Hi, Everyone!

:welcome:

I wanted to take this opportunity to welcome you to our latest forum community, "The Liquid Metal" forum. This forum will be dedicated to making your own metals from available base materials and smelting. We're fortunate to also be able to announce that Brent Finnigan (B.Finnigan) has agreed to take over the spot of moderator and will be helping us all with this area of the site.

Thanks to everyone for the support of this new project board and thanks again to Brent for sharing his time and talent with everyone here at KNet!!!

Have fun, and please let me know if I can do anything to help!!!

Alex

Yipee, something new to learn.

I'm ready to jump right in! Somebody tell me what to do!

Hey Alex just want to say thank you for the new forum.

Mike

SWEEEET!

WOOOHOOO!!!!
Brent is the man to do it.
Thanks much Alex, from an entry level liquid steel dabler. :flame: Jerry

cool!!!!!
No I mean hot, real hot, like molten hot.
So for those of us who don't know much (me) can we get a basic tutorial to start.
Some of my questions are where do I get the raw materials? What are the pros and con of different smelting furnances. Can I smelt metorite ( i have two ) in a charge? What about crucibles? Please help I have always wanted to do this and now is a good time.
Thank you for all that you do!
Raymond Johnson

cool!!!!!
No I mean hot, real hot, like molten hot.
So for those of us who don't know much (me) can we get a basic tutorial to start.
Some of my questions are where do I get the raw materials? What are the pros and con of different smelting furnances. Can I smelt metorite ( i have two ) in a charge? What about crucibles? Please help I have always wanted to do this and now is a good time.
Thank you for all that you do!
Raymond Johnson

DUDE! *whispers* thermite....... http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?threadid=71819

im so glad this forum has finally started, it will be a long time before i smaelt anything but i will be watching, and i might do a little aluminium casting.
brett

-grins to self as he shops online for high quality fire extinguishers...

...in bulk-

Thanks Alex!

:101 :101 :101



-grins to self as he shops online for high quality fire extinguishers...

...in bulk-
:lol :lol :lol

:spy:



G.
Waitin for the pictorials to start..... :D :p :p

Many thanks to Alex for setting this up and everyone who posted thier interest in a smelting and casting forum! The idea of having a smelting forum here on the Knife Network came from Carl Price (CWP). I was all ready to attempt one on my own with a MSN group and he suggested tossing it up on the "Wish list" here at TKN.

Thanks Carl! And thanks to everyone who nominated me for Mod!

There is alot of art and science in smelting and casting and I look forward to having a lively forum with many threads, pictures and tutorials. I still have much to learn myself but doing things "hands on" makes learning a much more interesting journey.

I will make a point to keep my postings as non-technical as possible and try to explain things without getting too complex.

I'm so glad this forum has been started! Here's a few pics from my back yard foundry:

My 10" bore, coke fired Cupola....

http://beaumontmetalworks.com/frink/Mvc-001e.jpg

http://beaumontmetalworks.com/frink/Mvc-367e.jpg

Here...I'm pouring about 24 lbs of Bronze:

http://beaumontmetalworks.com/frink/pour.jpg


I always thought this was a cool photo: it's shot on my molding bench making cores. These are made from "shell sand" which is a heat activated resin bonded sand. The result is a very thin, permeable core ...kind of like an egg shell.

http://beaumontmetalworks.com/frink/cores3.jpg


I built my first belt grinder to grind the gates and risers from my castings.

Rob,
Those pics bring back memories. I started adult life as a patternmaker. Still have all the tools. But that is pretty much a dying trade. My tools now help in the knifemaking process.

Question of the day:

What is a shrink rule?

Correct answer intitles the winner to continue to post on this forum!! :)

Really neat Rob! Are those parts for the KMG? I looked at mine and couldn't identify the ones at the top. I can't for the life of me figure out what to call them.
I have a small foundry, some crucibles, big vase tongs and all from doing a little cast iron smelting years ago for parts to my antique engines. Worked good when I could keep the liquid molten cast iron in the sand mold. It would on occation find a place to leak through, and believe me, you can't stop it!
I did a couple of bronze castings, but was always a little leary of that stuff. I'm sure pleased with this new forum, thanks Alex.

Rob,
Those pics bring back memories. I started adult life as a patternmaker. Still have all the tools. But that is pretty much a dying trade. My tools now help in the knifemaking process.

Question of the day:

What is a shrink rule?

Correct answer intitles the winner to continue to post on this forum!! :)


The amount a casting will shrink during the cooling process?

Rob
You rock!!!!
You are one of the coolest.
Raymond Johnson