Casting your own steam engine castings?

[Richard Hed]

A couple of thousand kilometers away as it turns out, but left him a message. Thanks. I have seen most of his videos.

This seller seems to be offering casting ferrosilicon.

Thanks again.

Not such a bad price but cleverly has no estimate of postage.

 

[GreenTwin]

A couple of thousand kilometers away as it turns out, but left him a message. Thanks. I have seen most of his videos.

This seller seems to be offering casting ferrosilicon.

Thanks again.

Bingo, that looks like the right stuff.

I often see folks online from Tennessee, and I say "great we live in the same state", but then they turn out to be 440 miles away in Tennessee.
TN is a very long state.

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[GreenTwin]

Not such a bad price but cleverly has no estimate of postage.

The seller is in Cogburg North Australia, so the shipping should be reasonable, or far more reasonable than shipping it from the States I would guess.

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[moose4621]

I often see folks online from Tennessee, and I say "great we live in the same state", but then they turn out to be 440 miles away in Tennessee.
TN is a very long state.

Lol. The state of Queensland is more than 2200km long with around 7000km of coastline.
Distance is a subjective thing. Depends what you are used to.

 

[moose4621]

The seller is in Cogburg North Australia, so the shipping should be reasonable, or far more reasonable than shipping it from the States I would guess.

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Coburg is in Victoria, Southern Australia. but postage is quoted as $12.50.

 

[Richard Hed]

Coburg is in Victoria, Southern Australia. but postage is quoted as $12.50.

Lucky lucky lucky

 

[GreenTwin]

Keep the ferro in an airtight container so that it does not absorb moisture.
Adding anything to molten iron with even a very tiny amount of moisture can cause an explosion.

Many people (myself included) started out with too much ferro (more is better as they say), but with ferro, less is actually better.
As I mentioned, it only takes a tiny amount of ferro per melt, along the order of 0.04 to 0.06 oz/lb of iron.

Using too much ferro causes large shrinkage and often hot tears in the metal as it shrinks excessively.
Using excess ferro also is a waste of ferro.

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[dazz]

Hi
White cast iron can be heat treated to turn it into gray iron.
Even here, the cost to commercially heat treat are reasonable.

This is a random article I found.
https://www.industrialheating.com/articles/94644-heat-treatment-of-cast-irons

 

[Richard Hed]

Hi
White cast iron can be heat treated to turn it into gray iron.
Even here, the cost to commercially heat treat are reasonable.

This is a random article I found.
https://www.industrialheating.com/articles/94644-heat-treatment-of-cast-irons

Thanx for that info. I don't need it right at the moment, but it's good info.

 

[100model]

I often see folks online from Tennessee, and I say "great we live in the same state", but then they turn out to be 440 miles away in Tennessee.
TN is a very long state.

So is Victoria, the state where I live. It is 1000 kms from east to west in a straight line and if you travel by road it is about 1300 kms.

 

[dazz]

Hi
White cast iron can be heat treated to turn it into gray iron.
Even here, the cost to commercially heat treat are reasonable.

This is a random article I found.
https://www.industrialheating.com/articles/94644-heat-treatment-of-cast-irons

Hi
Just reading John Campbell's book.
His experience is that heat treating CI seriously damages the micro structure, degrading the properties, including strength.
So, before trying heat treatment on something important, it would be prudent to heat treat a sample to see what happens.

Ideally any heat treatment should follow a defined time-temp profile so that it is repeatable.

 

[Old Gold]

The induction melters also require a chiller to cool the coil, and so you need two rather complex pieces of equipment.
The one I saw actually had water cooled electrical components in it (the induction unit), so you hope you don't get a leak in the plumbing inside the cabinet.

True, that. I own a 50 Kw Ajax Magnethermic induction furnace. It's a second generation machine (motor/generator) and is fully water cooled, right down to the high frequency transformer contained within. It requires a circulation of ten gallons/minute of water not beyond 90°F for proper cooling, and will automatically shut down if the temperature of the discharged water exceeds 130°.

A residential electrical panel (in the US) may be rated for 200 amperes at 120/240 volts, 1-phase, but is not rated for continuous duty.
You would be lucky to be able to run a 100 ampere continuous load at 100 amps, 240 volts, 1-phase, and that would be 24 KVA.

To power my furnace, I have three phase Delta 240 volt 400 amp service. The motor generator demands a huge amount of amperage (1,509 amps for six seconds) while spooling up, so I have been known to blow the primary fuses on the service. Fortunately, the service is mine exclusively, so the provider has upgraded the primary fuses to limit the problem. It has operated well since the fuse upgrade. The amperage mentioned, above, was the result of recorded information from instrumentation installed by the provider to determine why we were blowing fuses.

You would probably have to use an expensive line reactor to prevent harmonic damage to the utility company equipment.

That isn't a problem with a motor generator system, but operation of this type of system is operator dependent on pretty much everything. One must control voltage, amperage and switch capacitors on an almost continuous basis, as conditions are ever-changing as the metal heats and melts. Unlike later generation melters (solid state), which are pretty much fully automatic.

Old Gold

 

[Old Gold]

I stir in the ferro with a dried graphite rod (from ebay), skim, pull the crucible from the furnace, and immediately pour.

You cannot wait very long after adding the ferro, since the effects of the ferro will not last long.

I am not aware of that problem, although it may be unique to melting in a crucible with flame. What you had to say is true of ductile iron, however, where the window of opportunity to pour the inoculated metal is relatively short.

Pulling an iron casting quickly out of the sand does not give the graphite in the metal time to form the nodules that make iron so machinable.

That's not true. Nodules are not formed in gray iron, nor in white iron. Nodules are formed when gray iron, low in sulfur, is inoculated with a magnesium (or other) inoculant. Glomag is one that is readily available. Gray iron precipitates free graphite in the form of flakes, which is the chief difference between ductile (nodules) and gray iron. Aside from the need for lower sulfur, ductile and gray are pretty much otherwise identical chemically.

Gray iron is often treated with calcium carbide to lower sulfur content so it can be converted to ductile. American States Cast Iron Pipe, in Utah, does exactly that, melting with a 96" water cooled cupola. I had a tour of their facility in the early 90's to witness their operation. Fascinating to see large pipe poured in 20' lengths in water cooled permanent molds. The pipe was removed and sent to annealing ovens in huge racks, as the water cooled molds instantly chilled the pipe.

Old Gold

 

[GreenTwin]

I am not aware of that problem, although it may be unique to melting in a crucible with flame. What you had to say is true of ductile iron, however, where the window of opportunity to pour the inoculated metal is relatively short.


That's not true. Nodules are not formed in gray iron, nor in white iron. Nodules are formed when gray iron, low in sulfur, is inoculated with a magnesium (or other) inoculant. Glomag is one that is readily available. Gray iron precipitates free graphite in the form of flakes, which is the chief difference between ductile (nodules) and gray iron. Aside from the need for lower sulfur, ductile and gray are pretty much otherwise identical chemically.

Gray iron is often treated with calcium carbide to lower sulfur content so it can be converted to ductile. American States Cast Iron Pipe, in Utah, does exactly that, melting with a 96" water cooled cupola. I had a tour of their facility in the early 90's to witness their operation. Fascinating to see large pipe poured in 20' lengths in water cooled permanent molds. The pipe was removed and sent to annealing ovens in huge racks, as the water cooled molds instantly chilled the pipe.

Old Gold

I think I am mixing my metaphors in my statement about "forming nodules".
The correct statement would be "forming graphite flakes".
I am just getting into researching ductile iron, and so still learning the correct terminology.

I would love to have an induction melter, but alas I am stuck with a "poor-man's induction furnace", which is an oil-fired furnace.
Induction motors generally pull six times their rated amperage when starting, and if they are started under load, perhaps more than that, or perhaps the same amount for a longer period.

One definitely does not need a quick instantaneous setting on a circuit with heavy motor starting.

I have been on a quest (like a Holy Grail type thing) to make ductile iron crankshafts, and I cannot get anyone to sell me a reasonable amount of nickle-mag additive. I have begged more than a few people for some of it, to no avail.
I even have the calcium carbide that I need, but no nickle-mag.

The center of the iron pipe industry was just a few states over from here (Birmingham Alabama to be exact), and there is still a lot of foundry activity in Alabama, as well as a large coke industry.

I initially thought I would melt iron with coke, but I could not find a source for that either.
In the end, I am glad I went with an oil-fired furnace, since it is an easy one-person operation, even if hundreds of pounds of iron are poured (using a pouring cart).

You have any photos of your furnace/pouring operation?
That sounds interesting to say the least.
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[GreenTwin]

My first few pours did not include any ferro, but they were relatively thick castings, perhaps 1" thick, and so there was no problem with hardness.

Then I poured some thin parts in iron, without ferro, and I discovered that the alloy "uncutium", which means that the metal is basically tool steel, and it will take all the teeth off of a new portaband blade in a few seconds (don't ask me how I know this, LOL).

Too much ferrosilicon causes excessive shrinkage, and often hot tears.
It takes just a slight amount of ferro added to the melt to get machinable thin parts.
The ferro helps a lot with fluidity too.

I have never waited to see if the ferro effect wears off, since if iron is not poured within about a minute, the crucible starts to go cold, and you can drop below pour temperature, which often means an incomplete mold fill.

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