Hi all,
Wonder if any of you have any ideas to add to my casting setup.
Ive been casting for about 5 years now and have been trying to improve and remove labour from the task since i started. Anyone who has done any casting im sure will agree its quite labour intensive.
So far to speed up production, ive made an automated riddle for i dont know what els to call it. But it saves having to grate the sand through a sieve like chedder cheese. Its just a pessure cooker with a screen in the bottom and a geared sawing machine motor and a spring loaded paddle pushing against the sieve.
I use oil bonded sand to remove the hasle of tempering sand.
I made all my flasks the same and not overly heavy.
I make all my patterns as matchplates so only have to add sprue and riser when making molds.
I made a muller,, (a cement mixer with iron cannon balls inside it.
So i still have to shovel the sand out of the mixer/muller into the black tub under the bench, i then have to handball it from the box into the flasks And then beat it in with a rammer.
When the molds have cooled they are shaken out into a large bucket to carry the sand back to the mixer.
Soo to avoid all this humping sand around and getting a bad back, this is my lastest idea. Its based on my understanding of a jolt squeeze machine.
The sand is fed down from above and drops into the mold via the flexible pipe. To ram the mold the top cylinder arm is swung out and over the mold and a pnumatic cylinder forces down onto the sand (the 'squeese' bit) then a foot pedle opperates a more powerfull cylinder under the mold to lift it just 10mm and back (the 'jolt' bit)
This works great and the molds come out great. And the sand falls down perfectly fine and as good as the faceing sand from the autoriddle.
BUT this is were im stuck!
My screw elavator jt dosent like to move the sand, the sand goes up the arcemedies screw just fine the problem is at the bottom the casting sand doing what its supposed to do just bridges the gap at the 1ft sq bottom of the hopper.
I aleady tried to make the hooper to screw section bigger.
And added some knarly breaker bars to the screw.
It also has a large vibration motor on the back side of the hopper but this just seams to make the sand compact even more.
It works fine for half a mold untill the bridge forms and then you have to poke it with a bar to get it to spit just a handfull of sand out. This makes the whole machine pretty usless now.
My next plan is to make basicaly a motor gear box drive probably hanging over the top with a slow moving mixer paddle to break up the sand and keep it moveing. Then maybe a new round cone shape hopper to go with it.
When i get thus section sorted il make it so the mixer can empty straight into the hopper and remove more of the shoveling.
Any ideas very welcome, cheep and simple always the best.
Wonder if any of you have any ideas to add to my casting setup.
Ive been casting for about 5 years now and have been trying to improve and remove labour from the task since i started. Anyone who has done any casting im sure will agree its quite labour intensive.
So far to speed up production, ive made an automated riddle for i dont know what els to call it. But it saves having to grate the sand through a sieve like chedder cheese. Its just a pessure cooker with a screen in the bottom and a geared sawing machine motor and a spring loaded paddle pushing against the sieve.
I use oil bonded sand to remove the hasle of tempering sand.
I made all my flasks the same and not overly heavy.
I make all my patterns as matchplates so only have to add sprue and riser when making molds.
I made a muller,, (a cement mixer with iron cannon balls inside it.
So i still have to shovel the sand out of the mixer/muller into the black tub under the bench, i then have to handball it from the box into the flasks And then beat it in with a rammer.
When the molds have cooled they are shaken out into a large bucket to carry the sand back to the mixer.
Soo to avoid all this humping sand around and getting a bad back, this is my lastest idea. Its based on my understanding of a jolt squeeze machine.
The sand is fed down from above and drops into the mold via the flexible pipe. To ram the mold the top cylinder arm is swung out and over the mold and a pnumatic cylinder forces down onto the sand (the 'squeese' bit) then a foot pedle opperates a more powerfull cylinder under the mold to lift it just 10mm and back (the 'jolt' bit)
This works great and the molds come out great. And the sand falls down perfectly fine and as good as the faceing sand from the autoriddle.
BUT this is were im stuck!
My screw elavator jt dosent like to move the sand, the sand goes up the arcemedies screw just fine the problem is at the bottom the casting sand doing what its supposed to do just bridges the gap at the 1ft sq bottom of the hopper.
I aleady tried to make the hooper to screw section bigger.
And added some knarly breaker bars to the screw.
It also has a large vibration motor on the back side of the hopper but this just seams to make the sand compact even more.
It works fine for half a mold untill the bridge forms and then you have to poke it with a bar to get it to spit just a handfull of sand out. This makes the whole machine pretty usless now.
My next plan is to make basicaly a motor gear box drive probably hanging over the top with a slow moving mixer paddle to break up the sand and keep it moveing. Then maybe a new round cone shape hopper to go with it.
When i get thus section sorted il make it so the mixer can empty straight into the hopper and remove more of the shoveling.
Any ideas very welcome, cheep and simple always the best.
