Welding Tips and Tricks

I bought my TIG welder t go along with my aluminum casting hobby
My furnace is built from a 30 pound propane tank



You will find making your patterns to cast the parts to be fun, at least I do.
Follow the myfordboy link posted previous, he has a ton of good info, and has no blabbering while making his videos.
It makes them much more enjoyable to watch

Here's another forum you may find helpful- all about casting stuff!
http://www.alloyavenue.com/vb/forum.php

BTW< you re headed down a long twisty involved highway.
You thought welding stuff took you off on rabbit trails, you start
casting aluminum and pretty soon you are trying to turn everything into a casting project
It is highly rewarding to be able to cast your own parts and pieces.

For casting alloy, forget anything extruded and pop/beer cans.
You want old pistons, cylinder heads, engine parts in general and anything
that was previously cast aluminum.
Wheels are about the highest quality aluminum you can get for the home hobbyist.

CHECK EVERY UNKNOWN PIECE before melting scrap to make sure it isnt magnesium!
vinegar is your freind

Jim FLinchbaugh wrote:BTW< you re headed down a long twisty involved highway.
You thought welding stuff took you off on rabbit trails, you start
casting aluminum and pretty soon you are trying to turn everything into a casting project
It is highly rewarding to be able to cast your own parts and pieces.

For casting alloy, forget anything extruded and pop/beer cans.
You want old pistons, cylinder heads, engine parts in general and anything
that was previously cast aluminum.
Wheels are about the highest quality aluminum you can get for the home hobbyist.

CHECK EVERY UNKNOWN PIECE before melting scrap to make sure it isnt magnesium!
vinegar is your freind

Thanks Jim! This is actually a project for a friend for his use but he is going to allow me to use it but I am going to make my own. Nice furnace you have there. I am not really happy with the refractory that I got. I used to build and re-line casting furnaces...BIG ones..and bought the material from my old supplier. It will work fine but it doesn't finish well but that's really nothing but a cosmetic issue, the stuff is great otherwise. I am looking forward to the molding though. And thank you for the links. I never knew home foundries were so popular. As I said, I have relined and built alot of big furnaces, the last one I did held #50,000 of aluminum. My old boss still does it but work has been slow for him as some of his customers have closed their doors. I poured the floor on Tuesday and the walls on Wednesday. I am going to strip it out today and I will post up some more pics. Thanks again for the help!

Its a very fun hobby!
Commercial refractory is way better.
I went home brew, portland cement, fire clay, pearlite and water.
They say it wont last as long as regular refractory but where I live shipping would have killed me
to buy commercial stuff.

Fabrication skills make this hobby much easier as you can build almost everything you need.
There is another youtuber goes by the name sandrammer. He spent 20 some years as a US Navy foundryman.
His videos are far from exciting to watch, and his delivery borders on painful,
BUT he provides some outstanding information if you have the fortitude to take it all in.
It prompted me to search out a copy of the US Navy Foundry manual and it was worth every penny of the 15 bucks it cost me.

Jim FLinchbaugh wrote:Its a very fun hobby!
Commercial refractory is way better.
I went home brew, portland cement, fire clay, pearlite and water.
They say it wont last as long as regular refractory but where I live shipping would have killed me
to buy commercial stuff.

Fabrication skills make this hobby much easier as you can build almost everything you need.
There is another youtuber goes by the name sandrammer. He spent 20 some years as a US Navy foundryman.
His videos are far from exciting to watch, and his delivery borders on painful,
BUT he provides some outstanding information if you have the fortitude to take it all in.
It prompted me to search out a copy of the US Navy Foundry manual and it was worth every penny of the 15 bucks it cost me.

The refractory is from Redline in Chicago and is an excellent product but IMO contains too much coarse aggregate so that's why it doesn't finish well. I stripped out the walls and had a little spalling but no big deal. Right now I have a heat gun in the tuyere and have it up to about 170 to dry it out. I will probably let it sit for a week or so before I cure it. I have no experience in casting, only building furnaces so I am rather excited about that aspect of the process. The guy I am building this for is an absolute genius so between the 2 of us, and the on-line help, we should be ok. My friend works for a drilling outfit so I have 200lbs of powdered bentonite and 500lbs of fine silica sand on the way so I am pretty excited. I will eventually build my own furnace but this one is a great learning experience for me. And you're right, being able to weld and fabricate sure opens up a lot of doors into innovations. Thanks again for your links and I appreciate your feedback!

The drying temp and the inside. This stuff dries very unusually and the dark spots will all lighten out to the same color. The spalling is normal and most of the smooth finish will flake off when I cure it to 1880 degrees.

That was quick, you didn't f#$k around !!!!

Very nice job indeed

Thanks Rupes! It didn't require too much weld/fab but most of us are do-it-yourselfers here so I thought it might be interesting.

I think its fantastic. Its one of those things that open up new ways of making things you never thought of before. Who needs a 3d printer that makes useless nicknacks when you can melt down some scrap and pour your own castings.

Rupes wrote:I think its fantastic. Its one of those things that open up new ways of making things you never thought of before. Who needs a 3d printer that makes useless nicknacks when you can melt down some scrap and pour your own castings.

Thank you!

Rupes wrote:I think its fantastic. Its one of those things that open up new ways of making things you never thought of before. Who needs a 3d printer that makes useless nicknacks when you can melt down some scrap and pour your own castings.

everyone who has a hobby foundry needs a 3D printer.
They are awesome for making patterns

Thats one of the few legitimate uses for a hobby 3D printer. I see people gathered around them in shops sometimes and think yeah thats cool.... but what the hell are gonna do with it after you've made all those useless knickknacks lol

I've seen some people advocating lost PLA casting lately.

Print the part just heavily enough to hold up to being set in sand, add in the risers, and pour.

Quick development casting, or rough casting for one off stuff that you don't mind putting some effort into cleaning up a little.

Got her cured and made a makeshift crucible and cast this little ingot this morning. She gets plenty hot.

exnailpounder wrote:

20170206_112809.jpg

20170206_110547.jpg

Got her cured and made a makeshift crucible and cast this little ingot this morning. She gets plenty hot.

Cool. Well, maybe HOT! What did you make the crucible out of? And what is the heat source fuel for this? Just curious as it does seem like it could come in handy for rough castings of aluminum. How much do you have in this build?
Thanks

electrode wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:

20170206_112809.jpg

20170206_110547.jpg

Got her cured and made a makeshift crucible and cast this little ingot this morning. She gets plenty hot.

Cool. Well, maybe HOT! What did you make the crucible out of? And what is the heat source fuel for this? Just curious as it does seem like it could come in handy for rough castings of aluminum. How much do you have in this build?
Thanks

Fuel is propane with air assist. The crucible is just a 4 inch stainless casing cap....just temporary... just wanted to see it melt something..lol. The refractory cost me about $80, the keg, $25, the burner maybe $25. I pick up used regs at flea markets and garage sales and I am a hoarder of everything so I had almost everything laying around to build this. My friend retired from well drilling last year so he brought me a truck load of SS well casing to make shrouds out of. Being a pack rat pays off sometimes. This was a fun project.

exnailpounder wrote:

electrode wrote:

exnailpounder wrote:

20170206_112809.jpg

20170206_110547.jpg

Got her cured and made a makeshift crucible and cast this little ingot this morning. She gets plenty hot.

Cool. Well, maybe HOT! What did you make the crucible out of? And what is the heat source fuel for this? Just curious as it does seem like it could come in handy for rough castings of aluminum. How much do you have in this build?
Thanks

Fuel is propane with air assist. The crucible is just a 4 inch stainless casing cap....just temporary... just wanted to see it melt something..lol. The refractory cost me about $80, the keg, $25, the burner maybe $25. I pick up used regs at flea markets and garage sales and I am a hoarder of everything so I had almost everything laying around to build this. My friend retired from well drilling last year so he brought me a truck load of SS well casing to make shrouds out of. Being a pack rat pays off sometimes. This was a fun project.

I too am a hoarder somewhat. Works for me. Looks like a great deal for melting aluminum etc as far as money spent. I will probably add this to my project list but my list has a lot of projects in front of it atm. Thanks for the info.

exnailpounder wrote:.......... shrouds out of. Being a pack rat pays off sometimes. This was a fun project.

Truer words were never spoken !

We need to start a thread. Cheap/ free stuff that we have hoarded. If you want some come pick it up. With pics.

Poland308 wrote:We need to start a thread. Cheap/ free stuff that we have hoarded. If you want some come pick it up. With pics.

I agonize over getting rid of something or throwing it out to clean up my shop but it never fails that when I get rid of something, a project will show up that requires exactly what I just threw out. How the Hell does that happen?

Every time

Poland308 wrote:Every time

+1
I threw out a piece of 1/8" plexiglass some months ago as it was a leftover scrap (at least I think I did cause I sure couldn't find it) and a few days ago I needed a piece to fix an oiler for one of my machines. The sight glass (plastic) was found to be cracked when I was rebuilding the pump. The piece was 3/8" x about 1.5" inches long. I had to by a $5 piece to cut that little bit out of. Arrgghh!

I just bought 130$ in gasket material. 3 ft x3ft to cut out 3 - 3 inch round gaskets. Someone threw out the last 2 ft of a 48 inch roll we had.

Edit. Not to mention the three days of down time.

electrode wrote:

Poland308 wrote:Every time

+1
I threw out a piece of 1/8" plexiglass some months ago as it was a leftover scrap (at least I think I did cause I sure couldn't find it) and a few days ago I needed a piece to fix an oiler for one of my machines. The sight glass (plastic) was found to be cracked when I was rebuilding the pump. The piece was 3/8" x about 1.5" inches long. I had to by a $5 piece to cut that little bit out of. Arrgghh!

Hoarding can be bad if it's like 30 house cats and 3 litter boxes with 6 months of shit in em and pizza boxes with hair growing on em and a path from room to room, but shop stuff is ok right?

Yup