I fought the two-piece setup for too long. Having tongs to lift straight out and a separate ring shank to pour with is definitely better than my old one-piece design
Great to see some more metal content! i dig your channel. I use lifting tongs I built based on bigstackd's video and I made a set of pouring tongs that use a cut section of blackiron pipe as the hinge at the back of the tool (there's a thumbnail example in your video when you googled crucible tongs thumbnail is called "crucible tongs 26" @5:47 ) and I love them, both tools are able to grab all 3 size crucibles I have. The pouring tongs in particular, I made them about 30+ish inches long, and it lets you get far enough away from the hot metal and the rods can flex a little letting you get your hand around both rods comfortability. my first set used a mid-way hinge like a pair of scissors, and it was too close to the crucible an it would start to melt your glove to grab the shank below the hinge to keep it closed during a heavy pour. Stoked to see the out come! Thanks for sharing your process!
One of the cool things you were doing with temperatures previously was talking about tempering. Cool in itself, but I would love to see those colors. I wonder how long the blues and purples would stay. Usually people grind them off right after they get them.
I built some like your original pouring cradle. I actually like it. I also built some vertical lifting tongs too, but I usually opt for the single rod cradle ones and just go straight from the furnace to pour. I can use it with a #6 and a #4.
Lucky Gen has the best one. But I also like Brian Oltrogge's design. He's an architect so way complicated but clever. A picker upper and pourer all in one. Worth a look. Re your thermocouple. If you want it to last ages try this. Get an old bar heater and take the bar. Its made of quartz glass. Meaning it can handle rediculious thermal shock. Like 500˚ per second. Drill across the side so it passes narrowly against the side of one of the bricks. Then slide the thermocouple in when you need it.
Personally, I like to have the trunion pins on the crucible and a simple hook thing to lift straight up and then use hook to pour. Center of gravity is always straight down from your hands. This is easy with a steel crucible, not so much with a graphite. Veg oil guy made a cradle to fit his graphite crucibe with the trunion pins on it. I plan to copy that.
I tend to think you need a bit more hand seperation for seriously hot work like bronze casting vs. Aluminum casting. Keep that in mind. Some people like use an aluminum tray/plate as a mini heatshield.
My extra complication is that I don't have any way to weld, so my designs will need to involve bolting. In my first iteration of a combo tong, the weight distribution was bad enough that I demoted it to just a lifting tong, and built a separate pouring shank. The hinge mechanism is awkward enough that I worry about knocking over the crucible in both clamping and unclamping. And since it has been demoted to being just a lifting tong, the ergonomics suck for lifting the crucible out of the furnace and setting on a plinth to transfer to a pouring shank. Expect to have significant improvements in version 2, which needs to handle both #6 and #9 crucibles. Oh well, that effort needs to wait until after I get my taxes done.
Moving up in pour size you have to expect things to get more complicated. If it was me I'd use some kind of a jib crane or something. Just some kind of a swing arm to support the weight. Can't be too careful when it comes to pots of molten metal.
Pouring temp absolutely makes a difference. I've had castings fail at work because we poured too cold. I can hit you up on the discord if you want more info.
I'm sure you've figured out a solution by now as I'm jumping around your library and because the internet is eternal, but one of the most simple solutions for pouring larger crucibles was an open jaw type clamp that essentially locks down as you pick it up through both gravity and weight, and also had a very simple latch activated with a wrist twist along the lifting extension to keep it from slipping out when pouring. I'm struggling to remember who had something like this, but it was a solo guy pouring 60 kilos of copper and cast iron who still had all his bits, so it must be fairly reliable/safe. Aside from the searing pain until your nerves die off, remember that most burn victims die from the resulting infection after the initial injury. Well before I got into some of my more questionable hobbies like homebuilt jet engines, knifemaking (heat treating a massively oversized damascus kukri in an old bbq barrel thing for D2 temps with a blow dryer and lump charcoal, woo!!), etc, I worked at central trauma center for the state I was living in and saw all kinds of horrible things, but burn victims and fatal accidents left the largest impressions that continue to steer my safety protocols in whatever I'm attempting. Images are one thing, but mix in the aromas, you tend to approach anything like your life depends on it.
Hi I just bought an extremely very large Crucible dry weight is 33 lb and I'm trying to figure out how to grab it out of my Foundry and pour it been watching your channel and you have tons of good content
The metal has to be hot enough to get into the mold. Soon as you pull it out of the heat it is going to start cooling down. So you have to have your metal some temperature above the liquid state to have a successful pour. It is called, "superheating". That bit to get you over the top. There's reasons not to get too hot though.
So now that you’re on making another pair of Chris’s what time does that mean that you’re going to melt some thing in the next video because that’s what I cannot wait for been so long since you’ve melted anything
From what I have seen it looks like a 10Kg crucible from one supplier can have a different height and width than a crucible from a different supplier....which doesn't help when you first start out and you are trying to figure this stuff out.
you could make the tong you choosen and put a small hook over the top of the crusible welded to one of the grabbers , should prevent the cruisible from sliding completely out should you loosen the grip on the sides somewat during the pour as for setting the pouring temperature you could divide the gasline going intoo the burner after the gasbottle put a restriction nozzle in one of them the basicly halves the flow of gas and put a electric gasvalve on the other side running full open when activated then bring the two lines back together and feed it intoo the burner make a little circuit that closes the valve when the set temperature at the probe is reached (arduino?) and the gas will only move through the reduction nozzle keeping the burner going but at a lower temperature output that way you can hear when the aluminium is at temperature as the burner makes a lot less noise all of a sudden
My tongs are similar to the flask tongs but the hinge is much higher up the handle, I can lift the crucible (3 different sizes) I use the to remove the lid on the furnace, & I've been known to pour with them because the scissor action holds the crucible. But mines a much smaller setup used mainly for smelting gold
Check out Brian Oltrogge's tong build video. Complicated? Maybe. But you could do it if you took your time, I think. th-cam.com/video/wtDHaXcS6Tg/w-d-xo.html
@@PaulsGarage the Brian Oltregg design is pretty cool, but I wouldnt want one for bronze or iron work. I've considering a furnace redesign with a side opening instead of a top. I could pluck the crucible out a side door with one tool. No more transferring. I saw a lifting tool on wheels that would be handy for heavy pots of metal, but I dont feel like re inventing the wheel at this point. Maybe when my furnace wears out.
Want to learn sand casting using your 3D printer? I can teach you!: paulsmakeracademy.mykajabi.com/joinus
Definitely would appreciate seeing a practical demo of what varying the pour temp does!
I fought the two-piece setup for too long. Having tongs to lift straight out and a separate ring shank to pour with is definitely better than my old one-piece design
The argument is lifting out of a furnace and pouring a mold are two different tasks. So no one tool can be ideal at both.
Yes, anything related to poring liquid death stuff sounds interesting to me.
I havent done it in so long. I really need to get back on that
'Cuz the ladies keep us busy with round-the-house projects.
I like the experiment pours, helps other people who just do this as a hobby a lot imo.
I would try comping these up with cardboard first. Just to see if there are any issues with fitting and clearance. Excited though!
I was pretty sure what I wanted and now I don't know which design to pick. Thank you!
(Honestly, it's more complex than I thought)
Sad part is it's even more complicated than I made it out to be!
Great to see some more metal content! i dig your channel.
I use lifting tongs I built based on bigstackd's video and I made a set of pouring tongs that use a cut section of blackiron pipe as the hinge at the back of the tool (there's a thumbnail example in your video when you googled crucible tongs thumbnail is called "crucible tongs 26" @5:47 ) and I love them, both tools are able to grab all 3 size crucibles I have. The pouring tongs in particular, I made them about 30+ish inches long, and it lets you get far enough away from the hot metal and the rods can flex a little letting you get your hand around both rods comfortability. my first set used a mid-way hinge like a pair of scissors, and it was too close to the crucible an it would start to melt your glove to grab the shank below the hinge to keep it closed during a heavy pour.
Stoked to see the out come! Thanks for sharing your process!
man. that plate in the background is in PERFECT focus.
cool plan, sneak it by the fates and show it to us later!
One of the cool things you were doing with temperatures previously was talking about tempering. Cool in itself, but I would love to see those colors. I wonder how long the blues and purples would stay. Usually people grind them off right after they get them.
I built some like your original pouring cradle. I actually like it. I also built some vertical lifting tongs too, but I usually opt for the single rod cradle ones and just go straight from the furnace to pour. I can use it with a #6 and a #4.
Lucky Gen has the best one. But I also like Brian Oltrogge's design. He's an architect so way complicated but clever. A picker upper and pourer all in one. Worth a look. Re your thermocouple. If you want it to last ages try this. Get an old bar heater and take the bar. Its made of quartz glass. Meaning it can handle rediculious thermal shock. Like 500˚ per second. Drill across the side so it passes narrowly against the side of one of the bricks. Then slide the thermocouple in when you need it.
My favorite part of the video is the rambling. I get sad if there's not alot😂😭
I miss molten metal.
Personally, I like to have the trunion pins on the crucible and a simple hook thing to lift straight up and then use hook to pour. Center of gravity is always straight down from your hands. This is easy with a steel crucible, not so much with a graphite. Veg oil guy made a cradle to fit his graphite crucibe with the trunion pins on it. I plan to copy that.
@ 7:56
Sounds like an anime move...
Twisting hinge, locking dragon!
Never attack guy holding a bucket of molten aluminum!
I tend to think you need a bit more hand seperation for seriously hot work like bronze casting vs. Aluminum casting.
Keep that in mind.
Some people like use an aluminum tray/plate as a mini heatshield.
Also, dual use and especially mechanical contraptions are clunky.
Bolts and springs etc can and do fail.
Just found your channel. You have a new subscriber.
My extra complication is that I don't have any way to weld, so my designs will need to involve bolting. In my first iteration of a combo tong, the weight distribution was bad enough that I demoted it to just a lifting tong, and built a separate pouring shank. The hinge mechanism is awkward enough that I worry about knocking over the crucible in both clamping and unclamping. And since it has been demoted to being just a lifting tong, the ergonomics suck for lifting the crucible out of the furnace and setting on a plinth to transfer to a pouring shank. Expect to have significant improvements in version 2, which needs to handle both #6 and #9 crucibles. Oh well, that effort needs to wait until after I get my taxes done.
Moving up in pour size you have to expect things to get more complicated. If it was me I'd use some kind of a jib crane or something. Just some kind of a swing arm to support the weight. Can't be too careful when it comes to pots of molten metal.
Pouring temp absolutely makes a difference. I've had castings fail at work because we poured too cold. I can hit you up on the discord if you want more info.
I'm sure you've figured out a solution by now as I'm jumping around your library and because the internet is eternal, but one of the most simple solutions for pouring larger crucibles was an open jaw type clamp that essentially locks down as you pick it up through both gravity and weight, and also had a very simple latch activated with a wrist twist along the lifting extension to keep it from slipping out when pouring. I'm struggling to remember who had something like this, but it was a solo guy pouring 60 kilos of copper and cast iron who still had all his bits, so it must be fairly reliable/safe.
Aside from the searing pain until your nerves die off, remember that most burn victims die from the resulting infection after the initial injury. Well before I got into some of my more questionable hobbies like homebuilt jet engines, knifemaking (heat treating a massively oversized damascus kukri in an old bbq barrel thing for D2 temps with a blow dryer and lump charcoal, woo!!), etc, I worked at central trauma center for the state I was living in and saw all kinds of horrible things, but burn victims and fatal accidents left the largest impressions that continue to steer my safety protocols in whatever I'm attempting. Images are one thing, but mix in the aromas, you tend to approach anything like your life depends on it.
I have helped with a two-person shank a few times.
Hi I just bought an extremely very large Crucible dry weight is 33 lb and I'm trying to figure out how to grab it out of my Foundry and pour it been watching your channel and you have tons of good content
I didn't know that there was a pouring temperature. More?
The metal has to be hot enough to get into the mold. Soon as you pull it out of the heat it is going to start cooling down. So you have to have your metal some temperature above the liquid state to have a successful pour. It is called, "superheating". That bit to get you over the top. There's reasons not to get too hot though.
So now that you’re on making another pair of Chris’s what time does that mean that you’re going to melt some thing in the next video because that’s what I cannot wait for been so long since you’ve melted anything
From what I have seen it looks like a 10Kg crucible from one supplier can have a different height and width than a crucible from a different supplier....which doesn't help when you first start out and you are trying to figure this stuff out.
you could make the tong you choosen and put a small hook over the top of the crusible welded to one of the grabbers , should prevent the cruisible from sliding completely out should you loosen the grip on the sides somewat during the pour
as for setting the pouring temperature you could divide the gasline going intoo the burner after the gasbottle put a restriction nozzle in one of them the basicly halves the flow of gas and put a electric gasvalve on the other side running full open when activated then bring the two lines back together and feed it intoo the burner make a little circuit that closes the valve when the set temperature at the probe is reached (arduino?) and the gas will only move through the reduction nozzle keeping the burner going but at a lower temperature output
that way you can hear when the aluminium is at temperature as the burner makes a lot less noise all of a sudden
Ice block lifting tongs action.
wailing and gnashing of teeth :D is that from an old rowan atkinson skit?
And alloys...👍
Ohhh waittt, your Prusa, the wire, it looks kinda strange :))) you didn't break it, did you?
Not broken, but there may be some printer stuff happening eventually.
idk if aarp has a metal casting division
Not yet...
Safety Always Pays. Nobody wants the nickname "Scorch"
My tongs are similar to the flask tongs but the hinge is much higher up the handle, I can lift the crucible (3 different sizes) I use the to remove the lid on the furnace, & I've been known to pour with them because the scissor action holds the crucible. But mines a much smaller setup used mainly for smelting gold
Check out Brian Oltrogge's tong build video.
Complicated? Maybe. But you could do it if you took your time, I think.
th-cam.com/video/wtDHaXcS6Tg/w-d-xo.html
I've seen his set up, it's really awesome but I'm sticking to something a little simpler
Quit shopping for junk online. Get out in the garage and make your lifting tongs and pouring shank.
Oh I'm definitely going to make it, I'm just looking around for design ideas
@@PaulsGarage the Brian Oltregg design is pretty cool, but I wouldnt want one for bronze or iron work. I've considering a furnace redesign with a side opening instead of a top. I could pluck the crucible out a side door with one tool. No more transferring. I saw a lifting tool on wheels that would be handy for heavy pots of metal, but I dont feel like re inventing the wheel at this point. Maybe when my furnace wears out.