100model
Well-Known Member
RotarySMP is a very talented person he not only cast aluminium but cast iron as well. Have a look at his video melting and pouring cast iron.
Piston guy casts iron as well.
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He does a very decent job of casting gray iron.
I watched one of his earlier videos, and he was castings a lathe backplate, and it required several pours to get a usable one.
I think he is still in the learning curve.
He does mention in one of his videos that he can't find small quantities of ferrosilicon for sale where he lives, so he is aware of the need for that additive in thin cast iron castings.
I wondered why he was not using it.
Looks like he is using greensand, and seems to get an acceptable finish with it.
I designed a pouring shank with crucible retainer, but it was a bad design, and I had a full #10 crucible of iron flip out of the shank and spill on my driveway.
I redesigned my pouring shank with a new retainer, and it works very well, and will not let the crucible fall out no matter what you do with it.
I like the siphon nozzle style oil burner, as compared to his drip-style burner, because propane preheat is not required.
My burner is pretty much full on instantly; no preheat; no propane required.
In his comment section, he states "pouring iron is much more difficult than pouring aluminum".
I would tend to disagree with that.
Pouring iron is not much more difficult than pouring aluminum..............IF....................your burner is designed and tuned exactly, and if you know how to handle the slag that forms on top of iron.
The burner needs to operate with a reducing flame to minimize slag.
And you really need ferrosilicon if you do much iron pouring.
Pouring iron is a great deal hotter than pouring aluminum, and I think the difficulty that he refers to is due to the extreme heat that an iron melt produces, in the form of IR energy.
I use a heat shield on my pouring shank, and without that, pouring iron is very difficult.
A heat shield on your skimmer handle is also a very good idea.
And shaded goggles are required to prevent eye damage from the IR.
And he mentions online "there is so much conflicting expert experience", and I definitely agree with that.
That is one of the biggest obstacles to making successful; ie: listening to the wrong "expert".
Everyone on ytube is a casting expert, but the only ones I pay attention to are 100model (luckygen), and olfoundryman.
Even then I don't agree with everything these two folks do.
It is a shame that the folks casting gray iron are flung across the far parts of the world.
At least we have videos to observe and compare techinques.
.
I watched one of his earlier videos, and he was castings a lathe backplate, and it required several pours to get a usable one.
I think he is still in the learning curve.
He does mention in one of his videos that he can't find small quantities of ferrosilicon for sale where he lives, so he is aware of the need for that additive in thin cast iron castings.
I wondered why he was not using it.
Looks like he is using greensand, and seems to get an acceptable finish with it.
I designed a pouring shank with crucible retainer, but it was a bad design, and I had a full #10 crucible of iron flip out of the shank and spill on my driveway.
I redesigned my pouring shank with a new retainer, and it works very well, and will not let the crucible fall out no matter what you do with it.
I like the siphon nozzle style oil burner, as compared to his drip-style burner, because propane preheat is not required.
My burner is pretty much full on instantly; no preheat; no propane required.
In his comment section, he states "pouring iron is much more difficult than pouring aluminum".
I would tend to disagree with that.
Pouring iron is not much more difficult than pouring aluminum..............IF....................your burner is designed and tuned exactly, and if you know how to handle the slag that forms on top of iron.
The burner needs to operate with a reducing flame to minimize slag.
And you really need ferrosilicon if you do much iron pouring.
Pouring iron is a great deal hotter than pouring aluminum, and I think the difficulty that he refers to is due to the extreme heat that an iron melt produces, in the form of IR energy.
I use a heat shield on my pouring shank, and without that, pouring iron is very difficult.
A heat shield on your skimmer handle is also a very good idea.
And shaded goggles are required to prevent eye damage from the IR.
And he mentions online "there is so much conflicting expert experience", and I definitely agree with that.
That is one of the biggest obstacles to making successful; ie: listening to the wrong "expert".
Everyone on ytube is a casting expert, but the only ones I pay attention to are 100model (luckygen), and olfoundryman.
Even then I don't agree with everything these two folks do.
It is a shame that the folks casting gray iron are flung across the far parts of the world.
At least we have videos to observe and compare techinques.
.
Last edited:
100model
Well-Known Member
I have tried to start my burner with waste oil without propane preheat and was a failure so I tried again to start my burner with diesel and no propane preheat, to my surprise it worked.
Diesel lights and burns very easily and consistently, which is one of the reasons that I use it.
Burns very cleanly too.
I played around with kerosene and a Harbor Freight $20 paint sprayer, and kerosene is much lighter than diesel, and flashes much easier, perhaps too easily.
Kerosene is about four times more expensive than diesel here, so I went with diesel.
Diesel spills are safe since diesel is very difficult to light on the ground.
I have a video somewhere of a test burner that was puddling on the ground in front of the burner, but it was a very mild and controlled flame on the ground.
I will look for that test video.
.
Burns very cleanly too.
I played around with kerosene and a Harbor Freight $20 paint sprayer, and kerosene is much lighter than diesel, and flashes much easier, perhaps too easily.
Kerosene is about four times more expensive than diesel here, so I went with diesel.
Diesel spills are safe since diesel is very difficult to light on the ground.
I have a video somewhere of a test burner that was puddling on the ground in front of the burner, but it was a very mild and controlled flame on the ground.
I will look for that test video.
.
Two siphon nozzles in one large burner tube.
Even though there was some puddling in the ground, the burner never got out of control, and the ground fire was very minimal.
After a great deal of testing of many burner types, it was discovered that less is more in the foundry burner world.
Maximum heat in the furnace is about completely combusting all of what you inject into a furnace, and not at all about how much you inject into a furnace.
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Even though there was some puddling in the ground, the burner never got out of control, and the ground fire was very minimal.
After a great deal of testing of many burner types, it was discovered that less is more in the foundry burner world.
Maximum heat in the furnace is about completely combusting all of what you inject into a furnace, and not at all about how much you inject into a furnace.
.
Here is a Ursurtz burner I built and tested.
Very dangerous burner.
Never use one of these for foundry work.
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Very dangerous burner.
Never use one of these for foundry work.
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This was my first oil burner.
Made from a cutting torch tip, with the compressed air in the exterior ring of holes, and the diesel introduced through the center hole.
This burner worked well, but used an excessive amount of compressed air.
It probably used too much compressed air because I did not know what pressure to use.
As I recall, I was using 100 psi, since that is what the "experts" on ytube said to use.
Probably would have worked fine with 30 psi or a bit less.
Has the same function as a siphon nozzle burner, and works like a paint sprayer, except it sprays diesel.
Foundry oil burners don't like to remain lit when operated outside the furnace, and thus the pilot torch to keep it going.
.
Made from a cutting torch tip, with the compressed air in the exterior ring of holes, and the diesel introduced through the center hole.
This burner worked well, but used an excessive amount of compressed air.
It probably used too much compressed air because I did not know what pressure to use.
As I recall, I was using 100 psi, since that is what the "experts" on ytube said to use.
Probably would have worked fine with 30 psi or a bit less.
Has the same function as a siphon nozzle burner, and works like a paint sprayer, except it sprays diesel.
Foundry oil burners don't like to remain lit when operated outside the furnace, and thus the pilot torch to keep it going.
.
Attachments
Dual siphon nozzle burners at 180 degrees.
This would have worked very well if I had understood how to tune oil burners when I built this arrangement.
I will go back to this design one day.
This is the ultimate burner setup in my opinion.
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This would have worked very well if I had understood how to tune oil burners when I built this arrangement.
I will go back to this design one day.
This is the ultimate burner setup in my opinion.
.
I was experimenting with various fuel and combustion air flow rates, and using a temporary furnace lid.
This is the hot face part of the furnace only.
I used stainless steel needles in the refractory, which were suppose to help hold it together, but the hot face gets bright red hot, and so at that temperature, the needles have no strength.
At lower temperatures, the needles would make sense to use.
I think the stainless needles caused the blue flame at that particular fuel and air flow rate.
This is diesel combusting very cleanly.
.
This is the hot face part of the furnace only.
I used stainless steel needles in the refractory, which were suppose to help hold it together, but the hot face gets bright red hot, and so at that temperature, the needles have no strength.
At lower temperatures, the needles would make sense to use.
I think the stainless needles caused the blue flame at that particular fuel and air flow rate.
This is diesel combusting very cleanly.
.
