Love your work. Your videos are great. It's always nice to learn from someone with so much knowledge and experience. You have certainly shown me many new techniques to master. Thanks!
Proxy, Passing on what I have learnt and experienced over the years is what I am on about. And if you have gained as a result I am well pleased.... Martin
Abhay, The finish is mainly the result of the very fine facing sand that I use and it is the result of my obsessing over the best possible surface finish.... Martin
Krishna, Thank you for your comment. To pass on what I have learnt over many years is why I started on YT. I became a bit upset that there was so much misleading and just plain incorrect information out there that I decided to try and provide information and demonstrate techniques that my own learning, training, and experience has taught me are better. If people benefit from it I am well pleased.... Martin
Sorry if this is a dumb idea... but what if you put a piece of paper covering the riser, with "exothermic" on it? Then you could pour without interruption. You'd lose sight of the metal coming up the riser but mostly you need to know when it's at the top. Anyway, I don't know if it's a good idea or not. Thanks for all the casting education!
k15n1, Well, its sort of a case of great minds think alike! I used to do something very like this. I used a cupcake paper sitting on the top of the feeder and put the exothermic in it. This worked better than a flat sheet of paper as it contained the exothermic better. However there were a few problems. It is nice to see the metal come up from a fair way down as it gives you more warning of the mould being full. Placing the cupcake paper sometimes dislodged a few sand grains that inevitably marred the surface of the casting. And worst of all the paper slowed down the ignition of the exothermic sometimes by enough to render it useless. So I just went back to spooning the exothermic on the metal as soon as I stopped pouring. Full marks for thinking though... Martin
The finish you're getting is beautiful. I have the aluminum head off of my Norton Commando and it looks like the guys who cast it were drunk. I wish you had done it.
Allen, They probably were! Most foundry men are great elbow benders. I think its how they cope with the heat and the pains of advancing years well that's the excuse anyway! 😏 Norton cylinder heads, haven't they got fins a mile deep? Very , very hard to cast, glad I did not try it 😀.. Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 i bet years ago they had a "beer allowance" and it goes back to that, the first "proper job" i had was in a glass bottle factory, and the operators up at the "hot" end can loose pints of fluid a shift, when i was there they had free pop or water on demand, but up until the early seventies they had beer up to 8 pints a shift, they either had high tolerance or were smashed 24/7, i understand foundry workers and furnace workers had similar allowances, so they were drinkers.
@@alynicholls3230 , You are not far wrong! Many years ago at morning tea and other breaks the apprentice was sent down to the pub with a billy and would return with the billy full of beer - Ah, the good old days! Probably were half cut all day. In my days as a foreman of a gravity die shop in summer we used to drink about 8 pints of cold water a day and rarely went to the toilet it was all sweated out , each of us had a stack of old pint milk bottles full of water in an old fridge. I found soda or pop or coke etc. too bloating... Martin
Thomas, Thank you for your comment. A video on Mulling? No, sorry, for alas I do not have a muller! (Would not mind one if you know of one going cheaply :).) However don't despair - I have a video "in the can" that I am currently trying to edit that covers how I make and prepare my facing sand. The techniques used are in part at least the same as used for my backing sand reconditioning
Lawr, Sorry but somehow I missed this comment when you made it and only just saw it today, sometimes the comment notifications seem a bit slack! The job of a pouring basin is to provide a sufficient head of metal above the sprue entrance to keep the sprue full of metal. This is the only way to prevent air being sucked down the sprue, and air that is sucked down will create defects in the casting. The purpose of the radiused ridge in the pouring basin between where one pours and the sprue entrance is to stop any downward component of the velocity caused by the pouring from the crucible into the basin from increasing the velocity down the sprue. High velocity of metal flow is the enemy of castings. It is important to realise that the best basin in the world is useless if a tapered sprue is not used and also that a good basin and a tapered sprue are just a start ( the best possible start) to a good gating system. The worst thing one can do is to use the all too common overly large and unnecessarily high sprue topped with a flared simple funnel type basin Ugh!..... Martin
Love your work. Your videos are great. It's always nice to learn from someone with so much knowledge and experience. You have certainly shown me many new techniques to master. Thanks!
Proxy, Passing on what I have learnt and experienced over the years is what I am on about. And if you have gained as a result I am well pleased.... Martin
Your sand casting looks like investment casting great job sir.
Abhay, The finish is mainly the result of the very fine facing sand that I use and it is the result of my obsessing over the best possible surface finish.... Martin
You are a great educator Mr. Martin. Your kind are getting rare nowadays.
Thank you
Krishna
Krishna, Thank you for your comment. To pass on what I have learnt over many years is why I started on YT. I became a bit upset that there was so much misleading and just plain incorrect information out there that I decided to try and provide information and demonstrate techniques that my own learning, training, and experience has taught me are better. If people benefit from it I am well pleased.... Martin
another exemplary casting, such a pleasure to watch a pro at work.
Damian, Thank you for your comment. It is a little casting that everything just seems to go well with. I am glad that you liked it.... Martin
The results speak for themselves. Thanks for making the videos!
Frank, Making the videos is my pleasure. Thank you for your comment.... Martin
Sorry if this is a dumb idea... but what if you put a piece of paper covering the riser, with "exothermic" on it? Then you could pour without interruption. You'd lose sight of the metal coming up the riser but mostly you need to know when it's at the top. Anyway, I don't know if it's a good idea or not. Thanks for all the casting education!
k15n1, Well, its sort of a case of great minds think alike! I used to do something very like this. I used a cupcake paper sitting on the top of the feeder and put the exothermic in it. This worked better than a flat sheet of paper as it contained the exothermic better. However there were a few problems. It is nice to see the metal come up from a fair way down as it gives you more warning of the mould being full. Placing the cupcake paper sometimes dislodged a few sand grains that inevitably marred the surface of the casting. And worst of all the paper slowed down the ignition of the exothermic sometimes by enough to render it useless. So I just went back to spooning the exothermic on the metal as soon as I stopped pouring. Full marks for thinking though... Martin
The finish you're getting is beautiful. I have the aluminum head off of my Norton Commando and it looks like the guys who cast it were drunk. I wish you had done it.
Allen, They probably were! Most foundry men are great elbow benders. I think its how they cope with the heat and the pains of advancing years well that's the excuse anyway! 😏 Norton cylinder heads, haven't they got fins a mile deep? Very , very hard to cast, glad I did not try it 😀.. Martin
@@olfoundryman8418 i bet years ago they had a "beer allowance" and it goes back to that, the first "proper job" i had was in a glass bottle factory, and the operators up at the "hot" end can loose pints of fluid a shift, when i was there they had free pop or water on demand, but up until the early seventies they had beer up to 8 pints a shift, they either had high tolerance or were smashed 24/7, i understand foundry workers and furnace workers had similar allowances, so they were drinkers.
@@alynicholls3230 , You are not far wrong! Many years ago at morning tea and other breaks the apprentice was sent down to the pub with a billy and would return with the billy full of beer - Ah, the good old days! Probably were half cut all day. In my days as a foreman of a gravity die shop in summer we used to drink about 8 pints of cold water a day and rarely went to the toilet it was all sweated out , each of us had a stack of old pint milk bottles full of water in an old fridge. I found soda or pop or coke etc. too bloating... Martin
Very interesting and instructive video as always. Are you planning a video on mulling or reconditioning your sand? Thanks again!
Thomas, Thank you for your comment. A video on Mulling? No, sorry, for alas I do not have a muller! (Would not mind one if you know of one going cheaply :).) However don't despair - I have a video "in the can" that I am currently trying to edit that covers how I make and prepare my facing sand. The techniques used are in part at least the same as used for my backing sand reconditioning
What are the benefit's of the experimental pouring basin? Did you buy your flasks or make them?
Lawr, Sorry but somehow I missed this comment when you made it and only just saw it today, sometimes the comment notifications seem a bit slack! The job of a pouring basin is to provide a sufficient head of metal above the sprue entrance to keep the sprue full of metal. This is the only way to prevent air being sucked down the sprue, and air that is sucked down will create defects in the casting. The purpose of the radiused ridge in the pouring basin between where one pours and the sprue entrance is to stop any downward component of the velocity caused by the pouring from the crucible into the basin from increasing the velocity down the sprue. High velocity of metal flow is the enemy of castings. It is important to realise that the best basin in the world is useless if a tapered sprue is not used and also that a good basin and a tapered sprue are just a start ( the best possible start) to a good gating system. The worst thing one can do is to use the all too common overly large and unnecessarily high sprue topped with a flared simple funnel type basin Ugh!..... Martin