Using Thermite to Cast an Iron Pan
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 ก.ค. 2024
- I use a thermite reaction to produce the heat and metal needed to make something out of iron.
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Future archaeologists are gonna be so confused by your farm
Nah they'll know it's Cody
do you mean archeologists? :D
"They used thermite to cast iron but they were bare footed, never discovering foot wear."
They be saying a great magus lived here and make it a sanctum or something 😉
@@burlak3182 both spellings are used, although "archaeologist" tends to be used by Brits... and archaeologists.
feeding aluminum and iron oxide burritos to a fiery thermite volcano was not on the list of things I thought I would ever see
Thermite Burrito! Love it.
Well wake up, Cody's here
It made me imagine an alternative universe where wood doesn't exist and logs of thermite would be used to to fuel fires
To me, it had a sort of Terminator 2 ending.
"I cannot self-tehminate; you must lowah me into da steel..."
Same here. But he makes things very interesting😂
I work as a mechatronics engineer for a ductile iron company (actually just up north of you) and those folds are called Mold Splash. It is because the casting was not a single smooth motion.
That is absolutely still usable!
It's cool to see structures from manufacturing like this imo, like waves in plastic from the pump pushing in spurts of plastic in an injection mold causing a chatoyancy effect.
@@MrPruske not so nice that it creates leak or break point tho
This is also due to the low casting temperature, and mostly because that. As the temperature reduces, viscosity gets higher and makes it harder to fill the mold cavity.
You should do lost iron casting with something REALLY hot.
@@leonardoulian764that was the long way to describe what anybody watching this would know intuitively but I’m sure it helped with all those people who watch this channel for the music…
NileRed: “Always wear proper PPE at all times”
Cody: “where are my shoes? Eh screw it”
22:25 "Now to tap it off" was the coolest thing I've seen in forever
Like something out of a mythical dwarven forge.
Now you know why it is called tapping the furnace.
I don't think it was cool, but a rather hot shot.
Yeah, that was *WILD*
really awesome shot
Just like in a professional smeltery, and soon much iron was actually made from such crude thermite
It's also really fun to see cody saying "i'm not gonna do it that way because it doesnt work" and proceeds to show a clip of the thing he said doest work, going wrong. Love it! haha
It's a great way to use the footage of failed attempts without using a lot of time to do so. (And a very Cody way of doing it)
That was so cool editing!
I really like seeing the trial and error, though for a split second I thought the same issue happened the 2nd time around lol
I wonder if the pan would be usable even if it had turned out well. I think the magnetite has impurities in it.
This has always been one of the best thing about his channel, show where mistakes were made
I choose to read the title as a Metal-based wizard trying to use Thermite as an ingredient to cast the spell “metal pan”
Not far from reality though
Literally describing the video?
Cody:
The single guy on TH-cam who have 2million subscriber's but still record like a young TH-camr, without any setup or other 😂
Only the resolution is higher since some videos 🤣
10/10 casting a pan with thermite skills; 2/10 egg frying skills.
You forgot the skills to document the process; that is no small feat.
I'd say 9/10 for the casting since it's got the leak
Cody is the mad scientist of our generation. Nonchalantly tapping a thermite volcano to pour molten iron into a mold made of old bee boxes is the most Cody thing I’ve seen. Well played sir.
if reddit was a person 🙄😒
The only more Cody thing would be if the boxes were still full of bees or sth xDDD
i mean the molten iron was flying out and one drop of that thing gets in your shoe, it catches fire.
bro the way he smacked the pipe in and the whole thing just roared molten iron out like a dragon, seriously a cool process
That was a dedicated pour.
I love you explaining why you are not doing something and then cutting to where you learned that lesson. Really nice to see the failures as well as the successes since they give so much to learn from.
Detonating home-made nitro glycerine with a butter knife, and the moment of 'tapping' off home-made thermite iron with no PPE whatsoever, is some of the best content on the internet. You are still as crazy as ever Cody. Never change mate, the world needs fearless people like you. Greetings from a loyal viewer in the UK.
For future attempts - Prior to the early 20th century, cast iron pans were bottom gated, meaning the iron was poured through a flue leading to the bottom of the pan, with the pan upside down and horizontal in the mold. Older pans will have a visible gate mark, as they didn't have the ability to machine it smooth. Eventually they became side gated, and the iron was poured in through a gate at the top of one of the side walls. Modern pans will still have rough machining marks around the side walls where the gate was ground away.
You'd probably have better luck with the bottom gate. The cooking surface of the pan would be formed first, with the iron then flowing down to fill the walls and handle. As it backfills the thickness of the pan is built up. At least by my basic understanding of casting.
They did have the ability to smooth it, they had files and grinding stones etc, just wasn't a priority or necessary.
Yes and the crack in your pan might have been because it cools too quickly.
Also I wonder how much (or how little) carbon actually was in that thermite iron.
@@tz8785that's also my doubt. He may actually be making steel not actually cast iron. Major issue is the much higher temperature and difficulty to cast steel. Adding carbon will definitely reduce melting temperature and increase fluidity.
Those are some MONSTEROUS crickets at 2:22
I've paused at 17:00, to share my appreciation of the sound of the fleeing cricket. I don't know if it was added in production, or if it was wearing a mike, but it was just perfect.
in my village we have big crickets in rainy season so i was like how big they can we but man these guys are huge
Dude yeah they are huge what in the hell. Where im from the brown ones are tiny and the black ones are slight larger. Dime or nickel size is just about the limit in my location.
Also known as chicken treats!
Those are Mormon Crickets. They swarm nevada/utah by the billions in the early summer. They have to get snow plows out to clear the roads because it gets so slippery from the mashed up crickets.
That was BY FAR the best casting I’ve ever seen with thermite. They always look horrendous. I’m extremely impressed
The "I guess I'm having scrambled eggs" makes the 30 minutes of complex chemistry prior almost relatable
Preheat your crucibles to a soft red glow. This’ll help prevent the iron from skinning on top. Also hit it with a small handful of borax before you pour. Cleans the metal.
Yep, was also going to suggest some borax.
I know next to nothing about metalworking, but I think the aluminum in the mix might also be making the skin problem worse as I've never really heard of an iron-aluminum alloy nor do I think they'd mix well together.
I think the sand ended up acting like a flux at those high temps, causing the skin problem as it cooled just a hair too quickly. I also suggested borax lol
Cody used plenty of borax before in normal casting im betting he just didnt have any there and also wanted it to be low tech
@@kbot1060 the skin itself is the aluminium oxide
For your next attempt, you should probably try to have the volcano drain directly into a channel that feeds the mold, rather than filling up crucibles and then needing to dump the crucibles, the extra transfer step is just giving that crust time to form and obstruct the casting
I wanted to suggested something similar. Maybe the same way pig iron is casted into ingots (piglets), but with a shorter channel, to avoid freezing the metal innthe channel.
I refrained myself from suggesting this, tyinking there was probably a good reason hé chose to use crucibles. Maybe it has something to do with the slag ?
@@gnusamgnu the slag definetly poses a problem for using channels, but I think that a deep channel would allow the more dense iron to flow on the bottom, while the slag solidifies on top.
Of course, the channels would beed to be as short as possible, and Cody would have to babysit it and remove any slag blockages.
@@gnusamgnuThere are Casting Filters made of SiliconCarbide. Might help enough.
I also commented that. A direct pour could help. but isn't trivial to implement.
This is just fascinating. It's interesting to think of aluminum less as a metal, per se, but more as a storage medium of chemical potential energy.
I don't know how he keeps the aluminum from mixing with the iron and creating an alloy
@@RichardClaessens the aluminum converts to aluminum oxide and separates out into the dross/slag. He does need to get the ratios correct so there isn't too much excess aluminum after the reaction though, for the reason you mentioned.
Guys can you get a log for tonight's bonfire? Cody: I've got you man, I have the perfect one.
25:54 Cody: What you think? Should I dump some water in this ?
Me: I thought you'd never ask !!! 😂
Came to see if someone wrote this because I was thinking the exact same thing hahaha
ditto
17:00 good thing you did a bug check before hitting run.
Debugging is always important.
Cast crickets for the knick knack shelf.
@@pvc988best youtube comment I've seen today 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
@@pvc988 Lol I'm dead.
bug very nearly became a feature.
I've been watching your videos for years and that sequence at 22:30 was one of the coolest things ive ever seen, the molten steel shooting out violently at 2000ºC and then the way you have to fight to wrangle it into the mold, that was amazing!
The fact that you got anything, let alone a skillet-shaped item is downright amazing. One thing I will say regarding cast iron, from having done a few braze jobs on it, is the fact that it needs to cool SLOWLY, and dumping a bunch of water on it likely did not help any residual stresses it had inside.
that pour was so messy and chaotic, i love it
youtube has taught me that until your a pro the pour is always chaotic and everything goes wrong no matter how much you prepare. haha
One of my favorite "Cody things" is that like nothing seems to go to waste.
"I need a funnel" doesn't mean go to the store and buy a funnel, it means cut the top off of a plastic bottle.
"I need a vent for my mold..." Well, take the rest of that bottle you made a funnel out of and cut off the bottom.
Cracked beaker? So what, it'll still measure out dry stuff fine. Wet stuff? An empty gallon jug is fine!
Need something like a pastry bag? Well I'll just go ahead and cut a hole in the corner of a ziplock.
I do get nervous seeing him handling a moderately heavy box of hardened sand around his bare feet... but I guess if you are careful enough to play with thermite, you are probably careful enough to not lose a toe :)
when you live out in the sticks you improvise
When working around crushing hazards w/o any foot coverings, one tends to be hyperfocused where your feet are at all times. Except for that one time where your "ain't never got hurt before" hubris catches up to you...
My uncle used ziplock bags to ice cakes for years, and I always had the best birthday cakes growing up. Sometimes it's more about the skill than the tools.
wait, they SELL funnels in stores??? DAMNIT....
> need a funnel
> just cut it out from a plastic bottle
dude, that's, like, how 95% of people who ever lived on a ranch are doing it. Seriously, are you ever touched grass in your life?
"I know it got hot in this area.. because the sand is... there."
Very nice
I still can't get over you can get such a "rough" thermite mix to actually react with a really good yield seeming the raw and I mean RAW mix 😂 well done cody. Awesome stuff!
Though failed attempts are frustrating, showing them and explaining how you learned from them is arguably the most important part of this entire project. Also, an entire set of kitchenware made of the sand (the iron in the sand technically) around the area sounds amazing.
For those who aren't on Patreon, Cody has been working on this one for a loooooong time on and off, refining his process.
@Blandge I wish I had the funds to support. Because those are exactly the videos I miss. And all the ones he had to take down...
@@geak78 It's not as important anymore since Cody finally got his YT payments figured out. He does post a ton of extra content there though
@@geak78 why did he have to take some down?
@josephdorey8458 he was getting hit with strikes on a lot of videos that even hinted at explosives despite other larger channels basically teaching how to make them. He took a bunch down just to prevent losing the channel.
Others probably have better details on the fiasco.
I love how you come up with this shit and actually do it even though its a logistical nightmare
Why didn’t you set it up to tap the flow right into the mould
Because the iron comes out mixed with slag, mostly melted sand, that would end up in the mould. I wanted to give it a clean place to "rest" so the slag could separate.
@@theCodyReeder I was wondering the same thing! Thanks for answering!
I do think you'll get a better pour if you can pre-heat the mold and flow the iron directly into the mold from your volcano, just because the crucibles create too much of a slag cap problem. Maybe design the outside of the mold with a "settlement" pool? A place built-in to the mold's exterior that allows the slag to float out. This would both pre-heat the mold and feed it clean iron directly from the volcano, no crucibles needed.
Awesome 😮
@@theCodyReeder Maybe if you could use a ceramic filter and a primary area for it to flow first?
@@theCodyReeder Railroad do this directly into the mould and get a perfect connection. for a 1st attempt you did amazing. your 2nd go should be perfect. I would do a lost wax though.
Most people don't understand how high stress the actual pour is. I noticed you kind of stop after you picked up the first crucible and look at the fountain of molten metal. That was my first pour too lmao but it was gold, not aluminum. Overall you did a pretty good job. Next time don't use crucibles, go direct into the mold. It will prevent a lot of hardening and cooling. Also, try using a flux of some kind. Idk what flux is used for cast iron, but when casting gold or silver I like to use borax. It protects against buildup and helps the metal flow evenly. I think the sand in the bottom acted as a flux but also caused those caps on the crucibles when It cooled just a little too quickly.
Overall, well done! I can't emphasize enough how high stress the situation is and how quickly you have to act. Handled it very well sir.
It's also crazy how much hotter cast iron feels when you are used to aluminum. The intense heat radiating off of it makes it hard to be close to it.
I think pre-heating the mold before the pour may have helped the iron flow a bit better. But a great success, especially doing it single-handed.
that won't work here because of the melting point of iron. Its over 1500°C (don't ask what it is in freedom units) and the temp in the melt is even higher, around 1700 - 1800°C. So to have any effect the mold would have to at least 800°C. In that heat the mold would simply collaps.
The best solution would be to use finer alu and iron oxide in the correct ratio, maybe a bit more iron oxide than needed to reduce the alu content in the final product to make it less brittle as aluminium makes iron very brittle
@@DerHenker_ What would that be in freedom units, by chance?
Pretty sure he has two hands
@@FishyBoi1337 5 times hotter than a well-done steak, or 6 times hotter than a football field on July 4th
@@drusnaactually it’s 17 times hotter than a well done steak.
Using thermite to cast a pan? Wicked Cool.
Using an unseasoned iron pan to fry an egg? You monster.
The pan was a seasoned veteran, it went through literal hellfire to be able to fry that egg!
@@LordDragox412 when you quench with oil not only will it cool, it forms a natural non stick coating too!
@@hugegamer5988 It causes polymerization of the oils/fats, and with enough layers it could even plug up the hole in the pan. But that's besides the point of my comment, which was meant to be a joke.
I was a bit shocked as well that he would cook in an unseasoned pan.
@@hugegamer5988 That's so cool! I imagine it should be a vegetable oil, not a machine oil, as normally used in blacksmithing?
I was so happy when you dumped the water. It looked and sounded amazing! I can only imagine what it felt like standing next to it. Thank you for this really exciting video!
That was great! It's both the most successful thermite casting I've seen AND the most successful I've seen a TH-camr be at making a cast iron pan. Great work!
This is probably the closest I’ll ever get to knowing a dwarven blacksmith.
40 minutes of codyslab, fuck yeah
Seemed more like ten. Best. Content. Ever.
Cody slab
Hope this will become a series: Thermite Casting with Cody!
And we cast some really silly stuff everytime 😄
Maybe just going wild and creating some artsy stuff.
I would buy one 😉
Just under 20 for me.. 2x speed watcher 😉
@@aufoslab BIG MEMBER 12CM
That worked out surprisingly well. Keep up the hard work and God bless!
one of the better videos imo. energic reactions with tiny bit of panic make the most interesting videos i feel. great job
Easily one of the most entertaining and educational channels on youtube. Love everything you do.
Educational? Sure if you're wanting to learn the wrong way to do something😂
@@jodiecavinder9891atleast he knows how to do it, you could never do anything like this in your life
one thing i love about cody is he never cuts his video short, i love it that he goes through and investigates what happened and shows us his investigation too.
Science at its finest and most basic, all at the same!
Dude, this was _so_ freaking cool. I kept thinking, "He better fry an egg in that sucker if it works." and you did! This video was everything I hoped it'd be and more. Great stuff, Cody. You're the best.
So kickass Cody, love your stuff! My favorite video in a while
He is just casually hanging around 4,500°F metal droplets flying everywhere 💀
I've seen people doing Aulminum and such wearing fliflops. Life aktering event if something goes sideways.
… so we don't have to 😆
Cody does Cody things that only Cody can survive. Welcome to Cody's lab.
I work in an iron foundry. You'd be amazed how relatively safe molten iron is.
@@dylanmeier7556 care to elaborate?
This is an amazing video. So typical of a typical Cody's Lab video, yet also, I don't know. Oddly accomplished somehow. I've been watching for years on and off, but with this one I realized just how much I enjoy watching these, and also _why_ I enjoy it. It's relaxation pure and simple, sitting back and emerging myself in this feelgood, slightly nutty chemical engineer univers and knowing that there is this guy out there on a badlands hillside doing backyard science like none of all that other stupid shit going on even existed.
You help keeping the world just a little sane and playful, Cody. Also, yeah. Of course the wind is going to blow the smoke your way, that's a natural law. It doesn't help move around because then the wind just shifts, so. But at least it spewed the lava in the other direction, so there's that👍
Yes, Cody is the sane one 😅
That worked far better than I expected.
as you were chipping off the sand from the bottom, i think we could see "Cody's Lab" much sooner than you did, and it was such an exciting moment, second only to you saying "let's tap it off" and executing probably the smoothest and most powerful motion I've seen to unleash molten splashy goodness
i worked in a foundry when i was young the finale step they would do with a mold is use a supper fine silica powder and make a surly with it thick like paint then spray it on the mold lightly dont want drips prob 3 or 4 times use a torch to bake the coating on each lair tell smooth this creates a glass like lair between the coarse sand and molten metal
That sounds really cool
Cast the iron pan upside down so the thinner walls get filled first.
Cast the pan in one go directly from the volcano.
Good video as always
I’ve seen you do some cool things in the past Cody, but this has to be one of the coolest!!
Awesome work. Freaking makes you apreciate the efficient industriliazed process of casting so many other things.
When I was a kid I watched Mr. Wizard. Now as an adult I watch Cody’s Lab!
Totally agree.
These are the fireworks I was hoping for today.
it's as been i dunno how many i follow your channel, it cheers me up seing little cody growing and still doing his things ! enjoy your life my friend keep it up
The thing that impressed me most was seeing a bunch of raw magnetite that he sucked up with a magnet turned into an actual object. That in itself is almost miraculous.
When collecting the metal from a thermite reaction you need to start the reaction from the bottom.. Mythbusters showed this in one of their thermite episodes and it's also how thermite welding of rail steel (railroad) works. If you start it from the top most of the metal is lost to the reaction and burnt up instead of being usable. Something to help the metal flow in the mold is to preheat it.
You need to season cast iron pans before you cook with them.
You don't NEED to season cast iron before cooking the first time, it's just a really helpful thing to do. It'll work just fine unseasoned, similar to carbon steel. Food will just stick more and the pan will rust pretty fast. I suppose you might also get a higher iron content from your food.
@@iankrasnow5383yeppers
The pan has a crack and leaks 😁
Seasoning isn't important yet.
I'm equal parts amazed and stressed out by that pour and molten metal spray, awesome video.
Wooow! That was amazing, result came really good. Thanks for sharing and congratulations!
Classic cody video and yet still constantly outdoing yourself, love it man!
That pan came out a lot better than I was expecting. Not the most efficient method, but certainly a lot more interesting to watch. Thank you, Cody. Keep up the great work.
This is the most low tech/high tech thing with how aluminium requires huge industrial infrastructure to make and yet mixing it with sand and setting fire to it is so simple, I love it
Yeah aluminum is pretty much a high tech miracle fuel. Once the oxide layer comes off, it gets super reactive.
There was a research team that made a surprisingly strong rocket fuel from aluminum and ice.
That was my thought as well. The volcano reminded me of a Primitive Technology video. Yet, it's only possible because the energy "put into" the Aluminum. Which was probably shipped around the world so it could be done "cheaply."
It makes me wonder if there were any thermite- type processes that would have been possible with primitive technology. We couldn't use aluminum metal or really most pure elements, so I can't think of anything off the top of my head to use as a good reducing agent.
@@iankrasnow5383 elemental copper occurs naturally, maybe you can get a thermite compound to work with that? Might not be reactive enough
@@tomarnd8724 Copper is lower in the reactivity series than iron, so if anything, pure iron would be a reducing agent in a reaction like that, to produce copper, not the other way around. The potential energy and kinetics are also a lot lower so I doubt you could even get a sustained reaction.
My hunch is that thermite wouldn't have been possible to make before we started using electrolysis in isolating metals.
This video is an all time epic. Reminds me of some of the old classics. Thanks Cody, for some of the best content on the internet
You never cease to entertain, educate, and amaze your audience all at once. Thank you for staying true to your channel. You are one of the few who have kept it real throughout the years.
getting the metal out of the vulcano seems to have worked a whole lot better than i would have thought, i was very skeptical before seeing it flow out so nicely
"Wood? pff who ya think I am? A woodsman? We do metal logs out here" xD
*Thermite Burritos* as we call them in the badlands 😄
This is pure Cody. So excellent.
Very cool Cody! Great video, especially when you poured that last bit of water and it revealed the detail you cast into the bottom of the pan.
What a project! Making everything from scratch, the failed mold attempts, actually getting it to work on the first try, the tapping… So much work and such a good result. Awesome video cody
The way Cody list all of the steps that he had to do to cast his Cast an Iron Pan using thermite, reminded me of the old *_British TV series Connections,_* that was created, written, and presented by British science historian *_James Burke._*
To remove the sand you need a *_SANDBLASTER!!!_*
Beautiful processes involved in this project ...I loved it! .Thank you.
Thanks for doing these videos! I learn so much from them!
It always brightens my day seeing Cody upload. Thanks man!
Absolutely agree!
Yeah, thanks Cody! 🤗
The timing of this video is hilarious. I was watching a bunch of old thermite welding videos this last week. Railway stuff, mostly.
Great fun to watch. Your zeal is infectious!
Cody, this was incredible. kudos.
The one trouble you're likely to have is that traditional "cast iron" has a TON of carbon in it, and the thermite reaction is likely to burn *any* carbon away.
22:28 - I never thought I would know what such a noise would sound like - that put a huge smile on my face
Ones of lifes pleasures, when a vid from cody pops up
That was awesome!!! Looking forward to your next attempt...
That was genuinely one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. It got so very sketchy so quickly and you still stayed level headed with a thermite volcano erupting beside you and molten iron spitting up at you as you try to fill your little crucible. Insane
Best suggestion to improve? The crucibles are an unneeded step.
In essence, the biggest "issue" with the casting, was the fact that the metal started to cool in various places and locations, and you didn't have enough of it all at once to fill the mold, so it started to harden in various locations first.
So if instead, you just put the mold in the right location? You could have the whole mold filled immediately, and it would be a clearer, simpler process, with fewer steps, and fewer possible points of failure.
This
wouldn't the slag layer still be an issue in this, our would you just need to have a large enough vent for it to bubble up to?
@@mr.narwhal547 slag COULD be an issue, yes, but If you took that into account in the first place? Plan for it? You'd still get a WAY better end-result. IMO
Seeing as how violent the eruption of melted material from the volcano was, getting the material in the mold in a controlled way without using the crucibles as an intermediate step looks like it would be really hard.
@@jannepeltonen2036 you just use walls to funnel it.
I'm so happy to see Cody with that big smile, excelent video as always cody!
This was so cool! Always amazing things to see on your channel
WONDERFUL Casting!
The Initial Pan
You Utilised
For Molding
Was Made Out
Of Metal Sheets
Under Hidraulic Press,
That's How They
Come Out So Impeccable,
They Are Not Casted!
It went shockingly well, let alone for a first attempt!
Cody is my favorite TH-camr of all time🙌been watching since 8th grade and just graduated college
This is awesome Cody, I love it!
Loving the new glasses! Another great video!
Awesome Cody! This is the kind of video that really excites me as a long time fan
Love the thermite videos.
I would probably resist quenching with the water in future as cracking is the biggest problem, due to sudden uneven contraction.
These are issues explored and discovered with the welding of cast iron.
Slow cooling will reduce the brittleness of the finished result.
A brilliant experiment, and looking forward to seeing you continue in future!
Thanks
I do investment casting, not sand casting, so it's reasonably different, but a few notes on ways to improve are:
1. have some kind of primary layer in your mold for better shell to metal interface properties. We use a blend of fine grain alumina powders in a slurry
2. Include sacrificial runners for better flow properties and to drive shrink out of your finished piece
3. Every bit of preheating your mold you do will help you in the long run.
4. You're losing heat to radiation proportional to the 4th power of the temperature, try to superheat the metal and try to minimize the time between net energy in the volcano going negative, and your metal entering your mold. We try to kill our induction coil within 6 seconds of pouring.
the only thing i'd suggest is to try and skip the crucibles. after tapping into the molten iron, have it flow into a (tile/ceramic?) funnel, directly into your cast. if it'd cool down too fast in the open air, you could extend the cast to include a hollow section leading to the mould. you would tap it with a pipe like you did here, but the pipe is blocked at the end (away from the molten iron), and has a quarter segment cut out that the metal can then flow through, into the hollow below towards the mould.
WHEW that was intense! Amazing result! congrats :D
This was fantastic, Cody!
Totaly awsome dude. More of a proff of concept and really well done for the first attempt
I think there's only a few things you can do to improve the process, and probably only marginal improvements:
1. More vents. The wrinkles and bubbles are definitely from trapped gas.
2. More dry. Steam is probably the main source of any surface pocketing (which you didn't have all that much of.) Ideally, you'd bake the mold in a large metal box to keep combustion from adding steam to the mix. Probably ideal to bake it for 8+ hours in a mold that big. I know Nevada and Utah are dry, but not as dry as we'd want, ideally. Mars would be dry enough.
3. More hot. The mold would, ideally, be hot when you pour, but that's pretty hard to do. It would help the metal flow.
4. Thicker walls on the form. You coated that pan really thick in wax, which is great, but more hole to fill means more flow to fill it.
5. If you can, try to place the mold directly under the furnace output pipe to prevent wasting heat and making that top crust on the crucibles when pouring it manually.
6. Make that furnace output pipe thicker or actively cool it with water to prevent it melting and use a bigger inner diameter to prevent it plugging up. Convert to an open channel if you want to restrict flow rate further down the line.
7. More flux. I just watched the exotic thermite series of a TH-cam channel named "The Gayest Person On TH-cam". He uses a 50:50 mix of calcium fluoride and cryolite as flux to remove impurities and increase crystal size.
Bubbles come back in the the casting as voids and pits makes the metal like a aero bar there usually concealed inside or look like bubbles them folds look like cold shuts caused by the iron not been hot enough and flashing off slightly in the mould that’s why the water pisses though it’s not sealed together it’s basically where both sides of the pour have met
The crust is glassy silicate slag though. If he goes straight into the mold he's likely to get glassy inclusions
@@GigsVT I doubt it the gravity of the metal and the viscosity will stop that although sand inclusions are common in castings it’s usually down to breakdown of the mould when the boxes are together so it’s gets picked up as the metal flows the crust on the outside is crusty because the heat has managed to melt the sand it won’t happen instantly
Excellent first attempt!
I was not ready for the tap-off stage of the operation. That went from 100 to 200 real fast.
Nice work, that’s really pretty incredible that you got that result at all. Casting iron is really hard. Especially as a hobbyist, because it takes so much work to even begin the attempt, let alone get metal into a mold that actually works. It’s not for the faint of heart.