I've watched every video you've made absorbing as much as possible. I know you are unable to make these videos as much as you like but i appreciate very much the ones you have made. You are by far the most knowledgeable in castings that I've watched on KZread I've learned a lot from your videos and you pointing us in the right direction with Kenedy's books has helped me tremendously and allow me to make castings worthy for the customer. Just wanted to thank you for sharing your knowledge with us.

@olfoundryman8418

7 ай бұрын

Alfred, Thanks very much for your comment. I sure do wish that I could get healthy enough to make more videos I have ideas for dozens - maybe one day - who knows.... Martin

Hi Martin. A friend and I have decided we want to get into the craft and art of metal casting. We've build our first crude furnace from a 60L oil barrel and are very exited to get started. I'm very grateful and truly appreciate the time you take to explain and instruct. That you are willing to pass on your knowledge. I'm learning so much from you! I promise I'll be sure NEVER to use washing soda or make large sprues! - Thomas Stewart

@olfoundryman8418

9 ай бұрын

Pac, Its an interesting and useful talent to master - its very satisfying to make something with your own hands particularly when using that most primal of forces - fire! Good call on the washing soda....Martin

Good to see you again Martin. Thanks for taking the time to do these videos.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Brian, It is good to be seen and the time , well its just what I do. I just wish I was able to do more.... Martin

Some great information Martin. Nice to see you back at it. Mark

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Mark, Its good to be "at it" but it does take a toll. I hope that the information is of use.... Martin

Thanks for sharing 👍 glad to see you back.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Craig, Good to be here and as always sharing is my pleasure.... Martin

Hi Martin . I did my metal moulding apprenticeship in the late 70s at Sydney Tech and 40 something years later having now retired (ironically from plastic injection moulding of medical equipment) I am getting into some small scale casting at home. Watching your videos has brought back so many small details and techniques that I have forgotten. I have a craftsman's certificate somewhere around here and hope that with a bit of practice and a few failures I can live up to it. Thanks for memory boost.

@olfoundryman8418

11 ай бұрын

mattricks, Sadly, I think that all foundry schools in Australia have now shut down. There is nowhere to go to learn the skills, nowhere to pass on the new knowledge that has come from John Campbell. If I have managed to rekindle your interest and memories I am happy.... Martin

Hi Martin, Great to see you up and about creating content! Well done as usual.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

jmone, Thank you. I just wish I could create more.... Martin

Another master class.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

ViSc, Thank you for saying so... Martin

I've been watching sense before episode one well worth the wait.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Old Iron, I hope that the series has been of use to you.... Martin

@OldIronShops

Жыл бұрын

@@olfoundryman8418 it has . Love your work I might ask for a playlist as it's getting hard to find things you have made a series of.

Hi Martin, I cant believe it is over a month since coming to you tube & that I missed this. First channel I checked into to see if there was anything new !. As you know the new business here has been keeping me busy, but unfortunate to miss this good stuff! Many thanks for the mention, yes changing speeds all the time is a pain !!! Great to see you at least up an mobile. All the best, Rumple (John)

@olfoundryman8418

10 ай бұрын

John, Barely mobile to be honest, doing this sort of stuff gets ever harder for me. Keep in touch for I have some video ideas that I might need some physical help with if you can manage the time when the new business beds in....Martin

Hai, Martin. Great to see you

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Grez, Nice to be seen - I just wish more would look 😊.... Martin

Thx for the vid. Another great one.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Warped, My pleasure.....Martin

Beautiful. I still need to make some for my guys back in Ambatolampy.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Justin, Yes, they did turn out well - I was quite happy. There is no reason why you cannot do as well and your Madagascan friends should be well pleased.... Martin

Having done a bunch of 3d printing, it is certainly possible that the angles on those flanges moved a bit, when the plastic was cooling. I've found that its very common to need to adjust for those sorts of things, It could even come down to the way the printhead lays down each perimeter, or the way that the geometry there pulls when it cools. Different plastics are going to have different behaviour there, but likely the best way to make sure you have the least warping possible is to print in PLA. PLA loves fast cooling and lots of fan, and if you can cool it fast enough it warps very little (I wont say doesn't warp, as a material that doesn't change when solidifying is not a thing, I think) Another thing to think about is that if you are pushing the printer (not hard with older commodity printers, a stock ender 3 will struggle at anything over about 10 cubic mm/sec, less if you're using PETG, that stuff is harder to melt and thicker when it is melted, IME.) then it may be extruding plastic that is not properly melted. If its doing that, then warping gets much worse, as the printer is basically winding rubber bands around your print at that point. I would think that the best recipe for the least warping is to print good quality PLA at a rate that the hotend can keep up with (Prusaslicer has great options for this in the filament profiles, it will limit the printers movement speed so that it does not exceed a specified flow rate.), and use as much cooling as you can (for PLA specifically). I've been employing the slowing down strategy to print glass fiber nylon recently, for an intake elbow for my truck, and its been working wonderfully. Edit: I've recently been thinking of getting into doing some casting and remembered that your channel existed, and how much information you pack into your videos, I am glad to see that you are still doing them. I really like to see experts at their crafts recording things so that younger people can learn.

@olfoundryman8418

11 ай бұрын

@pmcquay, Thank you very much for your detailed comment. I appreciate it very much when someone takes the time to put such an effort into a comment. Al comments are welcome of course but the more thoughtful and detailed ones like yours especially so. To be honest I know very little of 3D printing. I don't own a printer and I had to rely on a friend for the prints concerned. As he knows way more than I do I thought it best to pass your comment on to him. He came back saying that he agrees with everything that you said. The only thing that I did notice (way after I had cast all the sides 😏) was that a pattern used straight form the printer (save a little smoothing up on the "Ear" section) cast quite flat and did seem to have the ends at very close to 45 degrees. Whereas a same sized pattern that had been extensively sanded, filled, and painted smooth was found to have warped and the castings from it rocked on the bench - something has caused the pattern to warp - solvents in the paint etc. I guess! The castings would appear to be about 1/2 a degree out from the 45 degree whereas the patterns seem to be within 1/4 degree or better but its all a bit hard to measure accurately. It could be that simple metal contraction in the sand mould as the casting cools from just solid causes the "45" degree ends to bend out and flatten down - such problems can be common in castings. In truth I believe the only way to guarantee an accurate 45 degrees would be to machine possibly the patterns but certainly the castings in a mill or similar - something against the "no machine tools" brief 😊 that I was trying to adhere too. One again thank you for your thoughtful comment... Martin

Interesting setup with the arbor and slitting saw on the lathe. Thanks 👍

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

bin, At the time I used the set up many years ago I did not have a milling machine and I did not want to file all the slots on 11 boxes so I had to come up with something! This set up was it and it did work ok but it is a slow method and a bit painstaking to get the slot just right... Martin

@olfoundryman8418 Martin- From a guy in the states who has been following you for over 5 years- thank you. Your knowledge has been awesome and thank you for accelerating my own interests and keeping it relevant. Caught in one of the last few videos you aren't in the best of ways with your back and legs- my thoughts go out to you. Just reaching out as your videos are more relevant now to me than ever as I begin to tool up for a new adventure... and wanted to say thank you.

@olfoundryman8418

11 ай бұрын

sdunca, No, sadly my old age is not the one I wanted. Not the one I ordered at all 😊. I am ever hopeful that things will improve as I have many things I wish to do, many videos to make, much I wish to pass on. It gives me great joy when I am able to help others and particularly when they take the time to say thank you as you have...Martin

@sdunca4864

10 ай бұрын

@@olfoundryman8418 Completely understand the limitations! Time grows short on everyone at some point- just be safe and if you ever need a chuckle I will be glad to show you my mistakes and take the ribbing to "get good" from down under!- Much Respect- Scott

Elegant & Excellent!

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Skip, Thank you.... Martin

Very good video Martin. Nice to see you at it again. I am looking forward to the next one!

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Wikus, Thank you. The next one is sort of planned but it will be a few weeks away I suspect - I work slow these days 😊.... Martin

Great as always

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

gafrers. Thank you... Martin

What a great result, toolroom precision in the foundry! If the fit was any better the boxes would be a right pain to use, I think.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Smallcnc, You are right, any less clearance on the pins and the boxes would have been "sticky". But then I would have got out my sand paper on aluminium angle and opened up the slots and possibly enlarged the adjustable reamer a tad and re done the loose fit pin holes. but they did turn out well without recourse to such action and I was well pleased..... Martin

I regret that I have but one like to give.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Sigurdur, It is gratefully received... Martin

As usual Martin. Thank you!

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

J B, Thank you.... Martin

This will be extremely helpful to anyone building one of your flasks. As I mentioned before I cast parts for 8 15x15cm boxes but only assembled one of them for myself (before the previous video in the series). With just a small table on my drill press and no drill guide, I had to glue in shims to force the pins into square after the drill bit walked down the draft on the ears making the holes oval. The flask works very well but I do have to be careful not to knock the pins around. Thankfully the other 7 flasks were not for me, so someone else got to enjoy assembling them. 😂. The corners on mine came out a little less than 45 too, but when I put 2 patterns together they did make a 90. I wondered if maybe the sand retention ribs were causing the sides to flex during solidification, some sort of unusual shrink effect Thanks again for your advice. Jeff

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Tobho, If I had been in better health I would have got it all done earlier and perhaps saved you a bit of bother - sorry my friend. You are right that down slope on the ears is a problem - drills just seem to be made to wander 😰. We now have a second version of the STL file for the "ears" it has just a 1 mm taper per side while the original has 2.5 mm. can easily send you this file if you need it. For certain though I would not have got anywhere without that drill jig - crude though it is it does seem to have worked very well - it does have to fit the box well and does need to be drilled itself in situ. As yet I have not been able to get a satisfactory measurement on the patterns I have to determine if they have the correct angle. It may simply be that some peoples printers give the correct angle and some don't - to be honest I do not regard 3D printing as a really good process for making patterns, convenient - yes, but excellent - no. I doubt the sand retention ribs are any part of the problem. But the fact that we are essentially trying to cast an open "C" section perhaps is. As the flat section contracts in the sand mould it pulls the angled ends in against the sand. If the sand does not yield enough the angled ends will tend to flatten out. Old time moulders when faced with this problem on big work used what I think were called "dutchmen" These were tapered pieces of wood moulded in to the cope mould between but close to the uprights. They were pulled out of the mould soon after pouring so the sand could collapse easily and thus the uprights would be free to contract towards each other. Bending of such uprights and associated arching of the horizontal casting section is all to common a problem. I am glad that the box you made is of use - but wait till you see the next and final part of this series to see just how much use (if you make more 😊) Rgds,... Martin PS, You could get a friend with a mill to bore out the fixed pin lugs, sleeve them down to pin size and refit the pins.

@WaltSorensen

Жыл бұрын

Spotting with an end mill in the drill to give a flat surface on the ears before center drilling and drilling through will also help keep the drill bit from wandering around a lot.

@tobhomott

Жыл бұрын

Good ideas... A friend of mine also suggested using annular cutters.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Walt, Thanks for your input. I did try something like that using a center drill then small pilot hole and then a spot face cutter. It did work tolerably well but it involved more tools. So I opted for the drill jig idea. I figured that once made the jig would more or less guarantee repetitive results whereas with my lack of tool room skills individual centerpunching on any surface produced (flat or otherwise) would be not so repeatable. I did try a lot of things and have a "trial" cast plate with about 20 holes in it plus three dud cast sides with lots of experimental holes. We have also made a new STL file for an "ear" pattern with only 1mm of taper per side as against the origional 2.5 mm. This should make driling easier (but likely not foolproof) but casting harder. However I have never tried this..... Martin

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Tobho, Interesting, Presumably one can get them small enough. But I suspect that they like and end mill will jump around a bit when starting off on the slope as drill presses are not at all rigid. Once through the slope though it would probably steady down. All in although I think the made in situe drill jig worked very well and was (once made) probably the quickest and most accurate method. But its good to consider all ideas - please thank your friend for me.... Martin

👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Vlad, Thank you.... Martin

Magic video series, cheers. This is one of the best subscriptions I've made so far. Are these suitable for somebody's very first casts? I'd like to do something productive with my first pours. They won't be great but surely better than the boxes I'm knocking up from pallets?

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

The Gael, Thank you for saying so. I think l that you have answered your own question! These would be a great first up project - something useful and good practice. Boxes from pallets - Hmm - I can imagine 😊 .... Martin

@Th3_Gael

Жыл бұрын

@@olfoundryman8418 I appreciate you taking the time to reply, thanks. Yeah, the pallet wood ain't pretty but it's what I can afford for now. I'll get my son on his 3d printer and see how I get on. Cheers

I plan to have my students make some of these next year. thanks for the inspiration. I am curious what your strikeoff bar with the teeth started as in its previous life?

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Kevin, Good luck to you and your students. From my experience the boxes they make should last a lifetime and can be bushed if wear occurs enough to make them sloppy. I have bushed and re "eared' some of my older boxes but that was after over 30 years of frequent use. The strike off bar was a power hacksaw blade. Mine is an old blade and thus a bit arched. They're getting a bit hard to get now because bandsaws have become popular, however occasionally they turn up new on eBay for a reasonable price. While I find the toothed side a great help many use a simple piece of light metal angle and indeed I used a piece of light brass angle for many years until I got the hacksaw blade. But above all do not use a piece of wood as some are wont to do.... Martin

Hi Martin, I am just getting started on casting thanks to your videos. Are the sand casting boxes for sale ? Rob

@olfoundryman8418

6 ай бұрын

robert, No, sorry, but I cannot put boxes up for sale. Quite simply even if I was to make gravity dies to cast the sides the cost of an entire box would be well over $200.00 and likely over $300.00 each if I was to sand cast each side Considering that one really needs more than a few boxes its an amount that I do not think too many people would be prepared to pay. If you want boxes like this then you will have to make them yourself - good casting practice anyway, and I doubt that you wil regret the time they take... Martin

Hi Martin love your videos I have learnt a heap from them however I have never had a crack at casting myself I would love to give it a go! I was just wondering what part of Australia you are in I’m in Victoria and have a few things I would like to reproduce that are no longer available for some trucks I am restoring. Just wondering if you’d be interested in possibly helping out or maybe some advice on what process might be the most suited for each part as I’m really not sure where to begin other than keep watching videos and give it a go myself. Cheers Jake

@olfoundryman8418

8 ай бұрын

Jake, I too am in Victoria - Croydon / Mooroolbark area of Melbourne to be a bit more precise. Hopefully you are close? My health is not what I would wish so I may or more likely may not be able to help physically but I can certainly look at what you wish to do and offer advice suggestions etc. Come to me at olfoundryman@gmail.com and maybe we can work something out like a time for you to visit if you are close enough....... Martin

@dieseldownunder.

7 ай бұрын

@@olfoundryman8418 Thankyou I sent you an email!

Can you help me make a new alloy? My theory is: pack as many elements as possible into a given space(hypothetical cube) much like a concrete aggregate. A single atom will take up 72% of the space in a cube defined by its electron outer orbit(rounding off the shape of the orbit to spherical). Then i need to fill the remaining 18% of the cube with smaller elements to a limit where all electron outer orbits are touching. With strong nuclear forces preventing deformation, the alloy should have some very special properties(maybe heating when compressed, or spitting out electrons as fast as it absorbs them) The mathematics of fitting spheres into cubes is beyond me, but copper and carbon seem like good candidates to narrow gaps to 1% of the cube.

@olfoundryman8418

7 ай бұрын

Glen, Your chances of making a useful alloy are limited. Gone, I think, are the (early industrial?) days when an amateur could come up with something new and useful. I worked on a research project to develop a new and novel heat resistant alloy I asked my boss what the chances of success were, he said about one in a hundred and we had all the advantages of a good well equipped research facility staffed and a lot of very competent Metallurgists. Doesn't mean you can't do it just that you are up against thousands of highly educated PhD aspirants all around the world. Interstitial alloys like you describe are already well know and much used - Iron Carbon comes to mind as a well-known example. But there is a compound formed between the iron and the carbon i.e. there is a bond between them. I believe that this or at least some mutual solubility to an extent at least that wetting will occur is necessary for successful alloying otherwise all you have is a handful of salt and pepper. To the best of my knowledge copper and carbon wil not react or even wet and therefore not really alloy. In any case the idea of packing atoms solid has problems - atoms are almost all nothing and if you could pack them truly solid the resulting "alloy" would no doubt have unique properties but it would be about as heavy as the center of a black hole. To have any chance you need extensive knowledge of all existing metal and metalloid phase diagrams and there are many, many thousands of them - many are online - good luck.... Martin

Would it be difficult to cast the boxes in one piece? You should sell them. I'd buy a few...

@olfoundryman8418

11 ай бұрын

nume, It would certainly be more difficult. Others I know do use one piece cast boxes Luckygen1001 and d.lazlo for example. But for the particular shape I want in a box the mould would require 5 core pieces and it would be large and heavy. The 4 sides it would replace were cast two in a box and were an easy job. Worse still - as will become apparent in the video coming up where I demonstrate the versatility of this design it is obvious that one piece casting would destroy this versatility. Yes, others have suggested that I should sell these boxes and I suspect that there is a market but unfortunately the price I would have to sell them for to cover my costs would be such that I doubt anyone would buy any.... Martin

WD-40 eats spray bottles like crazy. I think my current spray bottle was one that held caustic toilet bowl cleaner, it seems to be a little more solvent resistant than most. I've tried all the "heavy duty" solvent resistant zep bottle and the like and none of them hold up. They leak, stop spraying, and the sides of the bottle start deforming and suck in. Very annoying.

@smallcnclathes

Жыл бұрын

Some years ago when I bought a 5 litre of WD, they supplied a free sprayer it has lasted quite a number of years. May be worth trying to buy one. As you say WD tends to eat lesser spray bottles.

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

TgWags, "Eats spray bottles like crazy" Yep I had noticed! This bottle was doing well until I refilled it and then - well you saw the result! 😰 😱. To make it worse the latest pressure packs of WD are damn near impossible to work with one hand - a real designed by an idiot effort 🤬.... Martin

Hi, how big is your furnace ? What is it fueled with (diesel or gas)? Is this homemade and what kind of blower do you use?

@olfoundryman8418

9 ай бұрын

olli, Crucible, max size I can fit is an A 90 380 mm high 315 mm diam at top Oil burner majoreng.com.au/pdf/S%20Type%20Oil%20Burners.pdf S4 model, I burn diesel, I bought this burner new 50 years ago Blower similar to www.machines4u.com.au/view/advert/3HP-MAJOR-Forge-Furnace-Combustion-Air-Blower-3-Ph/304542/ but only 1 hp Furnace itself is home made and uses a castable refractory that will take 1650 Deg C. Lining is 50 years old and has done thousands of melts - its looking a bit "tired" now, but wil last a few more years yet. ... Martin

@ollidoc-olli5356

9 ай бұрын

Hi Martin, thanks a lot for the quick responce... Olli@@olfoundryman8418

Can you show me how to make a mould for a fishing spoon

@olfoundryman8418

7 ай бұрын

Barry, Sadly I am not well enough to show you how to do this in a practical way. But I might be able to offer some advice. What sort of spoon do you wish to cast and in what sort of mould do you wish to cast it - a metal one for repeated use or just a one of sand mould?. And what metal or plastic do you wish to make the spoons from?.... Martin

@barryvanwyk9828

7 ай бұрын

I can’t seem to add a photo, do you have an email address?

@barryvanwyk9828

7 ай бұрын

I want to make an aluminium mould for repeated usage, I use white metal to make my spoons

@olfoundryman8418

7 ай бұрын

@@barryvanwyk9828 Email to olfoundryman@gmail.com .... Martin

@olfoundryman8418

7 ай бұрын

@@barryvanwyk9828. Whitemetal can be cast into silicon rubber moulds. I will put you on the right direction to this as it might be a viable alternative technique for you as well as (or instead of) an aluminium mould.... Martin

YOU SHOULD MAKES THESE FLASK AND SELL THEM. ID LOVE TO HAVE SOME. DONT HAVE TIME TO CAST THEM MYSELF

@olfoundryman8418

Жыл бұрын

Dustin, You are not the first person to suggest that and indeed I have though of and investigated it myself. Sadly the conclusion I came to was that they would be too expensive to sell. There are 8 sides to each box, just casting these even in a gravity die would not be cheap then there is all the machining drilling reaming etc. It all adds up to a few hundred dollars a box at best. Too expensive I fear for the hobbyist particularly when you really need more than just a few boxes. I know casting and putting together takes time but then so does the eventual casting you hope to do - these would be good practice - do them as I did 40 -50 years ago - a few at a time over some months..... Martin