Thread: Home Foundry Advice

Rob Wilson told me that you can melt cast with 2 bottles and burners. He has been doing it for a while and was really helpful when I asked a few questions about casting.
This is his latest.
New Furnace Build ,,, Cupola

He is also a member here.

Dave

Hi Greg,

You could try Melbourne Aluminium & Iron Lacework at 452 Heidelberg Rd, Fairfield.
Tel 9489 5100

Wrought Iron Melbourne, Australia - Melbourne Aluminium & Iron Lacework

I have often been tempted to call in and see what facilities they have, and where their foundry is, but haven't.

I know for aluminium, there is a place in Culverlands Rd, Heidelberg Heights. I have been there, but can't recall the name. Can find out if you need it.

Ken

wow Greg, In at the deep end. You can use coke and forced air. How big a part are you thinking of? would it be easier to machine from solid?
I've read a few books on this and want to try it myself one day.
Good luck

Stuart

Hi GQ,

I'm using lpg, with a home made flame thrower normally aspirated burner, but i'm about half way through upgrading to forced air lpg burner, so that I can do cast iron.

I post some pictures of the setup in this thread if you like.

While I would be happy to offer to do some cast iron parts for you, it's a bit premature at the moment.. in a couple of weeks it hopefully will be a different story.

Regards
Ray

Hi Boys...

Ken, that guy in H.H. does (I think) only non-ferrous. I called some mob in Fairfield last year and they didn't want to know about onesey-twosey jobs.

Stuart...I could machine from the solid if i actually had any working machines instead of this real-life exploded diagram that I laughingly call my shop. But a couple of the needed parts just lend themselves to cast.

(These are mostly parts for the Perrin mill project, but I'd also like to cast up a couple of DRO attachment brackets for my Deckel time permitting)

GQ

Hi Greg

I have also been pondering the avenue of a home foundry. While I was looking into a small forced air charcoal furnace for melting the scraps of 2024 alclad from work into small ingots for machining into other things, I came across this website:

melting metal in a home foundry, backyard metalcasting, metal casting

The site isn't the prettiest to look at, but he has some good info on ally, bronze and iron casting, using relatively simple materials. He has even made his own metal lathe by casting all the needed bits from ally! A good read.

Cheers, Tom.

Greg,

Here's another foundry to try. It's in Coburg. That's half a cut lunch from your joint.
Alan Beckwith Macbro Pty. Ltd.

They say "We will make anything".

Other places are either in Campbellfield or up in Dandenong. That's a full cut lunch away plus drinks.

Ken

Greg,
Nothing leans itself to 1500C+ lol
Stuart

Greg, when we were looking at the castings of the camel back edges didn't some local foundries come up in that exploration. From what I understand CI is a whole level up from casting, say, aluminium. I know there are foundries that can be supplied with a pattern and they'll cast just the one.

Pete

The foundry that Mike has used for Al-bronze will do cast iron, but through their New Zealand branch (!). Of course that means that a simple hand-sized part costs $100 each.

I'll keep looking for a cheaper deal.

A mate of mine had a crack at home casting cast iron for a scale down stationary engine he designed and built.
He managed to make up a lot of the pieces for his engine but when he came to machine them he encountered a lot of porosity and other defects in his otherwise fine looking castings.
He used a coke blast furnace to melt cast iron scrap, mostly old Victa cylinders, and this worked very well but the bigest problem he encountered was getting the correct ratio of limestone and other fluxes so as to slag out all the impurties.
After quite a few tries he decided it was simply not worth the effort, and this bloke is no shirk, it took him the better part of three years to design the engine and make all the patterns and he is the type of bloke who likes to do as much as he can himself.
He ended up taking his patterns to Billman's Foundry in Castlemaine, Victoria ( Billman's Foundry, Castlemaine - Cast Iron, Bronze, Aluminium, Fountains, Bollards, Light Columns, Garden, Street & Park Furniture ) who produced all the castings for him. They were very good and devoted quite a bit of time to showing him the entire casting process. He got a discount on his first couple of engines because he supplied all of the cast iron scrap for them.
I'm not saying don't have a go yourself but cast iron is is one of the most difficult things to cast and may not be the best place to start out with home foundering. If you do end up getting the castings done for you then they might be worth contacting.
(I have no affiliation to them, just forwarding on a recommendation from a bloke I trust)
Cheers,
Greg.

I recently had 4 lathe backplates cast up by Billmans at Castlemaine. They were for my TOS lathe which has a different style of backplate and have a much larger boss. I didn't deal directly with them; but via a pattern maker I know.
I made and supplied the patterns (1 X 6.5" & 1 X 8") They must have been OK because I never saw them again.

Cost was $50 each. Apparently they charge $70 per hour labour plus cost per kg of material used.

I was told that they are not over thrilled with doing small one off's.

I haven't machined the casting yet; but externally they look excellent.

Ken

Originally Posted by kwijibo99

A mate of mine had a crack at home casting cast iron for a scale down stationary engine he designed and built.
He managed to make up a lot of the pieces for his engine but when he came to machine them he encountered a lot of porosity and other defects in his otherwise fine looking castings.
He used a coke blast furnace to melt cast iron scrap, mostly old Victa cylinders, and this worked very well but the bigest problem he encountered was getting the correct ratio of limestone and other fluxes so as to slag out all the impurties.
After quite a few tries he decided it was simply not worth the effort, and this bloke is no shirk, it took him the better part of three years to design the engine and make all the patterns and he is the type of bloke who likes to do as much as he can himself.
He ended up taking his patterns to Billman's Foundry in Castlemaine, Victoria ( Billman's Foundry, Castlemaine - Cast Iron, Bronze, Aluminium, Fountains, Bollards, Light Columns, Garden, Street & Park Furniture ) who produced all the castings for him. They were very good and devoted quite a bit of time to showing him the entire casting process. He got a discount on his first couple of engines because he supplied all of the cast iron scrap for them.
I'm not saying don't have a go yourself but cast iron is is one of the most difficult things to cast and may not be the best place to start out with home foundering. If you do end up getting the castings done for you then they might be worth contacting.
(I have no affiliation to them, just forwarding on a recommendation from a bloke I trust)
Cheers,
Greg.

Thanks or the link Greg. I appreciate your friend's story too. Since I posted this I have been thinking about substituting aluminium for the larger pieces. They are non-structural, simply end plates which house bearings for a leadscrew. I need to do some more research, and give the phone a workout I guess.

I may need to examine my first impulse which is always to tool up to do it myself.

I have more than enough clean cast scrap here to get these parts made, so perhaps I'll be making patterns this week.

GQ

Greg,

The mob I spoke of earlier, for aluminium casting is
LA & WF Burns Pty Ltd
23 Culverlands Rd.
Heidelberg West
Tel 9457 1479

I had some dealings with them in my other life.

Ken