Former worker in a steel mill here. You should cast it standing, but try to fill the mold from the bottom up. Make a channel from top to bottom beside the cannon core and conect it to the bottom of the cannon. Use the upper end of the cannon as venting hole, and cover the open risers with a thick layer of sand to preserve heat in the metal after the pour. And you could make a thin slurry from Ehanol Alcohol and Bentonite powder to give the inner surface of the Mold a smoother surface. Just a little layer inside the mold. aply with an brush. Try it on a small mold, it will help with the surface texture. IF you cast in the the same position like in this video, place your entry way on the thickest part of the cannon (The sunken in part) and make a bigger reservour on top with thick walls of sand for insulation so you have 4 Pound extra material there. After the metal is in, cover the Tank with Sand. The metal will shrink inside, and pull metal from the top inside. Sorry fo my poor english, i am from germany and didn´t talk or write much in english. i could bring up some drawings if needed, just give the word.
Ordog213 Wow your knowledge is great!!! I hope to do some casting in the future. Would you share your e-mail address for questions? My e-mail is pharmacyman@att.net. Give me a shout!!!
With the bentonite part of this, you can get better surface finish with minimal inclusions. Fumed silica will probably work as well. The alcohol prevents the gas expansion issues you would have with a water slurry. 99% isopropanol is available for cheap enough. Another good thing would be to use aluminum to de-gas the brass and increase its strength to something closer to steel.
I thought of filling from the bottom immediately, but that channel will require quite a bit of extra metal, won't it? He can barely melt enough for start with.
For the vertical pour you need to put an ingate system off to the side and let the metal rise from the bottom. At least that's how ship propellers get cast at my company.
2nd Crucible ? I’m stoked to see this come out !! After you finish all the hard work I’m gonna make a couple to put in my roof !! In swivels of course ! 😆
@@reyg7028 Grap shot and Langridge, excellent home defense system! Just don't use pre-packaged charges, California will declare it an assault weap, and Cortez will lecture us about the founding father intentions for only loose poured powder in them!
Me: why is he cutting it in half just to stick a chunk of newspaper between and glue it back together Farmcraft101: (easily pulls back in half) Me: my God the man is a genius!
I love this series. The amount of work, research, and attention to detail is really cool to see. I'm excited to see you accomplish this and I know you will.
I love the emotion and reaction to "what the internet will think" in these videos. Especially on the spalding and the drawing. Well done. Very entertaining while teaching.
only if you are a little bitch, otherwise...get off here and get casting! that cannon is not gunna make itself :D . love your work man, sadly this is outside my area of expertise so i don't really have any useful suggestions to add.
You need a vent at each local maximum height as well as the point furthest from the pour. The top was indented because the compressed air in that section couldn't escape after the pour blocked access to the vent you had.
It's tempting to blame it on trapped air, and I appreciate the comment! I should have shown footage where I poked a wire through the highest part of the breech through the sand when I was making the mold. (I did, so there was a vent there). That said, greensand is very porous and even without a vent it would have easily vented that small amount of air through the sand. If it was just trapped air, it would have been a flat area all across the top. But it was a rounded, depressed area right in the middle. Definitely shrinking as the center solidified.
@@FarmCraft101 Gunmetal has a coefficient of thermal expansion of about 10^-5 in/inR. For each 0.1% shrinkage before solidufying, you'd have to have heated it 100 Rankine over the melting point.
As the person who calls himself FarmCraft points out, greensand is porous, it's not a venting problem, it's a problem of thermal shrinkage. There needs to be at least one reservoir or cavity (a riser) connected to the main mould cavity, of sufficient volume that it will stay molten longer than the time taken for the main part of the casting to solidify, during which time it is shrinking substantially. All of the shrinkage volume will end up as a gap at the top of, and a "pipe" (hollow) down into the centre of, this reservoir of spare metal, near to the casting proper (so it doesn't cool prematurely) but not part of it. There's not enough metal or thermal mass in the sprue, runner and pouring cup, and it may not be connected to the ideal portion of the casting to make up the volume lost to shrinkage during solidification. The crucible needs to be a LOT bigger then the pattern. Partly because the riser needs to be large (at least 3x the shrinkage volume) and also because the volume of metal delivered from a crucible of a stated size is the expanded, molten volume, not the shrunk volume measured by submerging the pattern. The shrinkage allowance built into the pattern does not account for shrinkage of MOLTEN metal, just contraction of the solidified, partly cooled metal. The riser would ideally be hemispherical but for reasons of practicality is usually substantially cylindrical, and should be between one and one and a half times as tall as it is wide.
Thoroughly enjoying myself, watching you, in this process. For millenia this was/is how it's done. Cannons, Halibrand wheels, Cyclone Racing Equipment quickchange, and Edelbrock intake manifolds. Life is great !
This guys videos are the best! Great science, story, witty, great editing, informative, and right to the point without b.s.. He is the Bob Vila of cannon casting. Real joy to watch.
A few years ago I made a cast iron cannon with my boss just for fun (prototype casting company), instead of a core we used a steel tube in the cannon as a barrell, that works great! I will give you a few tips: - You should use form sand with bentonite (binding water and makes the form stronger), so less sand will be washed out and gets in the mold - If you want a better surface use oilsand around the pattern (half inch will be enough), then over this normal compacted form sand - The runner goes in the cope (upper mold box) and the gates in the drag (bottom molding box) so slag flows up and less shit will flow in your cavity - Use runner extensions and no direct cutted gates, so only clean melt flows in the cavity, dirt (oxides, ...) getting pass by and solidify outside of the part or add a small blind riser bevore the cavity and the dirt will float up (this will not feed your mold consistently, no matter how big it is because if your gate with the small diamater solidify the feeding process will stop! Thats the only reason why you need risers in the top) - Make your sprue on the side with the bigger diameter, so the hotter melt can warm up this area more, this will help against the shrinkage and a open riser at other side as a vent and lil bit as a feeder - Use a few small holes as vents on the top side of the cannon (0,1-0,2 inch will be enough) - Perhaps 1-2 top risers on the highest points will help feeding the whole mold. Without a core/tube or cooling iron in the sand the solidification will need much time, so the risk is big to get shrinkage defects in the middle of your cannon. Yes you will turn this material later, but can you guarantee that the defects will not go all the way out to the wall? If you dont want a core or tube that will be okay, but then you should use risers because the shrinkage could be a bigger problem as you thought and if you wana shoot the cannon i would minimize the risk of a heavy exploding metal part near my ass :D Make the sprue (with well) in the middle of the rear side, two runners (cope) to both sides and then 1-2 gates (drag) on both sides with the extended runners (with well at the end) for your slag. The front side of the cannon should get one open riser and on the highest point of the cannon should be minimum one additional riser to feed your mold while cooling down (use a big diameter minimum 2 inch!). Engage a few vents along the entire length of the cannon, this allows the air to leak better than trough the sand and slag will float out. Greets from germany ;)
Shrinkage can be controlled through insulation thickness, casting from the bottom using an injection workflow, and using a heavy heated iron piston floating in the molten gunmetal in the molten metal injector. That will both provide pressure for reduced waste when the level of the molten fluid levels out and provide heat through conduction; forcing solidification of the cannon under light pressure against the walls and from the outside in and down. Before the age of computers, Heat flow engineering in injection molds used to be done with a resistive paper using electricity to act as an analog to heat. As the thermal resistance of brass is far lower than sand, use a piece of tinfoil in the shape of a cannon as the "hot" contact and a tin foil ring in the shape of the barrel axis including cross section of the casting pattern as a cold contact. Reshape the ring until the area of resistive paper near the cannon has a nearly constant voltage per perpendicular distance from the cannon. This will result in a cannon whose exterior shape is more likely to be uniform on the outside due to constant solidification time and if bottom up injection is used with a torch on the injector piston. Make the mold vessel out of casting sand filled kraft paper mache 0.25 inches thick bonded with Glue, sodium silicate, borax, and steel wires. Suspend it from many steel wires and a carrying frame to prevent tipping. Coat the internal surface of the sand with bentonite in isopropanol slurry for a smooth mold.
@@notamouse5630 So do recommend that he still go with a vertical pour, and create a chamber parallel to barrel, or a horizontal pour with the chamber set at a 90 angle to the barrel ?
I worked in a brass foundry from the time I was 15 to 30 years old. I was a molder and ran the furnaces . We built several brass cannons on the side. Boss was POed until we gave him one . Never saw a happier guy. He would show it off to everyone who came to his office. I still have mine to this day 30 years later. Good job on making the pattern and the pour. It's always better to have more metal than less.
So close! My own cannon casting project turned out about the same. I've been experimenting with lost shell casting (3d printed w/ pla) and the results have been pretty good so far. In fact, I may do my next cannon that way. It might be worth looking into as an alternative!
That is a long way for the metal to travel.. I would recommend casting fro your Center on the wheel mount things... and haveing a fairly large gate for shrinking
You don't want a large ingate, you want a large riser (ideally two, one connected to each trunnion). The gate from each riser should be 60 percent of the cross sectional area of the riser.
FarmCraft101 I bet it is I wouldn’t even be able to lift the bloody thing let alone pour it . Also I don’t comment on all your videos as I watch them on my PlayStation and you don’t have the comment option but I follow your channel religiously mate keep it up good work take care BSafe talk soon🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
your vids remind me of the old edison quote - "I didn't fail. I just found 2,000 ways not to make a lightbulb." 😬 eta - it kind of sounded like i was taking the piss & calling you a failure here. absolutely not the case. your trial & error on this project just reminded me of the edison quote. keep up the good & interesting work. by not compromising or settling, & not giving up, youve earned my respect & a sub. 🍻
Edison got whole army of low paid engineers that was working for him 14 hours a day, 6 days a week on top of that his team did not invent the lightbulb(Edison was not even born yet when lightbulbs was invented)... His team was working on the problem of lightbulb lifespan, after that they were working on it again this time to reduce its lifespan to only 1000 hours... Edison lightbulbs was working for over 1500 hours few years after Edison started mass production, but then they introduced planned obsolescence and the lifespan is limited to this day to 1000 hours... This quotation of Edison is nothing more than a clever way to take all credits and profits from guys that actualy did most if not all the work in the topic. Edison most successful and recognizable invention was electric chair that he invented to torpedo Tesla's plans to electrify world with AC(alternating current), that why so much electric power is wasted in USA where to this day 230V is "scary".
We poured full size mountain howitzer barrels in bronze horizontally but did use insulated risers along the length to be sure there was enough molten metal to feed the casting as it solidified and shrank. We also added "hot top" to keep the risers molten longer. Nice job of the pattern, brings back memories as that is where I started in the foundry industry. 40 years and retired 6 years ago. Looks like a great project!
I've always been interested in why we do things one way, and not some other "easier" way. Thank you VERY much sir for making this video. One day I hope to make a pair of decorative aluminum cannons for the driveway. This helps incredibly!
I wonder if multiple sprues for different heights would help, or one big parallel shaft that takes the hit then empties into the bottom of the cannon to fill upwards. What about preheating the mold and increasing the temp of the pour? Looks like it was solidifying early too.
Very nice - well produced, informative videos. It’s been entertaining watching the process evolve from the beginning experiments to develop and test the gunmetal alloy, making the furnace, all the way through to the castings as you near the finish line. I’m waiting for this to “end with a bang”, keep it goin!!!!!!
No it wouldn't. BUT it would be an full working Awesome little cannon that's unlikely to blow your fingers, or worse apart. While casting is a great skill to have, I think making things that go BOOM should only be attempted by the experts
This isn't something I'm pursuing - came up on Chromecast autoplay. But THANK YOU for posting failures. So much more to learn than only seeing perfect processes and not understanding why you're having setbacks.
maybe build some form of rest for the crucible holder during the pour. just a simple Y shape to rest the handle in so that caries the weight of the crucible.
@@geoffcrumblin7505 Yep, it is unwise to strain yourself as the maker is obviously doing, especially when working with molten metal. Either make a two person fixture for pouring or make a rest to support the crucible weight while pouring.
I'm a new subscriber and currently following these videos along. With each one I am just more and more impressed by your ingenuity. Thanks for sharing!
Littlebit more heat, littlebit more metal and faster pouring should help. Dont know if the sand will hold when pouring vertically, its quit some mass hitting the bottom of your mold. Think about making a clay mold, but it will take time to dry.
The clay will also shrink by 1/5 not to mention tiny hairline cracks in a clay mold so big. That's why even for engine blocks and huge flywheels they use a specially prepared sand. Clay just isn't used these days as there are too many factors to consider.
@@icenesiswayons9962 Clay is used to cast huge bells (up to several tons), its used since hundreds of years and is still used today, they put yeast in the clay to prevent cracks while drying.
Wasn't an intention to step on anyones toes. I was attempting to point out that as much work and as many pours as FarmCraft man has done, that he would've considered the clay and ruled it out as he mentioned using plaster and didn't favor it. I know clay is still used, but not like it was, guess the horse manure helped a lot too. Calcium & Sodium Bentonite was used. I understand that there has been a very large number of materials used in constructing molds. I'd actually like to see a working clay mold.
@@FarmCraft101 would you consider using clay for you're cannon and if not what would you use it for? I just felt you may have considered the intricacies of the piece and it overruled using clay and horse manure or yeast. Hope you get it done it would be cool.
When I do this I just replace the displaced water with the casting metal. But, dang... you are almost there. Can’t wait for the next effort. Stay awesome.
I wonder if you could fill from the bottom by having a long, parallel channel through which you introduce the molten metal. That channel could be made from a piece of 1" copper tubing. Leave the copper tube in the sand. A couple of tubing elbows at the bottom could turn the molten metal without stressing the sand and the U-turn would slow the falling metal so that the cannon cavity fills smoothly from the bottom.
@@FarmCraft101 I would say to use firebrick on the end as you're already going to be turning it down on the lathe. Or you could build a plaster cup for the first couple of inches of the bottom of the casting. It would probably be cheaper than using a copper tube as you'd have to heat the tube to avoid cooling problems.
This would work, entry should go into the casabal, which adds no strength to the chamber, also the cannons were lathed to finish except for the very thick walled ornate cannons. Civil war cannon such as the mountain cannon were poured, bored and lathed to finish.
You could have weighed the block of wood, and measured it before you turned it. That gives you the density. Then weigh it after turning. That would also give you an accurate volume
Having found you today and watched the progression of these videos along with the gunmental ones the thing that sticks out most is your determination. Think of those ads TH-cam plays from people saying "Wanna know how I got so rich? By failing over and over"... Yada yada, Thomas Edison, yada yada... I think you get what I'm saying. You're going to succeed because you keep trying, and instead of exerting the most energy on being upset you focus it in on learning what you did wrong. This type of thinking is a dying art, but boy do I really enjoy watching it! Keep it up!
I agree pour horizontal but turn the barrel 90 degrees and use the two trunnions as the gates. Gate the pour into the bottom one, then put a riser on the top one that flares out and after pouring cover with a fire brick after you top it up with molten bronze.
@@frother you probably don't understand exactly what I mean. Gate it so the barrel fills from the bottom. Also I have a bit of experience casting aluminum and bronze in my home foundry.
You need 47lb of brass for your total volume but you need more to fill in from shrinkage and provide enough head pressure to make sure it fills the mold cavity entirely. Otherwise, I love this video. Keep going, I'm rooting for you. Vertical casting is the way to go here, I think. On the note of the plaster, what you can do is use the wood pattern to make a silicone mold, make WAX castings of that, and then do lost-wax that way. Then you have your nice wood pattern, and you can always make another wax positive to cast from. Refractory casting can lend a better grain structure as well, and you can make a thin refractory shell and then the remainder would be greensand, as you said. That ringing is deeply concerning.
Great series, thanks for taking the time to post. I would be tempted to try an incline pour to protect the sand at the bottom, then raise it vertical after partially filling. Or leave it on a slight incline, it would only take a few degrees to stop it hitting the bottom too quickly.
You should first melt copper (highest melting point) then add zinc and then add tin. By melting them all at once you've lost most of zinc and tin when copper was not yet melted...
I think a pivot similar to the one on the lid of your furnace for your crucible handle might make big pours a little more controllable. Love the channel.
Okay. Well with the vent more material could be poured in and thus compensate for shrinkage. However if you go vertical pour then maybe a tilt as you pour to not destroy the sand from that long drop. @FarmCraft101
Also if you try horizontal with an additional vent and you are worried about a small weak spot. That is where you could drill and tap your powder cord drop to ignite the charge. Hope you get what I mean. Peace bro. Love your videos. @FarmCraft101
That void is an air bubble and it is there because your vent was not at the highest point. Also, steam needs to be able to escape. Before breaking the mould apart to remove the model, take a straight piece of 1,5..2 mm diameter wire and poke steam vents all over the model.
Great job! Thanks for sharing with us along the journey. It looks beautiful as a set/decorative piece. You should send it to Doug at SV Seeker to put on the front of his ship as a show piece. The cannon I built on my channel shoots golf balls. They are inexpensive and plentiful. Looking forward to the next step/video. Keep up the great work!
Where I worked we moulded parts for stone crushers, I didnt work in the foundry, but to keep the sand in place, they had some bonding agent in the sand, and they had a vaccum pressure conected to the flask that if I remember correctly helped to pack the sand so that the mould got packed really hard, the mould was in two halfs and the top and bottom was only covered with a sheet of plastic, they said it was a japanese technique and I myself have only seen it used there. I think they also coated the moulds before the pour. thanks for making great videos.
Redo lol ! You'll get it next time. Make the mold the same way just with the spru in the end of the canon, seal the sides in wood and stand on end . but don't listen to me I've never made one ! Great videos. Please keep them coming. Thanks bro Anthony Kent
Some tips to get a horizontal pour to work with your crucible size. 1) you need to drastically increase your Sprue. Your gating system drawing showed a Sprue and Riser in series. You need to combine them into the same function. 2) Add risers to one or more trunnion. That way any hot spot or occurs outside your barrel wall. 3) Add a partial core to your mold. That way you Localize the hot spot closer to your Sprue/Riser and it gives you more metal for your part. I’d advise doing this with a chemically bonded sand system that you can drop into your mold. You can do it in green sand but you can get a bigger more structural core chemically 4) take your Sprue, risers, and gating system into account when figuring out how much alloy you need. 5) look into an insulated or exothermic sleeve for your Sprue. These keep your Sprue hotter longer helping drive hot spots out of your part and into your gating system. Also, what you are calling a “vent” is actually a riser. Vents are typically very small and don’t fill. Smaller in diameter then a chopstick and usually stop short of mold cavity. Risers vent, feed a castings, and (if not a blind riser) indicate if the casting is full. Hope this helps.
Yeaaaaah I was waiting for this part 2. I saw your failed attempt with the insulation foam. Can't wait!!!! Chips check. Coke check. Big screen television check. Comfy sofa check. Now press play!!!!
"so, if you think I should do that....why don't you hit the unsubscribe button...and go on, have a nice day ". damnit, after that little "sketching accident", which already had my sides hurting, that line was a killer...I'm still in tears XDDD.
*Disclaimer* -- I've never casted, so I'm not sure if the following is possible and/or good ideas: 1) What if you were to angle the mold (like it is at 18:40)? That may mitigate the force at the bottom of the mold at the beginning of the pour. 2) Can you create a foam "plug" (for lack of a better word) that can be placed at the bottom of the mold? That might prevent the sand from absorbing the force at the bottom (and would prevent you from having to make a full foam mold) Please don't make fun if these are bad ideas, haha...
I see that that was a darn good attempt and you still have the bronze and you still have the form while it was a lot of work and a waste of time every failure as a learning experience! Good job! Obviously know your stuff!
Hello exciting project! What you should do is arrange a filling channel in parallel with the vertical cannon so that you fill the cannon shape from the bottom and that you have a large open voyage at the top where the cooling can pull metal from :) Good luck
Lost foam is the way to go. Coat the foam with a ceramic coating. The pour hole is called a Sprue. Just calculate the volume of a cylinder then you’ll have a little extra. Short pour costs a lot of time and money as you learned. Flask weights should be used when you pour in a cope and drag configuration. They prevent the molten metal from floating the cope off the drag spewing molten metal down your leg and onto your concrete. Molten metal and concrete do not mix. I recommend keeping all liquids well away from your furnace and pouring. A good pouring surface for non ferrous is a couple inches of dry sand with a metal grate on top. This will save your concrete and your shoes. You are doing great! We put foam patterns in brown paper bags then poured in dry sand around the pattern. The pour weights were much less but it worked like a champ.
Former worker in a steel mill here. You should cast it standing, but try to fill the mold from the bottom up. Make a channel from top to bottom beside the cannon core and conect it to the bottom of the cannon. Use the upper end of the cannon as venting hole, and cover the open risers with a thick layer of sand to preserve heat in the metal after the pour. And you could make a thin slurry from Ehanol Alcohol and Bentonite powder to give the inner surface of the Mold a smoother surface. Just a little layer inside the mold. aply with an brush. Try it on a small mold, it will help with the surface texture.
IF you cast in the the same position like in this video, place your entry way on the thickest part of the cannon (The sunken in part) and make a bigger reservour on top with thick walls of sand for insulation so you have 4 Pound extra material there. After the metal is in, cover the Tank with Sand. The metal will shrink inside, and pull metal from the top inside. Sorry fo my poor english, i am from germany and didn´t talk or write much in english. i could bring up some drawings if needed, just give the word.
Ordog213 Wow your knowledge is great!!! I hope to do some casting in the future. Would you share your e-mail address for questions?
My e-mail is pharmacyman@att.net. Give me a shout!!!
With the bentonite part of this, you can get better surface finish with minimal inclusions. Fumed silica will probably work as well. The alcohol prevents the gas expansion issues you would have with a water slurry. 99% isopropanol is available for cheap enough. Another good thing would be to use aluminum to de-gas the brass and increase its strength to something closer to steel.
Your English is very good I didn't knows u weren't a native English speaker until u said so.
I thought of filling from the bottom immediately, but that channel will require quite a bit of extra metal, won't it? He can barely melt enough for start with.
You don't know what you're talking about!!
I mean i don't know what you're talking about because i have never cast anything!! lol ;)
That was hilarious when you were drawing the cannon lol i busted out laughing, thankyou for that sir :)
It was funny cause it wasn't intentional.
Me too!!!
🤣🤣🤣
For the vertical pour you need to put an ingate system off to the side and let the metal rise from the bottom.
At least that's how ship propellers get cast at my company.
I was going to suggest the same thing!
Well at least your company is still casting propellers...
SKIPPER2384
Could you show that process ?
2nd Crucible ?
I’m stoked to see this come out !!
After you finish all the hard work I’m gonna make a couple to put in my roof !!
In swivels of course ! 😆
@@reyg7028 Grap shot and Langridge, excellent home defense system!
Just don't use pre-packaged charges, California will declare it an assault weap, and Cortez will lecture us about the founding father intentions for only loose poured powder in them!
Me: why is he cutting it in half just to stick a chunk of newspaper between and glue it back together
Farmcraft101: (easily pulls back in half)
Me: my God the man is a genius!
I love this series. The amount of work, research, and attention to detail is really cool to see. I'm excited to see you accomplish this and I know you will.
I love the emotion and reaction to "what the internet will think" in these videos. Especially on the spalding and the drawing. Well done. Very entertaining while teaching.
I’ve been suffering from shrinkage for years. It’s always a bad thing.
Pass on my sympathies to your wife aLONG with my contact info! lol ;)
Put some VIAGRA in your mould.
th-cam.com/video/dcovHHOCtpQ/w-d-xo.html
That's what she said! LOL
Never good.
Gotta admire the "I WILL succeed with whatever tool and ingenuity I've got kicking around my shed" attitude , add 1 sub from England
there is a large part of me that wants you continue to fail...i enjoy these videos and don't want this epic tale of man vs metal to end.
Haha! Should I be offended? ;-)
only if you are a little bitch, otherwise...get off here and get casting! that cannon is not gunna make itself :D . love your work man, sadly this is outside my area of expertise so i don't really have any useful suggestions to add.
Love how everyone is supportive here and recognise you are testing, learning and trying - great work mate!
You need a vent at each local maximum height as well as the point furthest from the pour. The top was indented because the compressed air in that section couldn't escape after the pour blocked access to the vent you had.
Loved the video, replying to a helpful comment so it doesn't get buried.
It's tempting to blame it on trapped air, and I appreciate the comment! I should have shown footage where I poked a wire through the highest part of the breech through the sand when I was making the mold. (I did, so there was a vent there). That said, greensand is very porous and even without a vent it would have easily vented that small amount of air through the sand. If it was just trapped air, it would have been a flat area all across the top. But it was a rounded, depressed area right in the middle. Definitely shrinking as the center solidified.
@@FarmCraft101 Gunmetal has a coefficient of thermal expansion of about 10^-5 in/inR. For each 0.1% shrinkage before solidufying, you'd have to have heated it 100 Rankine over the melting point.
As the person who calls himself FarmCraft points out, greensand is porous, it's not a venting problem, it's a problem of thermal shrinkage. There needs to be at least one reservoir or cavity (a riser) connected to the main mould cavity, of sufficient volume that it will stay molten longer than the time taken for the main part of the casting to solidify, during which time it is shrinking substantially. All of the shrinkage volume will end up as a gap at the top of, and a "pipe" (hollow) down into the centre of, this reservoir of spare metal, near to the casting proper (so it doesn't cool prematurely) but not part of it.
There's not enough metal or thermal mass in the sprue, runner and pouring cup, and it may not be connected to the ideal portion of the casting to make up the volume lost to shrinkage during solidification.
The crucible needs to be a LOT bigger then the pattern. Partly because the riser needs to be large (at least 3x the shrinkage volume) and also because the volume of metal delivered from a crucible of a stated size is the expanded, molten volume, not the shrunk volume measured by submerging the pattern. The shrinkage allowance built into the pattern does not account for shrinkage of MOLTEN metal, just contraction of the solidified, partly cooled metal.
The riser would ideally be hemispherical but for reasons of practicality is usually substantially cylindrical, and should be between one and one and a half times as tall as it is wide.
@@danpowell806 Volumetric shrinkage is the cube of the linear expansion coefficient
I'm so glad you don't swear or curse or lose your mind when you experience a failure....it allows me to watch your channel with my son's!
lol the outtake of the cannon drawing got me to click the subscribe button, great vid!
Thoroughly enjoying myself, watching you, in this process. For millenia this was/is how it's done. Cannons, Halibrand wheels, Cyclone Racing Equipment quickchange, and Edelbrock intake manifolds. Life is great !
"unplanned separations going into my face" i'm dying here remembering the foam lost model flying off ...
This guys videos are the best! Great science, story, witty, great editing, informative, and right to the point without b.s.. He is the Bob Vila of cannon casting. Real joy to watch.
SO CLOSE!!!!! You are definitely getting there!
A few years ago I made a cast iron cannon with my boss just for fun (prototype casting company), instead of a core we used a steel tube in the cannon as a barrell, that works great!
I will give you a few tips:
- You should use form sand with bentonite (binding water and makes the form stronger), so less sand will be washed out and gets in the mold
- If you want a better surface use oilsand around the pattern (half inch will be enough), then over this normal compacted form sand
- The runner goes in the cope (upper mold box) and the gates in the drag (bottom molding box) so slag flows up and less shit will flow in your cavity
- Use runner extensions and no direct cutted gates, so only clean melt flows in the cavity, dirt (oxides, ...) getting pass by and solidify outside of the part or add a small blind riser bevore the cavity and the dirt will float up (this will not feed your mold consistently, no matter how big it is because if your gate with the small diamater solidify the feeding process will stop! Thats the only reason why you need risers in the top)
- Make your sprue on the side with the bigger diameter, so the hotter melt can warm up this area more, this will help against the shrinkage and a open riser at other side as a vent and lil bit as a feeder
- Use a few small holes as vents on the top side of the cannon (0,1-0,2 inch will be enough)
- Perhaps 1-2 top risers on the highest points will help feeding the whole mold. Without a core/tube or cooling iron in the sand the solidification will need much time, so the risk is big to get shrinkage defects in the middle of your cannon. Yes you will turn this material later, but can you guarantee that the defects will not go all the way out to the wall?
If you dont want a core or tube that will be okay, but then you should use risers because the shrinkage could be a bigger problem as you thought and if you wana shoot the cannon i would minimize the risk of a heavy exploding metal part near my ass :D
Make the sprue (with well) in the middle of the rear side, two runners (cope) to both sides and then 1-2 gates (drag) on both sides with the extended runners (with well at the end) for your slag. The front side of the cannon should get one open riser and on the highest point of the cannon should be minimum one additional riser to feed your mold while cooling down (use a big diameter minimum 2 inch!). Engage a few vents along the entire length of the cannon, this allows the air to leak better than trough the sand and slag will float out.
Greets from germany ;)
Fascinating. Remember, if at first you don't succeed... don't try skydiving! Lol. Keep on keeping on.
Your neighbors have no idea the hell that is about to be unleashed on them do they? Great series.
That's so sad, such a nice mold, such a nice, smooth end result, if it wasn't for that DAMN SHRINKING PROCES
Shrinkage can be controlled through insulation thickness, casting from the bottom using an injection workflow, and using a heavy heated iron piston floating in the molten gunmetal in the molten metal injector. That will both provide pressure for reduced waste when the level of the molten fluid levels out and provide heat through conduction; forcing solidification of the cannon under light pressure against the walls and from the outside in and down.
Before the age of computers, Heat flow engineering in injection molds used to be done with a resistive paper using electricity to act as an analog to heat. As the thermal resistance of brass is far lower than sand, use a piece of tinfoil in the shape of a cannon as the "hot" contact and a tin foil ring in the shape of the barrel axis including cross section of the casting pattern as a cold contact. Reshape the ring until the area of resistive paper near the cannon has a nearly constant voltage per perpendicular distance from the cannon. This will result in a cannon whose exterior shape is more likely to be uniform on the outside due to constant solidification time and if bottom up injection is used with a torch on the injector piston.
Make the mold vessel out of casting sand filled kraft paper mache 0.25 inches thick bonded with Glue, sodium silicate, borax, and steel wires. Suspend it from many steel wires and a carrying frame to prevent tipping. Coat the internal surface of the sand with bentonite in isopropanol slurry for a smooth mold.
@@notamouse5630 So do recommend that he still go with a vertical pour, and create a chamber parallel to barrel, or a horizontal pour with the chamber set at a 90 angle to the barrel ?
@@jstephenallington8431 vertical.
the mold does work, also, he knows htat he has enough metal. So, although it failed, it was a success.
I worked in a brass foundry from the time I was 15 to 30 years old. I was a molder and ran the furnaces . We built several brass cannons on the side. Boss was POed until we gave him one . Never saw a happier guy. He would show it off to everyone who came to his office. I still have mine to this day 30 years later. Good job on making the pattern and the pour. It's always better to have more metal than less.
So close! My own cannon casting project turned out about the same. I've been experimenting with lost shell casting (3d printed w/ pla) and the results have been pretty good so far. In fact, I may do my next cannon that way. It might be worth looking into as an alternative!
Wow this was SO worth the wait! The new casting method is really cool man, good luck on the next one!
That is a long way for the metal to travel.. I would recommend casting fro your Center on the wheel mount things... and haveing a fairly large gate for shrinking
You don't want a large ingate, you want a large riser (ideally two, one connected to each trunnion). The gate from each riser should be 60 percent of the cross sectional area of the riser.
You should cast your canon in gold instead of bronze. The thermal expansion of gold is less so that shrinkage wont be as much of an issue.
Well, maybe not material shrinkage but wallet shrinkage for sure^^
harvard wants to know your location ;) jeah a gold cannon, fuck the poor ;)
Stefan Schmidt haha fOck the poUr
price of 2300 mL of gold... 1.9 million usd.
@@bgugi It's just not worth it, with that much money you can buy several modern cannons and howitzers.
Great work bro very informative 👏🏻. And damn that crucible looked bloody heavy 😳!
😁👍🏻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
Hey bigstackD! Thanks! Yeah, that crucible is a little intimidating at times... ;-)
FarmCraft101 I bet it is I wouldn’t even be able to lift the bloody thing let alone pour it . Also I don’t comment on all your videos as I watch them on my PlayStation and you don’t have the comment option but I follow your channel religiously mate keep it up good work take care BSafe talk soon🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
@@bigstackD Same! Really enjoy your channel and I've learned a few things from you as well. What would you do with my next cannon pour, it it was you?
I love watching this series, I wish I had the skill to make just the wood mold you made ! Looking forward to the next video.
your vids remind me of the old edison quote - "I didn't fail. I just found 2,000 ways not to make a lightbulb." 😬
eta - it kind of sounded like i was taking the piss & calling you a failure here. absolutely not the case. your trial & error on this project just reminded me of the edison quote.
keep up the good & interesting work. by not compromising or settling, & not giving up, youve earned my respect & a sub. 🍻
Edison got whole army of low paid engineers that was working for him 14 hours a day, 6 days a week on top of that his team did not invent the lightbulb(Edison was not even born yet when lightbulbs was invented)... His team was working on the problem of lightbulb lifespan, after that they were working on it again this time to reduce its lifespan to only 1000 hours... Edison lightbulbs was working for over 1500 hours few years after Edison started mass production, but then they introduced planned obsolescence and the lifespan is limited to this day to 1000 hours... This quotation of Edison is nothing more than a clever way to take all credits and profits from guys that actualy did most if not all the work in the topic. Edison most successful and recognizable invention was electric chair that he invented to torpedo Tesla's plans to electrify world with AC(alternating current), that why so much electric power is wasted in USA where to this day 230V is "scary".
@@Bialy_1 omg go away
@@wilsoncrocker well, he is right tho
@@TheGiuse45 r/whoosh
@@wilsoncrocker r/shush
We poured full size mountain howitzer barrels in bronze horizontally but did use insulated risers along the length to be sure there was enough molten metal to feed the casting as it solidified and shrank. We also added "hot top" to keep the risers molten longer. Nice job of the pattern, brings back memories as that is where I started in the foundry industry. 40 years and retired 6 years ago. Looks like a great project!
Can you mount the mould on a pivot so you can pour on a diagonal then rotate vertical? Thus reducing and run impact at the bottom.
I like this idea. I'd be concerned about weird cooling patterns though.
Also I think you would still have trouble with the green sand washing into the metal.
I've always been interested in why we do things one way, and not some other "easier" way. Thank you VERY much sir for making this video. One day I hope to make a pair of decorative aluminum cannons for the driveway. This helps incredibly!
I wonder if multiple sprues for different heights would help, or one big parallel shaft that takes the hit then empties into the bottom of the cannon to fill upwards.
What about preheating the mold and increasing the temp of the pour? Looks like it was solidifying early too.
Andy Lee Robinson Second to: "preheating the mold"... not a lot of ways to increase the temp of the pour besides going with a hotter fuel though.
Very nice - well produced, informative videos. It’s been entertaining watching the process evolve from the beginning experiments to develop and test the gunmetal alloy, making the furnace, all the way through to the castings as you near the finish line. I’m waiting for this to “end with a bang”, keep it goin!!!!!!
This pisses me off, because until I watched this vid, I didn't even know I wanted one of these.
I have tried oh how I have tried.
20 yrs fabricating and I can't even cast a adorable little cannon.
Get a good sized metal lath and just machine one out of steel lol Its Easier
@@sindrome303 but then it wouldn't be a bitching little cast fully operational assault cannon.
No it wouldn't. BUT it would be an full working Awesome little cannon that's unlikely to blow your fingers, or worse apart. While casting is a great skill to have, I think making things that go BOOM should only be attempted by the experts
@@sindrome303 And how did they learn what they were doing?
This isn't something I'm pursuing - came up on Chromecast autoplay. But THANK YOU for posting failures. So much more to learn than only seeing perfect processes and not understanding why you're having setbacks.
Yeah you need somebody to help you lift that Crucible
maybe build some form of rest for the crucible holder during the pour. just a simple Y shape to rest the handle in so that caries the weight of the crucible.
@@SeriousBurnsUnit a chain hoist is how its done in forges
Nah, just two crucibles
So close this time. I can’t wait to watch you mill one. Love the work my friend. Thanks for sharing.
Sodium silicate mixed with sand for the mold, then CO2 to harden it. should be strong enough.
Got to love mrpete, he’s created a casting renascence! I’d love to have a cannon like the one you’re going to get perfect very soon
Don't cast another cannon, just make this one bolt action)
Dude you are great, I just got into small casting with pewter and silver, I'm really glad TH-cam recommend me these vids
great project... keep up the good work... just dont ever mention or tell people to unsubscribe...
Man, I've learnt more from you than I ever did at school. Absolutely love it!
Get a second person just to help the pour . This way the metal will not cool in the crucible you might get a faster and even pour
agree, far too slow, chilling off.
@@geoffcrumblin7505 Yep, it is unwise to strain yourself as the maker is obviously doing, especially when working with molten metal.
Either make a two person fixture for pouring or make a rest to support the crucible weight while pouring.
Great videos man. Super entertaining and educational! That cannon drawing though 😆
😂😂😂 I love the censorship part 😂😂 greathings from Mexico
I worked at a non-ferrous foundry in centralia, MO. We always added lead to the brass to make it pour better. Just a touch. Helps stop gassing too.
How do you lnow the brass is hot enough? Also, how do you know your alloy is sufficiently mixed?
I'm a new subscriber and currently following these videos along. With each one I am just more and more impressed by your ingenuity. Thanks for sharing!
Maybe pour at an angle having the mould at 30-40 degrees.
30-40 is not hot enough to melt metal tho
Sorry.
I was thinking the same thing but believe it would wash out the side of the mould .... ???
@@andrewbeder51 As in angular degrees :)
Is there a reason why cement can not be used with the sand to keep its form?@@maleficentcop2752
@@klassik68 ik, I was kidding. Hense the sorry at the end :)
Seeing you fail is being ten times more educational than if you succeeded. Am really hooked.
Littlebit more heat, littlebit more metal and faster pouring should help.
Dont know if the sand will hold when pouring vertically, its quit some mass hitting the bottom of your mold. Think about making a clay mold, but it will take time to dry.
The clay will also shrink by 1/5 not to mention tiny hairline cracks in a clay mold so big. That's why even for engine blocks and huge flywheels they use a specially prepared sand. Clay just isn't used these days as there are too many factors to consider.
@@icenesiswayons9962 Clay is used to cast huge bells (up to several tons), its used since hundreds of years and is still used today, they put yeast in the clay to prevent cracks while drying.
Yep. This was a common method historically, but something I have no experience with. Would definitely work though.
Wasn't an intention to step on anyones toes. I was attempting to point out that as much work and as many pours as FarmCraft man has done, that he would've considered the clay and ruled it out as he mentioned using plaster and didn't favor it. I know clay is still used, but not like it was, guess the horse manure helped a lot too. Calcium & Sodium Bentonite was used. I understand that there has been a very large number of materials used in constructing molds. I'd actually like to see a working clay mold.
@@FarmCraft101 would you consider using clay for you're cannon and if not what would you use it for? I just felt you may have considered the intricacies of the piece and it overruled using clay and horse manure or yeast. Hope you get it done it would be cool.
Keep on casting, awesome work! We are all SOO excited to see the next step! Really cool project!
to be fair, the whole process of metalworking did take thousands of years to fully understand
When I do this I just replace the displaced water with the casting metal.
But, dang... you are almost there. Can’t wait for the next effort. Stay awesome.
I wonder if you could fill from the bottom by having a long, parallel channel through which you introduce the molten metal. That channel could be made from a piece of 1" copper tubing. Leave the copper tube in the sand. A couple of tubing elbows at the bottom could turn the molten metal without stressing the sand and the U-turn would slow the falling metal so that the cannon cavity fills smoothly from the bottom.
I like this idea... Got the gears turning already. Thanks!
@@FarmCraft101 I would say to use firebrick on the end as you're already going to be turning it down on the lathe. Or you could build a plaster cup for the first couple of inches of the bottom of the casting. It would probably be cheaper than using a copper tube as you'd have to heat the tube to avoid cooling problems.
This would work, entry should go into the casabal, which adds no strength to the chamber, also the cannons were lathed to finish except for the very thick walled ornate cannons. Civil war cannon such as the mountain cannon were poured, bored and lathed to finish.
Thanks@@praetor678 I learned a new word today: cascabal. See the cannon diagram on this wikipedia page en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_hole
good idea! do a short test a pour down a 5 foot length of pipe.
Keep going dude, your doing awesome. This is way more interesting than any of the crap on telly.
You could have weighed the block of wood, and measured it before you turned it. That gives you the density. Then weigh it after turning. That would also give you an accurate volume
And also measure the crucible by volume.
Wood is notoriously not consistent in density. So I don’t think that would be very accurate. Depending on the wood, how dry the t is, etc...
Having found you today and watched the progression of these videos along with the gunmental ones the thing that sticks out most is your determination. Think of those ads TH-cam plays from people saying "Wanna know how I got so rich? By failing over and over"... Yada yada, Thomas Edison, yada yada... I think you get what I'm saying. You're going to succeed because you keep trying, and instead of exerting the most energy on being upset you focus it in on learning what you did wrong. This type of thinking is a dying art, but boy do I really enjoy watching it! Keep it up!
What if you try pour horyzontly again but from center.
Good luck.
I agree pour horizontal but turn the barrel 90 degrees and use the two trunnions as the gates. Gate the pour into the bottom one, then put a riser on the top one that flares out and after pouring cover with a fire brick after you top it up with molten bronze.
Lmao I don't think you understand how gravity works
Pour right above the breach might work, with a faster pour
@@frother you probably don't understand exactly what I mean. Gate it so the barrel fills from the bottom. Also I have a bit of experience casting aluminum and bronze in my home foundry.
I'm not un-subscribing. I want you to cast this beast and show us what it can do!!!!!!!! Good luck and keep at it!
You need 47lb of brass for your total volume but you need more to fill in from shrinkage and provide enough head pressure to make sure it fills the mold cavity entirely. Otherwise, I love this video. Keep going, I'm rooting for you. Vertical casting is the way to go here, I think.
On the note of the plaster, what you can do is use the wood pattern to make a silicone mold, make WAX castings of that, and then do lost-wax that way. Then you have your nice wood pattern, and you can always make another wax positive to cast from. Refractory casting can lend a better grain structure as well, and you can make a thin refractory shell and then the remainder would be greensand, as you said.
That ringing is deeply concerning.
Great series, thanks for taking the time to post. I would be tempted to try an incline pour to protect the sand at the bottom, then raise it vertical after partially filling. Or leave it on a slight incline, it would only take a few degrees to stop it hitting the bottom too quickly.
Cannon barrel with steel mass next to it. Subscribed
This is a great series, I laughed out loud when you asked if we just wanted you to make a smaller cannon :)
You should first melt copper (highest melting point) then add zinc and then add tin. By melting them all at once you've lost most of zinc and tin when copper was not yet melted...
I think a pivot similar to the one on the lid of your furnace for your crucible handle might make big pours a little more controllable. Love the channel.
I just realised you look like you could be Cody's labs brother.
Cody's farm
Cody's Fam*
@@Ryan-qu7qj Cody's fa
i subbed just because you told people to just go ahead and unsub love it
That is an air pocket. You should have placed a vent up there.
@FarmCraft101 I understand your point. But I think that was an air pocket. You needed an air vent at the highest point!
Definitely not an air pocket. Greensand is very porous and vents air quite readily.
Okay. Well with the vent more material could be poured in and thus compensate for shrinkage.
However if you go vertical pour then maybe a tilt as you pour to not destroy the sand from that long drop.
@FarmCraft101
Also if you try horizontal with an additional vent and you are worried about a small weak spot. That is where you could drill and tap your powder cord drop to ignite the charge. Hope you get what I mean.
Peace bro.
Love your videos.
@FarmCraft101
That's a great idea.
Really cool video. Very impressive. You are quite the craftsman
That void is an air bubble and it is there because your vent was not at the highest point.
Also, steam needs to be able to escape. Before breaking the mould apart to remove the model, take a straight piece of 1,5..2 mm diameter wire and poke steam vents all over the model.
I am really enjoying following this project. done some light casting and metal work in the past and wishI could go back to it full time
I'm also a huge history buff so this process is fascinating
if you only had more vents on highest parts and all ends and of course more metal you'd have had it.
It's not a venting problem. Greensand is porous to air.
Vents ! Vents ! Vents !
Good video. I like how you are unrepentant about making mistakes as you go. All part of the learning.
XDXDXDXD you made me laugh I'm going to subscribe
Great job! Thanks for sharing with us along the journey. It looks beautiful as a set/decorative piece. You should send it to Doug at SV Seeker to put on the front of his ship as a show piece. The cannon I built on my channel shoots golf balls. They are inexpensive and plentiful. Looking forward to the next step/video. Keep up the great work!
imagine the simple calculations if you used metric :|
2300ml =140,42 cubic inches
or you know 2300ml = 2300cm^3
Where I worked we moulded parts for stone crushers, I didnt work in the foundry, but to keep the sand in place, they had some bonding agent in the sand, and they had a vaccum pressure conected to the flask that if I remember correctly helped to pack the sand so that the mould got packed really hard, the mould was in two halfs and the top and bottom was only covered with a sheet of plastic, they said it was a japanese technique and I myself have only seen it used there. I think they also coated the moulds before the pour. thanks for making great videos.
Have you considered using stabilized sand for your mold? Great videos, keep up the good work..
Hey much better this time! Looking forward to the rest! Great job. Makes me want to do more stuff
Redo lol ! You'll get it next time. Make the mold the same way just with the spru in the end of the canon, seal the sides in wood and stand on end . but don't listen to me I've never made one ! Great videos. Please keep them coming. Thanks bro Anthony Kent
At least looks more cannonish than last time. Getting better and learning all the time.
Some tips to get a horizontal pour to work with your crucible size. 1) you need to drastically increase your Sprue. Your gating system drawing showed a Sprue and Riser in series. You need to combine them into the same function. 2) Add risers to one or more trunnion. That way any hot spot or occurs outside your barrel wall. 3) Add a partial core to your mold. That way you Localize the hot spot closer to your Sprue/Riser and it gives you more metal for your part. I’d advise doing this with a chemically bonded sand system that you can drop into your mold. You can do it in green sand but you can get a bigger more structural core chemically 4) take your Sprue, risers, and gating system into account when figuring out how much alloy you need. 5) look into an insulated or exothermic sleeve for your Sprue. These keep your Sprue hotter longer helping drive hot spots out of your part and into your gating system.
Also, what you are calling a “vent” is actually a riser. Vents are typically very small and don’t fill. Smaller in diameter then a chopstick and usually stop short of mold cavity. Risers vent, feed a castings, and (if not a blind riser) indicate if the casting is full.
Hope this helps.
I think you are making great progress. Thanks for letting me learn with you. Can't wait to hear the ring when you finally fire i.
Nice save at the end about keeping a large cannon. Keep at it.
Your tenacity is infectious and exhilarating. New sub. to both ur channels!
Enjoying your videos. Not a metal worker, No intentions of casting anything but i think I'm learning a few things in case the urge/need rises.
Yeaaaaah I was waiting for this part 2. I saw your failed attempt with the insulation foam. Can't wait!!!! Chips check. Coke check. Big screen television check. Comfy sofa check. Now press play!!!!
"so, if you think I should do that....why don't you hit the unsubscribe button...and go on, have a nice day ".
damnit, after that little "sketching accident", which already had my sides hurting, that line was a killer...I'm still in tears XDDD.
*Disclaimer* -- I've never casted, so I'm not sure if the following is possible and/or good ideas:
1) What if you were to angle the mold (like it is at 18:40)? That may mitigate the force at the bottom of the mold at the beginning of the pour.
2) Can you create a foam "plug" (for lack of a better word) that can be placed at the bottom of the mold? That might prevent the sand from absorbing the force at the bottom (and would prevent you from having to make a full foam mold)
Please don't make fun if these are bad ideas, haha...
I see that that was a darn good attempt and you still have the bronze and you still have the form while it was a lot of work and a waste of time every failure as a learning experience! Good job!
Obviously know your stuff!
I love the effort! Please try again! We're all learning.
Hello exciting project! What you should do is arrange a filling channel in parallel with the vertical cannon so that you fill the cannon shape from the bottom and that you have a large open voyage at the top where the cooling can pull metal from :) Good luck
Lost foam is the way to go. Coat the foam with a ceramic coating. The pour hole is called a Sprue. Just calculate the volume of a cylinder then you’ll have a little extra. Short pour costs a lot of time and money as you learned. Flask weights should be used when you pour in a cope and drag configuration. They prevent the molten metal from floating the cope off the drag spewing molten metal down your leg and onto your concrete. Molten metal and concrete do not mix. I recommend keeping all liquids well away from your furnace and pouring. A good pouring surface for non ferrous is a couple inches of dry sand with a metal grate on top. This will save your concrete and your shoes. You are doing great! We put foam patterns in brown paper bags then poured in dry sand around the pattern. The pour weights were much less but it worked like a champ.
Very cool man I’m excited to have stumbled upon this series and am looking forward to the next instalment in the cannon saga
Aww man. So close. That final pour will be so satisfying when you break it out of the sand.
That's how we learn , you are almost there, keep on keepin on.!
its nice when u have the right tools for the job. q? what was the purpose of the news paper when gluing the wood?