!IRON!
The first iron pour. Realistically it went better than expected, but not as good as I had hoped.
This was basically a test and learning pour. I made a small pattern of a cross that I wanted to pour along with ingots. No great expectations. The iron was from an engine head that I had cut up with a torch. I melted about 15 lbs or so. It was in the furnace for about an hour. I think the time could be greatly reduced. It reached a certain temperature quickly but leveled off well below the liquid state. It sat that way for about 20 minutes. After adjusting the propane/exhaust/air the temperature quickly rose to a pouring state. I plan to change the pulleys for more air next time along with a few other modifications. The only real problem I had was with slag, which can be seen in the photo above as the irregular dull red surface restricting the flow of metal from the crucible. I was able to remove it from the crucible before it hardened. I wasn’t too concerned of the contamination of the poured metal, so I decided to loose some fluid metal before I went to getting it out.
Smokin…The sand that I mixed up sucked. I tried a homebrew sand/oil/alcohol with unknown proportions. It flamed a little. I plan to buy some petro-bond soon and mix up a batch of proven green sand.
Probably not the best place to pour molten iron,…over a steel beam section. It looked good at the time. I thought about this after I had done such. Next time it will be on the sand. My hood is a welding mask with the dark welding lens removed (clear covers left). Notice the engine block in the top left hand corner of the picture.
The fruit of the labor. Don’t Laugh. It is much better than I had expected it to be. I could not keep the sand from sticking to the pattern and had to do many attempts and much repair work to the mould. I finally said it’ll do and put it together. I had only one sprue at the intersection. The iron did not quite reach the bottom leg.
Iron muffins. I used a muffin tin to press cups into the sand to make ingots. It worked somewhat well. Burned my flask. I got about 3 more after I removed the slag and poured the rest of the iron.
