my friends bought the furnace, pots, clamps, everything...Had it up an running in 2 days...It was large enough that you could pour 8-10 pedals. Thanks for the article, OLY The cancer car lives Give to cancer research
I think I still have a steel ball-peen hammer I made in 9th grade metal shop. Oh, and those metal and wood shop teachers...man, they would bust your *** if you even looked like you had done something wrong. I never got pops from Mr. Manning cause he knew my Dad. Whew!
I immediately thought about this whenever I saw the ***le for this thread. My wife showed me this not to long ago. What makes it even cooler is he is only 11. It's a must read! http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=245691.0
Its really too bad about schools dropping those programs..... I was just given an aluminum melting furnace, capable of a 800lb. pour. I have a 15lb setup I bought off ebay for $500. I think its the best thing out there for hobby stuff. -Jason
One of the best books on this subject is an old US Navy do***ent...I think I have it in .pdf format somewhere. Anyhow, back in the day Navy ships did not carry much in the way of spare parts, when something broke they cast a mold of the pieced together part then melted the part down and recast it. Those old sailors must have been HAMBers at heart!
Guys interested in backyard homebrew metal working might Goggle Lindsey Publications. They have books and so forth detailing all kinds of foundry ideas and "make a lathe from washing machine" type stuff.
Do a search in the tech thread for whizzerick, hes has some good info of stuff hes done around here: http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=11578&highlight=whizzerrick
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