The Misadventures of Mad Machinist

[Mad Machinist]

Hey bob,

I've been meaning to ask you something and I keep forgetting. Are those castings lost foam or do you have a pattern made up for them? I've been reading up on metal casting and will probably get into casting later but I want to do a lot of reading and research before I play with molten metal.

I really like my toes and other body parts where they are and want to make sure I have a damn good idea of what I am doing before I play with that.

 

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[bobw53]

Hey bob,

I've been meaning to ask you something and I keep forgetting. Are those castings lost foam or do you have a pattern made up for them? I've been reading up on metal casting and will probably get into casting later but I want to do a lot of reading and research before I play with molten metal.

I really like my toes and other body parts where they are and want to make sure I have a damn good idea of what I am doing before I play with that.

We went through several different patterns.. Made them out of nylon... The last pattern is actually a plate with all the runners and risers and other stuff on it. Bang one side
up, bang the other side up. Take the plate out and go to town... You see can videos on youtube, and see how they do production sand casting... Its what we were trying to
replicate... A straight up pattern is fine for a few, but having to cut the runners and risers and all that is a PIA.

We were using some type of petrobond, oil based sand... Not the green sand with the clay and the water... When we got the stuff, it just wouldn't stick... Adding more
oil didn't do it, water didn't do it.... Took a bit of research, and I didn't believe it when I saw it, but I didn't have anything left to lose.... Rubbing alcohol... mixed it up
real good, and it was nice and sticky and stayed together... That was when we figured we needed a muller, and we actually found an old used one, they are not very common.

Back up plan if we didn't find a muller... And I didn't realize it then.. But now I do... Cement mixer with some steel balls in it... ROCK CRUSHER!!!!!

I built the furnace... Refractory cement is a ***** to work with.. You are supposed to use a "high shear" mixer... Ended up making a glorified paint stirrer on a drill... The amount
of water needed is also a pain... Requires very very little water, and a very precise amount of it.. I think it was 4cc's per pound... And the refractory cement is expensive... There
are all kinds of home brewed fire brick concoctions out there, I just wanted a furnace that would last and last and last... If I had to do it over again, I would not have made all the bricks
out of refractory cement, I would have just made 1" or so thick hot face, and done the rest with the stuff from Home Depot, would have saved about $400... I did the base like that..
The refractory is also super sticky... Had to slather the molds with vaseline, and then parchment paper over that... And the stuff takes forever to set up enough so that you could take the mold off...

Burner wise, made that too. Lots of designs on line... Basically just pipe... Tricky part is the flare on the end, and the nozzle size... I didn't get a perfect double cone,
but it was close enough, it works... Ended up using a mig welding tip for the nozzle... It'll run as low as 2psi of propane(makes fantastic burgers at 2psi),
and once its warm it'll go up to 55psi before flaming out. At 30psi it will melt 30 pounds of aluminum in under 45 minutes... I don't know if that is good or not..

Honestly, casting sucks.. Its probably not bad with something small, but banging up a big mold really sucks, those castings are 8 or 9 pounds, and each flask when full weighs over 140lbs..
Not the easiest thing to move around....

Casting is almost a black art.. The design of the molds, the runners, risers, blind risers, gates, flow restrictions blah blah blah... I bought a couple of books and it made my head spin..
And then what temp do take your material to, the fluxes, there can be Argon involved, hydrogen embrittlement... There is a lot more to it than I thought there was... I just scratched
the surface of it, so much more to learn... And I don't care to learn it.

And some pics.

Muller:

Brick Molds:

Test fitting.

Almost finished product... Painted the stand after that, and a cut up 55gallon drum goes around it... The lid is designed to float slightly so it sits flat,
And its counter weighted so it opens and closes really easy.

My burner.

And this pic is just for fun... Guy down the street builds chile processing equipment, commercial size.. He was building a GIANT chile roaster, and we made the
burners.... What a pain in the ass that was... For a furnace you are trying to tune the burner to give you a nice pretty cone... In a chile roaster you want a
big giant spread out flame... We got the length of the flame he wanted, but fell a bit short on diameter of it, played with it for a while also... The trick..
Instead of using a welding tip to get a smooth gas flow... Grease fitting, pull out the ball and spring, and the gas comes out all turbulent... These flames
are about 6 feet long and about 26 inches or so in diameter...(have you ever tried measuring the size of a flame??). They flamed out at about 58psi....
Just the two of them running sounded like sticking your head in a jet engine... The giant roasters he is making have 12 of those burners...

And since this is TREASUREnet... In the GOLD prospecting forum... I was down at the chile guys shop yesterday, and found out that his Dad was a professional gold miner...
Up by Caballo reservoir, before Caballo was there.. They used to pump water up out of the Rio Grande to run their sluices, then when they made the reservoir they couldn't
use the water anymore and had to go with giant dry washers... I thought that was pretty interesting.

Oh... And the pic of the chile roasting burners. That's 2 of them running.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Now your making me really jealous. Nice furnace. I had thought about just using fire brick with just a hot face. Project for later down the road.

 

[Mad Machinist]

bob,

Had this one in mind awhile ago for something we had found.

Small Foundry Furnaces Vol. 1 [0970220316] - $19.95 : Stephen Chastain, Mechanical Engineer and Book Author




Did I ever mention I hate doing manual labor when I can get a machine to do it.

 

[Mad Machinist]

What tranny you putting on that 383 ?

Sorry been busy with things.

Tranny is a built TH350 K case. The case is actually the weak part of the tranny. All of the clutch packs have been machined for extra clutches with a Kevlar intermediate band and the accumulator springs have been removed. When it shifts it WILL snap your head back if your not ready for it. Should handle around 800 horse without breaking a sweat.

 

[Mad Machinist]

I know its been awhile since I updated here. I've been busy with my business and now my son is living here. It's taken 18 years to get him away from his mother but that fight is finally over. Now I can teach him all kind of new and improved ways to freak his mother out.

The latest adventure now that I have some time off is a kwiky burner. Round one didn't work out so well. Let's just say that compressed air and used motor oil can make one hell of a fireball.

Round two is coming this week and this time I'm going to video it just in case I make another fireball.

Trying to modify it to get a more efficient flame with added compressed air to create a better draw from the rear of the pipe. The closer to blue you get, the more efficient the flame.

 

[bobw53]

Keep playing with it... Building a burner is the easy part, getting it to work right is not. Its like a black art... But its a ton of
fun trying to figure out what is going to work.

 

[Nitric]

Cool thread!!

I wish I lived closer to some of you guys, or knew someone around here doing stuff like that! This stuff is fun! Building stuff, fabricating,hiking, digging, Taking vehicles and a welder and building off road creations! Man, I need to be out west!

 

[Mad Machinist]

Thought I'd share a few pics of the low grade ore on my property. The white I all quartz stringers. Pics didn't come out as good as I hoped but you can see what I am talking about.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Carnage Report

Well, the wife and a friend talked me into going back out hunting fire agate this evening and what an adventure.

Found a couple of nice pieces with plenty of fire. And we got caught in one of Arizona's legendary monsoons. This was bad even by Arizona's standards. Sorry no pics of the monsoon, I was more worried about getting us out of there in one piece. Even us experienced guys get caught of guard once in a while and the funny thing is that there were two of us there that are very experienced both in the desert and with Arizona's weather. Just goes to show just how unpredictable the weather here is. Dry roads went to quagmires in a heartbeat.

Good thing my rear end is welded basically making it a spool or we would have never climbed up out if a few of the washes.

Got the wife and kid taken care of as far as a shower and something hot in their bellies. So here's the pics and I'm off to take a shower.

 

[Nitric]

LOL Reminds me of the jeep I had before I moved! I'll see if I can find some pics, I built it pretty much in the driveway.The garage was a one car and swiss cheese. No cherry picker,I cut the old frame from around the motor. I had to block up the motor then drop the bare frame over from the top. Then bolt motor mounts(since it was a 4cyl,frame going over a 6cyl) until I could drive somewhere to weld later.Oh I had no air at that house either. I wanted a Jeep so I built one from 3 by myself and a lot of swearing! Don't forget Ohio rust too! lol I have some pics it didn't look like that when we moved. It was driven and offroad hard! I gave it to a friend when I moved. Your pics reminded me of it!
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The last pic shows what I was talking about the motor mounts, I had to cut them off, then when over the motor place them back in. Lot of work!A lot of junk in the pic too! But you have to work with what ya got sometimes!

To get the tub on I used 2x4s and ratchet straps. No one was around to help. And I was too impatient to wait!

 

[Labman]

Sorry for the lack of updates. I elected to take some time off and finally get my shoulder fixed right. Still need a few weeks to get back up to full speed.

Got the engine just about done for the truck. 383 stroker. Plenty of low end torque for pulling the trailer back and forth from the claim.

I built a 383 for my 87 Z28 drag car. It was a beast even without the 150 hp NOS system.

Nice choice!

 

[Mad Machinist]

Still out of commission for awhile until my heart problems get cleared up. Good news is the doctors were able to get my heart function back up to 90% from the 65% it was at. The only problem is the fact that one of the medications causes a heat intolerance. Not a good thing in Southern Arizona.

Now that it starting to cool off here I can get a little more active. Looks like a garage remodel is in order for A/C in the summer time. And probably a few more "toys" to make my misadventures a little easier on my body.

 

[nh.nugget]

Still out of commission for awhile until my heart problems get cleared up. Good news is the doctors were able to get my heart function back up to 90% from the 65% it was at. The only problem is the fact that one of the medications causes a heat intolerance. Not a good thing in Southern Arizona.

Now that it starting to cool off here I can get a little more active. Looks like a garage remodel is in order for A/C in the summer time. And probably a few more "toys" to make my misadventures a little easier on my body.

Heart problems zuck! I too am dealing with them got a pace maker and my heart still ramps up to 204 beats! You're gonna love that stroker motor I have a 388 in my hotrod tons of power. And you do get heat and cold intolerance from the meds I hate it ! But hey, we're looking at flowers instead of roots!

 

[Jeff95531]

Adapt and prosper.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Heart problems zuck! I too am dealing with them got a pace maker and my heart still ramps up to 204 beats! You're gonna love that stroker motor I have a 388 in my hotrod tons of power. And you do get heat and cold intolerance from the meds I hate it ! But hey, we're looking at flowers instead of roots!

I'll be okay. The wife always tells me I'm tougher than a two dollar steak.

 

[Mad Machinist]

Adapt and prosper.

I will. Just have to build a few things to make my adventures a little easier.

 

[Mad Machinist]

And three become one. Mine is in the middle receiving donor parts from the other two. The one on the left is the '76 I picked up for a few parts and the one on the right is an '89 suburban given to me for parts. Most of the interior parts for mine are coming from the burn including Ac and an updated dash and wiring harness for some other added creature comforts since I have slowed way down and the wife will be with me most times now.

The interior pic is of my truck with the '73 dash cut out ready to receive the '89 dash. This one will have a few twists to it. I just wanna see who figures it out first.

 

[nh.nugget]

Man you're just as bad as me! You're doing just what I did for a living. I did a 77 GMC for myself built it out of 10 different trucks scrap yard loved me. LOL! Now I got the Weapon it's an 88 GMC 4wd, 33's, 4'' lift, and oh'veah a 427 bbc built for an 871 blower. And yes it pushes snow like you wanna' read about

 

[Mad Machinist]

I could go drop $70k cash on a truck tomorrow if I wanted. I just can't bring myself to spend almost as much on a truck as I spent on my house. Especially when I'm just gonna pound the crap out of it. The new trucks are nice but they don't hold up under heavy off road use.

Most of our trucks at work are F450s and F550s with under 25k and they are falling apart already.