This video is a way cover I am casting for Lance Baltzley on a jog borer he has. windyhillfoundry.com/ #windyhillfoundry #castiron #sandmolding #ironpour #madeinmississippi #foundry
Very good video and narrative to explain what you are doing. I’ve been in the foundry business since 1976 and if RUclips and videos were around like this back then it would have helped tremendously to explain things to people who had an interest in the process of making castings. Early in my career I worked at Ohio Brass Company (long ago torn down) as a manufacturing engineer for several departments. There were three foundries; iron, brass and aluminum. But in the brass foundry we could pour iron and aluminum for some projects. In 1982 I worked with the top molder, Joe, a Hungarian immigrant. I asked the superintendent, Red, if I could bring in a cast iron cake mold that would make a lamb cake that was in the family, and he said ok. Joe let me do all the work, and told me how to make the two castings. It took about 3-4 hours. What made it special is the castings I used as patterns were castings made by my grandfather who worked in the foundry business his entire life. He died before I was born. I still have the lamb cake mold set I made and my sister has the original. Hard to believe that will be forty years ago next year. Your excellent video brought back some great memories. Joe taught me to use molasses water on the surface as a mold wash/ mold coating but we would also use plumbago at times too. Thanks for posting the video!
Thanks for sharing this. I always enjoy stories of the past. Really neat that you were able to make a copy of your grandfather's work. My neighbor has a toy axe my great grandfather whittled out for him when he was a small boy. I want to make a mold of it and cast little brass axes to give to my family eventually
Hello Clark, The way you talk thru the details of setting up your moulds is very educational and genuinely fascinating. Thank you for sharing your work!
I wholeheartedly agree with that comment I have seen some casting done by a young blacksmith out in Colorado and some casting done by the Builder of SV Seeker channel and I was able to follow this video quite nicely it was definitely time well spent thank you sir!
Thanks for sharing Clark. Pay no mind to those that complain about your flasks. They don't understand business, cheap and easy to replace is the cornerstone of business.
First time watching. Enjoy casting videos. The final part looks great. Never replace a production item, such as your drag/cope, until it impacts, or is about to impact, production. Money saved is money earned.
Thank you sir. I really enjoyed your commentary. I'm a country boy myself! It's so nice to see this work still being done outside of huge automated factories. Gives you a real sense of pride in your creations! +1 sub here!
Guys like you have just the spirit and drive we need to rebuild the industrial bases of our countries! It's inspiring stuff and you're enabling other craftsmen to produce great projects on their awesome machinery. Hats off to you! Glad you're so busy and glad your operation is growing!
Always enjoy your videos Clark. Glad to see dollar's eye is healing up good. I am not a foundry person never done any work like this but I have always been interested and love watching and learning about it. You guys are artists to me. Glad to hear your building a molding room to get you out of the summer heat and the winter cold I think it will help your production a lot. Looking forward to seeing the purchases used in the future sometimes you have to buy what you need when it presents itself it may not be there when your ready for it. Stay Safe. Stay Healthy. God Bless!!
Clark, your skill constantly amazes me. It is great that you will be expanding your operations. The larger size ladels look great. It is wonderful you will be able to increase the size of your pours. It would be nice to have a pattern shop and a dedicated carpenter to make all your needed patterns. Thank you for providing the excellent information contained in your videos.
Well done on this one off casting Clarke. The play by play on the voice over was really helpful to a novice of this art to gain understanding of what the heck was going on. Thanks for sharing!
Watching your video brings back old memories of my first job working in a foundry. It was an old school "slide floor" malleable cast iron foundry in Lancaster Pa. 1973 No boys worked in a foundry! I shovled sand for some of the bigest men I ever had the pleasure to know. We had the molding machines that you had delivered.
Hello, really enjoyed watching your videos on mould makings. I can understand some of the things you talk about, I am 74 years old, ex Joiner and when I was about 19 years old we had a Pattern Maker who came from a dry Docks maintenance shop, it had closed down his name was Gus Phillips his tools were a little different from ours but he fitted in with us well. We used to talk about a foundry like yours I found it fascinating listening to him, in our breaks only. Some of his tools were Bronze he had made the patterns for them. To this day I have a heavy smoothing plane in Marine Bronze, which I bought new with a hardwood centre made in Bristol England which was a ship building centre. So your videos relate quite a bit to the past. Sorry to go on, but again really enjoyed the videos, please keep them coming, Geoff Lewis, Wales, UK 🏴🏴🏴
Thank you for sharing this. It must be very satisfying to use your personal knowledge, skills, and abilities to produce satisfactory castings, and, one hopes, make a reasonable profit too. I look forward to more videos.
I actually work in a foundry in Terre Haute Indiana. The name is Gartland Foundry. We used to have squeezes and roto lifts.. We run Sinto automatically molding machines. I was a ladle liner for 4 years. I have put a lot of refractory in ladles. Great times. You can find us on RUclips.
Love how you called out those people complaining about the wooden flasks. They work just fine. As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
I'm thinking about starting to cast. I've seen alot of videos but none like yours. You do an excellent job of not only saying what you are are doing but why as well. I think this really helps beginners. Thank you very much.
Love the video. Gave me flashbacks to my Navy days on repair ships. I used to go down to the foundry and watch them do molds and castings, fascinating stuff .
I appreciate your skill. You show the sequence from making the mold to poring the metal as if all you need to do is follow these thousand steps and you can do it. I know that every step you are doing in making that mold is a learned skill of observation of every thing that has to be done right and what can go wrong. Thank you for the video.
I have wondered how many times you can reuse your flasks. Now I know :) I never understood why people make “attack” comments. You are sharing what you do the way you like to do it. It’s almost not worth mentioning the negative comments at all . That’s some interesting old equipment. Good luck getting it back into service. I look forward to seeing that.
Hello Clarke, it just goes to show that some people have no idea what continuity means, using tools or equipment over and over, if it looks too new it hasn't been used often, reusing equipment and tools saves money 👍. Really enjoyed the videos Clarke, please keep them coming, stay safe, best wishes Geoff Lewis, Wales, UK, 🏴🏴🏴
I always enjoy watching your videos. Even at 72 would like to go back and tour the Wellman's Dynamics foundry in Creston, IA that I worked in while going to collage. 4PM to 1AM shift then sleep before going to classes.
Wow! this brought back happy memories when I was doing the same at High school in the late 70s,for the life of me I can no longer remember what we made although I believe it was aluminium casting,loved every minute so thanks again for taking me back to that time in my life.
This fella represents the kind of dedication to craft and skill that defines the saying, "they don't make em like they used to". They sure don't. Unless you get it from Windy Hill i guess, then they do. :) Beautiful stuff coming out of this shop.
I had to laugh at how concerned you sounded about your "attack" on your use of the wooden flasks.!! There are too many so called professionals in this is world. If it does the job that is all that matters. If they were to get broken they are cheaply replaced, they are lighter to carry, and they do not retain the heat, (once the flames go out.!) Keep up the good work.
If you want input on the cupola design I have done a fair bit of studying on it. Many of the modern cupolas I see that the artists use are not really well suited to making quality castings. The design of the furnace is critical to getting good quality iron out. That being said cupolas lend themselves to continuous casting which means you probably better plan to hire a crew to take full advantage of what they can offer. If you don't forsee going that more large scale route you might be better off doing an induction furnace if you can get enough power from the power company.
Thanks Brian and yes I'm open to as much info as I can get. I don't want to have to build this thing twice. I have a few guys here with cupola experience and since this wouldn't be run daily I can schedule it around their schedules
I just left a bronze foundry in western Pennsylvania. We made plaques for graves, parks, etc. Very interesting and fun work, but stinky as hell. Yes, a shame that much of our production is outsourced.
We had a foundry in our Junior High Metal Shop.......Not sure I'll ever do any casting work again but it might be fun to make one of those wood tamping mallets just as a workshop decoration.
Do you have a Hauck Burner? It looks a lot like a flame thrower from WW2. You'll need it to preheat the Bull Ladles prior to transferring the molten metal from the furnace to the Bull Ladles. Preheating not only rids the lining of any condensation that may have formed after your last heat but it also heats the lining so that the lining doesn't act as a chill bringing down the temperature of the metal before you can get to the molds that need to be poured. You might find some information on Keith Ruckers' Vintage Machinery site where he has transferred a bunch of instruction manuals that not only shows how the machines are used but have technical drawings on the machines. The manuals deal with mostly machine shop equipment but who knows, you might get lucky and find a manual for the Squeeze/Jolt machine. Good luck!
Can remember heating those ladles quite well. Had to turn them on their sides and put them in a cradle against a fire brick wall, 6 inch burner of natural gas would rid them of moisture and prevent thermal shock.
@@donniebrown2896 , the placement of the ladles inside of a fire brick enclosure was the same for us in San Diego but the Hauck burner was pressurized with lp air and the pressurized 10 gallon container was filled with diesel fuel. The flame was clean and very hot.
I remember the lament that manufacturing in The United States was dead, that it all went to China, RUclips has destroyed this myth, Windy Hill Foundry is but one of many operations I have enjoyed watching.
It’s all propaganda so multinational corporations can buy cheaper goods from other countries thru unfair trade places for more profit. Corporations and other countries win at the cost to America’s people/wealth/future. It’s called merchantilism. China couldn’t compete with many areas of America’s manufacturing prowess so they devalued their currency by 30% (essential subsidizing their exports and tariffing imports), subsidize their industries and have manufacturers sell below cost to the US, put tariffs on our goods, steal our patents and Ip technology, and the list goes on.
Americans are the most productive workers in the world. We’re about 15% more productive per worker than the next most productive country. They can’t compete unless they cheat.
There must be tremendous frustration to overcome when learning the ins and outs of creating these molds. Seems like a dozen ways you could ruin one and have to start over. Takes some determination to stick with it .
Glenn I have some molds that require 3 to 4 hrs to make, it is unnerving the last hour as everything is carefully reassembled and most of the mistakes happen at that stage, just minutes from completion. I will be doing a video on just that mold soon
Certainly looks like you are stepping it up a notch or two with those big flasks! I assume you will have a big kiln or similar that you heat the metal in then empty in to the flasks, then moving them to your moulds with the crane you were talking about?
That’s so cool, I couldn’t even tell which one was the original part till you showed the ends There is a RUclips channel called Jonathan W he is trying to restore a Corliss steam engine he found from an old factory, I bet you would be exactly the type of person he would need to talk to!
A roll around squeezer , we (Dodge Foundry in Mishawaka Indiana ) had four floor squeeze I rebuild them every year, two new rings back in the 70s before they scrap them . Them put them in a 80 ton Ajax Electric furnace . But I remembered them . I Was a Milright for 37 years , I'm 71 years old . If you have any questions I will send you my email address .
I never got into molding but have worked with brick lining and castable for fireing refractory brick and special fittings. I just wondered if you were going to use castable in your ladles or brick lining? I have no idea what you would use for cast iron. I enjoy watching your projects and wish you well in all you set out to do, Greg in Southern Ohio.
The foundry I worked in here in Birmingham Alabama used three different sizes of ladles. The small ones like Clark has would have been castable. The other two we used would have had castable bottoms with brick walls. The larger of the two capable of 28 thousand pounds per heat. We were one of the smallest foundries here and one of the last that actually cast parts for steam locomotives.
Clarke, why do you always ram the sand around the edges first? My guess is that method is just a more efficient way to ram everything up, rather than "chasing" the sand around in the flasks perhaps? The "armchair" Foundrymen need to know that you don't have to spend the $$$ on metal flasks to do good work. Thank you for pointing out how _long_ your wooden flasks last. Most home Foundries will _never_ wear them out! I like how you used the small rare-earth magnets too! ;) Thank you _very_ much for your very _detailed_ explanations of each step you show.
Bob, the old books I learned from illustrate to ram the perimeter on the first step. This helps hold facing sand in place as you work from the outside in.
I finally raided our picnic set to find a spoon, now heavily modified to make a runner cutter like yours. I was watching the pour and it looks like the flasks catch fire just from the radiant heat of the crucible?
Mark I should buy up spoons at thrift stores and beat them to shape to sell 😁. Yes that's some serious heat coming off the crucible. Even with two layers of leather my chest and abdomen get cooked red each time like a severe sunburn
Your work is superb. I read some where that in the old times that a molases slury pas pained on the surfaces of the mold to make a smother finish. May be just a load of crap be interesting .
I think these are high carbon content which makes for better castings. Rail road iron works good for grey iron castings too but it's alot my cost per ton. ton.
Questions please Clark, 1. Using a casting to make a casting, what type of shrinkage would you expect in this case? 1/16" per foot? 2. What size and weight are you targeting for your new cupola furnace? Thank you,
Shrinkage for cast iron is generally 1/8" per ft. I need to be able to tap 1000 pounds. I lost out on a good job two years ago that was above my capacity and don't want to be in that position again
Hello Clarke, I used to have a beer with a foundry man and he was telling me that they used a rule with different dimensions on it to suit steel, brass, cast iron and bronze, to allow for different shrinkage of various metals, me being a Joiner I have never seen one of these, so i cannot describe it any better, but I believe it was "Ridged" not a tape type. Excellent videos Clarke please keep them coming you are bringing back lots of good memories for me best wishes Geoff Lewis, Wales, UK, 🏴🏴🏴
@@geofflewis4815 thanks Geoff and you are correct. I'll try to demonstrate an actual shrink ruler next time I'm at Soule museum. They actually have one on display in the pattern room.
i work in a foundry i am a inspector i do not see you doing anything wrong but here is a suggestion if you have a chipping gun with a blunt tip dull bit it blends better than a needle gun
Wooden flasks are the easiest type to work with you try not to pour hot metal on the flask itself ideally the the hot metal only touches the sand personally I always use a certain funnel for my spue and set it in the mold so after packing sand i just have to pull the sprue out and I have a nice pouring cup.
You should try a sprue cutter, it is much faster and you don't have to worry about the inconsistencies of hard and soft spots during the ram operation. Because of the quantity of molds made per day I have to finish these out as fast as possible
@@windyhillfoundry5940 i use a tapered ram the size of my flask I use an 8 ton air jack from harbor freight in a press style set up upside fill sand flip switch and tighten and I can adjust top pressure. Down side every time I make a new flask size I have to configure a new ram head and how it will mount. I obviously would destroy a wooden flask if I ever used all 8 ton but I like the flip of a switch ram down once the flask is full. And add more if needed.
Наука
Very good video and narrative to explain what you are doing. I’ve been in the foundry business since 1976 and if RUclips and videos were around like this back then it would have helped tremendously to explain things to people who had an interest in the process of making castings.
Early in my career I worked at Ohio Brass Company (long ago torn down) as a manufacturing engineer for several departments. There were three foundries; iron, brass and aluminum. But in the brass foundry we could pour iron and aluminum for some projects. In 1982 I worked with the top molder, Joe, a Hungarian immigrant. I asked the superintendent, Red, if I could bring in a cast iron cake mold that would make a lamb cake that was in the family, and he said ok. Joe let me do all the work, and told me how to make the two castings. It took about 3-4 hours. What made it special is the castings I used as patterns were castings made by my grandfather who worked in the foundry business his entire life. He died before I was born. I still have the lamb cake mold set I made and my sister has the original. Hard to believe that will be forty years ago next year.
Your excellent video brought back some great memories. Joe taught me to use molasses water on the surface as a mold wash/ mold coating but we would also use plumbago at times too.
Thanks for posting the video!
Thanks for sharing this. I always enjoy stories of the past. Really neat that you were able to make a copy of your grandfather's work. My neighbor has a toy axe my great grandfather whittled out for him when he was a small boy. I want to make a mold of it and cast little brass axes to give to my family eventually
Hello Clark, The way you talk thru the details of setting up your moulds is very educational and genuinely fascinating. Thank you for sharing your work!
I wholeheartedly agree with that comment I have seen some casting done by a young blacksmith out in Colorado and some casting done by the Builder of SV Seeker channel and I was able to follow this video quite nicely it was definitely time well spent thank you sir!
Thanks for sharing Clark. Pay no mind to those that complain about your flasks. They don't understand business, cheap and easy to replace is the cornerstone of business.
Thanks Craig, yes I haven't taken out a loan so far and plan to keep it that way👍
Agreed, those with fancy tools and painted floors have high overhead. A working man has what he needs.
First time watching. Enjoy casting videos. The final part looks great. Never replace a production item, such as your drag/cope, until it impacts, or is about to impact, production. Money saved is money earned.
I love watching this, so many ways to fail but you always prevail, thanks for sharing your skills.
Thank you sir. I really enjoyed your commentary. I'm a country boy myself! It's so nice to see this work still being done outside of huge automated factories. Gives you a real sense of pride in your creations! +1 sub here!
Thanks Ricky and you are correct. Despite the hard work I have never done anything as satisfying as this
Guys like you have just the spirit and drive we need to rebuild the industrial bases of our countries! It's inspiring stuff and you're enabling other craftsmen to produce great projects on their awesome machinery. Hats off to you! Glad you're so busy and glad your operation is growing!
Thanks for the compliment 🇺🇲
Thanks for sharing. I enjoy watching you and seeing dollar grow up. I remember when she was just a pup.
Always enjoy your videos Clark. Glad to see dollar's eye is healing up good. I am not a foundry person never done any work like this but I have always been interested and love watching and learning about it. You guys are artists to me. Glad to hear your building a molding room to get you out of the summer heat and the winter cold I think it will help your production a lot. Looking forward to seeing the purchases used in the future sometimes you have to buy what you need when it presents itself it may not be there when your ready for it. Stay Safe. Stay Healthy. God Bless!!
Thanks Nashguy👍
As always Clarke, another great video. I'm glad you're planning to expand your foundry and looking forward to following you along the way.
Excellent video. Thanks for explaining everything so clearly.
Clark, your skill constantly amazes me. It is great that you will be expanding your operations. The larger size ladels look great. It is wonderful you will be able to increase the size of your pours. It would be nice to have a pattern shop and a dedicated carpenter to make all your needed patterns.
Thank you for providing the excellent information contained in your videos.
Clarke, Awesome video, great content, enjoyed watching and thanks for sharing your video, have a great day.!.!.!.
Well done on this one off casting Clarke. The play by play on the voice over was really helpful to a novice of this art to gain understanding of what the heck was going on. Thanks for sharing!
Can't thank you enough Clark!!! Looks great, your work is always so exceptional...
Thanks Lance👍
Watching your video brings back old memories of my first job working in a foundry. It was an old school "slide floor" malleable cast iron foundry in Lancaster Pa. 1973
No boys worked in a foundry! I shovled sand for some of the bigest men I ever had the pleasure to know.
We had the molding machines that you had delivered.
I hope to soon be using this machine in upcoming vids
Hello, really enjoyed watching your videos on mould makings. I can understand some of the things you talk about, I am 74 years old, ex Joiner and when I was about 19 years old we had a Pattern Maker who came from a dry Docks maintenance shop, it had closed down his name was Gus Phillips his tools were a little different from ours but he fitted in with us well. We used to talk about a foundry like yours I found it fascinating listening to him, in our breaks only. Some of his tools were Bronze he had made the patterns for them. To this day I have a heavy smoothing plane in Marine Bronze, which I bought new with a hardwood centre made in Bristol England which was a ship building centre. So your videos relate quite a bit to the past. Sorry to go on, but again really enjoyed the videos, please keep them coming, Geoff Lewis, Wales, UK 🏴🏴🏴
Geoff, it's always good to hear these stories. So glad I'm able to replicate how they used to do things and bring back memories for you.
Thank you for sharing this. It must be very satisfying to use your personal knowledge, skills, and abilities to produce satisfactory castings, and, one hopes, make a reasonable profit too. I look forward to more videos.
I actually work in a foundry in Terre Haute Indiana. The name is Gartland Foundry. We used to have squeezes and roto lifts.. We run Sinto automatically molding machines. I was a ladle liner for 4 years. I have put a lot of refractory in ladles. Great times. You can find us on RUclips.
Thanks I'll check it out👌
Thank you! It is fascinating to watch you work. I have one of Keith’s 9” straightedges that you made. It is beautiful!
Yep getting bigger on you,that is very good news Clark....Best of luck coming up for you my friend.....Thanks very much....!
Turned out great! looks good! Thanks Clarke. Enjoy watching .👍😊
Its men likeu who will keep this country alive thank u for your work an videos
🇺🇲🇺🇲🇺🇲 I'm all about made in America👍
Love how you called out those people complaining about the wooden flasks. They work just fine. As the old saying goes, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Yes a shiny metal flask can't make a better mold than an old burned wood one. It's what's inside the mold that counts 😁
Nice one thanks for sharing
Thanks for sharing! Good luck with the expanding. Looks like your ahead of the curve. We all maybe working from home sooner or later! Stay safe.
Fun to watch👍👍👍👍👍👏🏻👏🏻
I'm thinking about starting to cast. I've seen alot of videos but none like yours. You do an excellent job of not only saying what you are are doing but why as well. I think this really helps beginners. Thank you very much.
Good luck👍
Lots of great molding tips, some big new equipment, and a cupola in the future! Awesome, great video
Thanks J, yes I have a lot planned. The cupola will be for large ductile castings so I have a lot to research yet
Very nicely explained, good video,
Thanks for sharing, really enjoyed it 👍😀
Love the video. Gave me flashbacks to my Navy days on repair ships. I used to go down to the foundry and watch them do molds and castings, fascinating stuff .
My brother retired several years ago from the navy. He was a Mustang🚢🎖
I appreciate your skill. You show the sequence from making the mold to poring the metal as if all you need to do is follow these thousand steps and you can do it. I know that every step you are doing in making that mold is a learned skill of observation of every thing that has to be done right and what can go wrong. Thank you for the video.
Thanks and yes, there is definitely a method to each step of this madness
Thanks for sharing your skills and knowledge.
I have wondered how many times you can reuse your flasks. Now I know :)
I never understood why people make “attack” comments. You are sharing what you do the way you like to do it.
It’s almost not worth mentioning the negative comments at all .
That’s some interesting old equipment. Good luck getting it back into service. I look forward to seeing that.
Hello Clarke, it just goes to show that some people have no idea what continuity means, using tools or equipment over and over, if it looks too new it hasn't been used often, reusing equipment and tools saves money 👍. Really enjoyed the videos Clarke, please keep them coming, stay safe, best wishes Geoff Lewis, Wales, UK, 🏴🏴🏴
Great to see this. I never understand why people would put the thumb down. This is a great insight to how casting is done. Very interesting. Thanks.
The man knows his onions...props👍
GOD BLESS ...LOVE THE VIDEO
Love this channel, Thanks
I always enjoy watching your videos. Even at 72 would like to go back and tour the Wellman's Dynamics foundry in Creston, IA that I worked in while going to collage. 4PM to 1AM shift then sleep before going to classes.
Thanks for sharing your memories and I would be interested in seeing that myself. My wife is from Cedar Rapids so I'm up there often
Wow! this brought back happy memories when I was doing the same at High school in the late 70s,for the life of me I can no longer remember what we made although I believe it was aluminium casting,loved every minute so thanks again for taking me back to that time in my life.
Thanks for sharing, always enjoy hearing stories of the past👍
This fella represents the kind of dedication to craft and skill that defines the saying, "they don't make em like they used to". They sure don't. Unless you get it from Windy Hill i guess, then they do. :) Beautiful stuff coming out of this shop.
that's pretty cool I really enjoy these videos and especially how you explain what you are doing.
Very cool to watch and learn a bit of your skills. Thanks you so much.
Always a pleasure Mr. Clark!!!
I love your videos
Thank you for sharing your work!
Superb tutorial on casting, it's really good to witness a Master at their Craft! Subscribed.
Your work is looking real good.
I love your videos. Your voice is so calming. (Like Senator Grahm)
🤣 I should run for Senate too
Nice process Clarke
Very neat, thanks.
looking good sir
I had to laugh at how concerned you sounded about your "attack" on your use of the wooden flasks.!!
There are too many so called professionals in this is world.
If it does the job that is all that matters.
If they were to get broken they are cheaply replaced, they are lighter to carry, and they do not retain the heat, (once the flames go out.!)
Keep up the good work.
You got ur work cut out for you. Retired Navy molder here. Worked with your molding table in Portsmith naval yard, royal pain. Good luck, lol
Thanks Rickey and yes that molding bench isn't the best. As we finish out the addition I plan to have a solid wooden one👍
If you want input on the cupola design I have done a fair bit of studying on it. Many of the modern cupolas I see that the artists use are not really well suited to making quality castings. The design of the furnace is critical to getting good quality iron out. That being said cupolas lend themselves to continuous casting which means you probably better plan to hire a crew to take full advantage of what they can offer. If you don't forsee going that more large scale route you might be better off doing an induction furnace if you can get enough power from the power company.
Thanks Brian and yes I'm open to as much info as I can get. I don't want to have to build this thing twice.
I have a few guys here with cupola experience and since this wouldn't be run daily I can schedule it around their schedules
Shame we got rid of most of these great manufacturing jobs to overseas. Great video appreciate the hard work.
Trump is trying to fix it
I'm doing my part to make American iron great again🇺🇲
I just left a bronze foundry in western Pennsylvania. We made plaques for graves, parks, etc. Very interesting and fun work, but stinky as hell. Yes, a shame that much of our production is outsourced.
G’day Clarke, well done. Seems like you want to step up your production, good luck with it.
Cheers
Peter
Sir I like your skill and your work
We had a foundry in our Junior High Metal Shop.......Not sure I'll ever do any casting work again but it might be fun to make one of those wood tamping mallets just as a workshop decoration.
impressive
Hey thanks love the smell of green sand
Those new ladles should increase the size of the pours you can make, if I understand how they will be used. Good addition to the foundry.
Clark thanks much for teaching us out on YT land, I like your work and found you via both Vintage MAchinery.org and Abom79's channel
Nice work sir
Do you have a Hauck Burner? It looks a lot like a flame thrower from WW2. You'll need it to preheat the Bull Ladles prior to transferring the molten metal from the furnace to the Bull Ladles. Preheating not only rids the lining of any condensation that may have formed after your last heat but it also heats the lining so that the lining doesn't act as a chill bringing down the temperature of the metal before you can get to the molds that need to be poured. You might find some information on Keith Ruckers' Vintage Machinery site where he has transferred a bunch of instruction manuals that not only shows how the machines are used but have technical drawings on the machines. The manuals deal with mostly machine shop equipment but who knows, you might get lucky and find a manual for the Squeeze/Jolt machine. Good luck!
Can remember heating those ladles quite well. Had to turn them on their sides and put them in a cradle against a fire brick wall, 6 inch burner of natural gas would rid them of moisture and prevent thermal shock.
@@donniebrown2896 , the placement of the ladles inside of a fire brick enclosure was the same for us in San Diego but the Hauck burner was pressurized with lp air and the pressurized 10 gallon container was filled with diesel fuel. The flame was clean and very hot.
Thanks Sandrammer, no I don't have a haul burner but when the time comes I will be building one
Sounds like you’re expanding your operation. I can’t wait to see the cupola furnace in operation.
Hopefully the cupola is up in running next year👌
Very nice.
It seems your business is growing. That is good news for all.
Interesting stuff
I remember the lament that manufacturing in The United States was dead, that it all went to China, RUclips has destroyed this myth, Windy Hill Foundry is but one of many operations I have enjoyed watching.
I'm doing my part to make Iron Great Again😁
It’s all propaganda so multinational corporations can buy cheaper goods from other countries thru unfair trade places for more profit. Corporations and other countries win at the cost to America’s people/wealth/future. It’s called merchantilism. China couldn’t compete with many areas of America’s manufacturing prowess so they devalued their currency by 30% (essential subsidizing their exports and tariffing imports), subsidize their industries and have manufacturers sell below cost to the US, put tariffs on our goods, steal our patents and Ip technology, and the list goes on.
Americans are the most productive workers in the world. We’re about 15% more productive per worker than the next most productive country. They can’t compete unless they cheat.
There must be tremendous frustration to overcome when learning the ins and outs of creating these molds. Seems like a dozen ways you could ruin one and have to start over. Takes some determination to stick with it .
Glenn I have some molds that require 3 to 4 hrs to make, it is unnerving the last hour as everything is carefully reassembled and most of the mistakes happen at that stage, just minutes from completion. I will be doing a video on just that mold soon
Certainly looks like you are stepping it up a notch or two with those big flasks!
I assume you will have a big kiln or similar that you heat the metal in then empty in to the flasks, then moving them to your moulds with the crane you were talking about?
That’s so cool, I couldn’t even tell which one was the original part till you showed the ends
There is a RUclips channel called Jonathan W he is trying to restore a Corliss steam engine he found from an old factory, I bet you would be exactly the type of person he would need to talk to!
I'll have to check his channel out
A roll around squeezer , we (Dodge Foundry in Mishawaka Indiana ) had four floor squeeze I rebuild them every year, two new rings back in the 70s before they scrap them . Them put them in a 80 ton Ajax Electric furnace . But I remembered them . I Was a Milright for 37 years , I'm 71 years old . If you have any questions I will send you my email address .
Thanks William and I appreciate that. Yes, I would have been sick watching old iron machinery destroyed
Artist.
Nice job as always. Where's your helper?
A couple of videos ago, he mentioned it was time for her to go back to school.
One of them is back in school and the other is cooking my dinner😁
I never got into molding but have worked with brick lining and castable for fireing refractory brick and special fittings. I just wondered if you were going to use castable in your ladles or brick lining? I have no idea what you would use for cast iron. I enjoy watching your projects and wish you well in all you set out to do, Greg in Southern Ohio.
The foundry I worked in here in Birmingham Alabama used three different sizes of ladles. The small ones like Clark has would have been castable. The other two we used would have had castable bottoms with brick walls. The larger of the two capable of 28 thousand pounds per heat. We were one of the smallest foundries here and one of the last that actually cast parts for steam locomotives.
Thanks Greg, they produce cast liners the fit in these. If I can't find what I need I will line it with castable refractory
if you are looking for a new flask, aluminum extrusion works great. Fair bit lighter, more rigid, wicks heat away well and never burns
I have nothing against aluminum flask. I'm just waiting for someone to give them to me👌
Some good tips in this on and your going to need some more rotors to fill your new ladles must be 150 or 200 gallons
I have stacks of rotors accumulating all over so there's no shortage of iron👍
Refractory did you say. boilers I did long time ago ..
I love stuff like this! What do you do if you need a really smooth surface? I’d love to make a large CI skillet
Kurt I am not a skillet expert. We have cast those and generally skillets turn out with a nice finish because of the thickness.
Those ladles are familiar, I poured iron at western foundry in lyons KS using ones very similar.
I hope to be using these in 2022
When the pattern is rough or has holes , would it work to cover the roughness with smooth tape?
To a certain degree yes
Wow
Clarke, why do you always ram the sand around the edges first? My guess is that method is just a more efficient way to ram everything up, rather than "chasing" the sand around in the flasks perhaps?
The "armchair" Foundrymen need to know that you don't have to spend the $$$ on metal flasks to do good work. Thank you for pointing out how _long_ your wooden flasks last. Most home Foundries will _never_ wear them out!
I like how you used the small rare-earth magnets too! ;)
Thank you _very_ much for your very _detailed_ explanations of each step you show.
Bob, the old books I learned from illustrate to ram the perimeter on the first step. This helps hold facing sand in place as you work from the outside in.
I finally raided our picnic set to find a spoon, now heavily modified to make a runner cutter like yours. I was watching the pour and it looks like the flasks catch fire just from the radiant heat of the crucible?
Mark I should buy up spoons at thrift stores and beat them to shape to sell 😁.
Yes that's some serious heat coming off the crucible. Even with two layers of leather my chest and abdomen get cooked red each time like a severe sunburn
@@windyhillfoundry5940 I think a better costume is in order. Protect yourself!
I would love to try this. It does seem really dangerous
I get 3rd degree burns once a year on the fingers but it hasn't killed me, yet anyway🙄
Great video show more of the dog
super
Your flask looked great. It's the end result that counts.
Your work is superb. I read some where that in the old times that a molases slury pas pained on the surfaces of the mold to make a smother finish. May be just a load of crap be interesting .
Yes most of my literature is from the turn of the century and they often used blackening which included graphite and plumbago
Why do you scratch the sand with a comb after compacting the first layer?
k15n1 to make the next layer stick.
It helps the binding of the final layer
I like your reuse of old disc brake rotors, I would think that they mostly would be made from high grade cast iron
Since I switched to brake rotors I haven't had inconsistencies.
I think these are high carbon content which makes for better castings. Rail road iron works good for grey iron castings too but it's alot my cost per ton. ton.
Questions please Clark,
1. Using a casting to make a casting, what type of shrinkage would you expect in this case? 1/16" per foot?
2. What size and weight are you targeting for your new cupola furnace?
Thank you,
Shrinkage for cast iron is generally 1/8" per ft.
I need to be able to tap 1000 pounds. I lost out on a good job two years ago that was above my capacity and don't want to be in that position again
Hello Clarke, I used to have a beer with a foundry man and he was telling me that they used a rule with different dimensions on it to suit steel, brass, cast iron and bronze, to allow for different shrinkage of various metals, me being a Joiner I have never seen one of these, so i cannot describe it any better, but I believe it was "Ridged" not a tape type. Excellent videos Clarke please keep them coming you are bringing back lots of good memories for me best wishes Geoff Lewis, Wales, UK, 🏴🏴🏴
@@geofflewis4815 thanks Geoff and you are correct. I'll try to demonstrate an actual shrink ruler next time I'm at Soule museum. They actually have one on display in the pattern room.
i work in a foundry i am a inspector i do not see you doing anything wrong but here is a suggestion if you have a chipping gun with a blunt tip dull bit it blends better than a needle gun
Thanks Donald, thanks for the tip. I mostly use the needle scaler just to knock off the sand and wire brush the rest
will the finished casting be a little smaller in all dimensions due to shrinkage ?
Yes it will
How much smaller will those way covers be than the original?
I think Clark's source metal is old brake rotors which are grey cast iron, this doesn't shrink much, maybe 1%
Michael cast iron shrinks 1/8" per foot. The customer understands this and for it's application this will be fine.
Using a casting as the pattern will mean the new casting will be a little smaller owing to shrinkage, won't it?
Yes but not enough to create issues with the function
Wooden flasks are the easiest type to work with you try not to pour hot metal on the flask itself ideally the the hot metal only touches the sand personally I always use a certain funnel for my spue and set it in the mold so after packing sand i just have to pull the sprue out and I have a nice pouring cup.
You should try a sprue cutter, it is much faster and you don't have to worry about the inconsistencies of hard and soft spots during the ram operation. Because of the quantity of molds made per day I have to finish these out as fast as possible
@@windyhillfoundry5940 i use a tapered ram the size of my flask I use an 8 ton air jack from harbor freight in a press style set up upside fill sand flip switch and tighten and I can adjust top pressure. Down side every time I make a new flask size I have to configure a new ram head and how it will mount. I obviously would destroy a wooden flask if I ever used all 8 ton but I like the flip of a switch ram down once the flask is full. And add more if needed.