Smelting

[Charles in Aus.]

I have enjoyed metal casting since I was in the 8th grade back in 1964. Became a "shop teacher" stilll find the process fascinating.

Smelting is the process of extracting the desired metal from raw ore.

There is more to casting good parts than just melting some old cans and pouring the liquid into a mold. LOTS of variables come into play.

You might take a look at the Homemade Tools Forum. There are a few metal casting threads on there.

i have posted a few threads. These are somewhat detailed explanations of How I made a home foundry;

First furnace

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/electric-crucible-furnace-106650

Elements

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/crucible-furnace-heating-elements-106811

Final Furnace

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/electric-crucible-furnace-update-106880

Casting parts

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/casting-aluminum-parts-109156

There are many more on the HMT site;

https://www.homemadetools.net/forum/

Marvellous tutorials ! Thank you.

 

[MF294-4]

I'm assuming these mower parts are outrageously expensive or obsolete, yes?

They are gage wheeles. They were $65 a few years ago. Last I checked a couple of years ago, they were $120 each. Simple wheels. I have repaired and repaired them. Time to do something different or break down and buy new. I will probably spend as much and a lot more work going this way. I rarely do the right thing but I will enjoy doing it. I wanted to do metal casting for years. I have a lathe,mill and a plan. Just not much time left. Maybe smelting is not the right term but that is what I have seen it called. Thanks for everyone’s reply.

 

[Hemmjo]

They are gage wheeles. They were $65 a few years ago. Last I checked a couple of years ago, they were $120 each. Simple wheels. I have repaired and repaired them. Time to do something different or break down and buy new. I will probably spend as much and a lot more work going this way. I rarely do the right thing but I will enjoy doing it. I wanted to do metal casting for years. I have a lathe,mill and a plan. Just not much time left. Maybe smelting is not the right term but that is what I have seen it called. Thanks for everyone’s reply.

Where are you located? Do you have a pattern yet? Be happy to make you some rough castings if you want to finish them.

The thing that finally pushed me to build my furnace was the need for some spacers for the split rims to put wide lugged tires on my old Gravely walk behind.

To give you an idea of the reality, took about 800 pop cans for each spacer. 35 standard pop/beer cans is about a pound. But there is a lot of paint (labels) and a thin coat of plastic lining the can. Then some of the aluminum is lost from oxidation so you end up melting about 60-70 cans to get a pound of good aluminum.

One of my happy places is turning cans and broken aluminum into usable items.

If you already have a lathe and mill... you NEED a foundry!!!

Check this out;

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

My Gravely wheel spacer.

 

[560Dennis]

My nephews daughter is welding in high school. Does that count as metal shop class ? In fact she intends on going to a VoTech to continue her welding education.

I don’t if it does but kudos to the schools and kids that are doing this? Really impressive.
Side say,
I was so proud of my granddaughter (age 13) when she too welded the replacement top plate to the brush hog.

Side say ,1966 ,we were required to cast a project of our choice in shop class . Mine was the aluminum head to a finish meat tenderizer.

 

[Tony in SD]

I don’t if it does but kudos to the schools and kids that are doing this? Really impressive.
Side say,
I was so proud of my granddaughter (age 13) when she too welded the replacement top plate to the brush hog.

Side say ,1966 ,we were required to cast a project of our choice in shop class . Mine was the aluminum head to a finish meat tenderizer.

Since we were casting lead in high school, I made a battery terminal mold out of mahogany and cast a lead battery terminal. Still have both.