Try and have fun too!

This picture is sefl explanitory to those who know the basics, notice the burn marks on some of the flasks, be careful to weight the cope if your pouring a big piece, or you'll get a nice molten aluminum spill. Most of the copes and drags shown are inter changable so that i can use as little sand as possible, less tamping. The flask with a semicircular hole in the side was made so i could pour it on its side, in my attempt to make step pullies. They turned out ok, but I had no way to machine them. Make sure you clamp the cope and drag together if your going to pour sideways like this.

Here is a picture of the pattern for the bed of the lathe, its the first one I made, I think it turned out good. M table saw was helpful. It took me 3 tries to poor the bed. The first time it messed up because there wasnt enough venting at the extreme ends, and the pour was too cold. I fixed this by borrowing a thermo couple, and now i pour at the perfect temperature. The second failure resulted in the upper slots not touching the sand in the cope when the mould was closed. Steam built up in this cavity and blew a nice hole in the top of my bed. Thats not very nice. The third one was perfect. Lots of paint, and a dull chisle, and i had my finsihed bed.

Here is a closeup of my foundry. The lid is a little worse for wear, bust still does its job admirably.

The steel crucible. This was made by welding a length of steel pipe to 1/4 inch steel plate. There is a nice buildup of junk inside, hopefully protecting the inside of the pot from oxidizing alot. The outside however rusts up pretty much every time. But it does its job, showing no signs that the weld aroudn the bottom edge is failing. I made tongs to fit this pot specifically, however i did not take any pictures of them. They allow me to pick the pot vertically out of the foundry, then set it down and swivel the grips, so i can poor it sideways instead of towrds me. Pressure on the grips of the tongs keeps them from swiveling in flight. They work well. Always wear thick leather gloves and thick clothing. Dont foget the saftey goggles, I use a face shield.

Here is my torch I made from plans i found on the internet. I will look for the address of the site, it is a very useful place for infomation on burners and blacksmithing. It is a venturi type burner, so it requires no external air supply. Its made from plumbing fittings and a welding tip as the fuel nozzel. The disk in the back is used to adjust the air flow. The flared nozzel on the end is used to burn the burner inopen air, and is not usefull when its in the foundry. This thing makes an awesome flame, well in excess of the melting point of aluminum, and has a a kick ass sound.

This is a picture of my lathe in its current state. A fresh coat of oil on the ways. I never did get down to making the handles for the various adjustment screws. Gingery suggests to try (to cast them) them frist, but i decided to pour the bed first. Which in retrospect was not the best idea, since it is a difficult pour, if not just simply for its size.

I have the wrong size bets for the auto feed on main screw, something a little more flexible than v-belts would be nice.

I have had the most problems with the apron and split nut that attach the crossslide assembly to the main adjustment screw. The placement always seems to torque the cross slide and jam it agains the ways so the screw just slips over the screw as it turns. After messing with it for a while, I decided to try something different.

I decided to make a complete "nut" out of aluminum, tap it for my lead screw. Then i cut the nut in half horizontally and mounted it to ways on the back of the apron. The ways need to be fairly good, since there will be lots of backlash if they are loose, but its not all that important i think. The two halves are held together with a long screw and a stiff spring. They are separated by twisting a shaft with a flay end filed in it, thus wedging them apart. MAke sure the end is rounded so it doesnt gouge the aluminum. Hopefully the picture below describes this better. If youve gotten to this point, you probably can come up with reasonable dimensions, so i havent included any.

You may also notice that I use a more conventional, I think, type of tool holder. This does a better job of holding the tools in my opinion, but what do I know. A closer picture is shown below, although from the wrong angle, my bad.

Here is a picture from the other side

Here is a picture of a few of the pullies I have made with the lathe. The one on the end of the main shaft was mad using a makeshift lathe i made using my drillpress as the power. The other two are from the lathe, they turnedout pretty good, however the finish isn't that great, mostly, I think, due to the fact that i am using mostly pure aluminum. I ended up burning out my drill press motor, not made for continuous dudy it seems.

Also visible in this picture are the home made bearing blocks. The bearings I used were ones I had laying around that I bought off of ebay. They were for a milling maching idea I had that never came to be. The threaded rod is also a remanant from that project. There are two more of these supporting the step pully in the motor mount. I am pretty good at making bearing blocks now. I made sand cores, which i didnt bake or need too, so that the macnining of the block was a minimum. In fact i used a cheap forsner bit to clean up the inside, it worked like a champ.

That is all I have for now. I will add more when its not 3:00 in the morning.