Congratulations on the foundry. Since I started to fool with mine it
has opened up a whole new arena to make things.....that otherwise
would have involved a lot of chip making and time.

The interest in gingery stuff varies from forum to forum. SOme foks
seem to think its still a homebrew mediocre lathe or what have you ,
and others swear by them. The way I look at Gingery is its a means of
producing somehting thsat works and get some actual hands on
experieince doing it, and have something in the end that will work,
maybe not as good as a factory ade machine,m but still certainly
better than no machine at all. I made the shaper mainly for the need
to cut internal keyways.....and it gave me something to occupy my time
and mind with in the process. Its not used a lot, but its certainly
handy.....A little imagination and forethought and most if not all of
ginery machines can be improved a great deal, but that was not his
intentions as much as keeping things simple and effective....

I owuld have to say its the aluminum you used to do your pour that
resulted in its hardness. Look for items made out of 356.x alloy for
best results. Old cast aluminum items like BBQ grills, small motors,
cylinder heads etc are all very good materials to use for sand
casting. Aluminum siding, windows, doors, gutters, soda cans, wire,
furniture etc leave a lot to be desired, but its still possible to
use this material for some items. Another alloy 319 is also great. 356
alloy will over time harden up some or age, and it can be heat treated
IIRC but heat treat is kind of expensive if you have to farm it out. I
acquire any and all aluminum, separate it into types, extrusions,
sheet, cast etc, and keep all cast type, and carry the blance to the
scrap yard and sell it and buy known cast alum scrap in return......or
if the need is there buy a known certified ingot from the local
smelters.
The sprue in general need not be any longer than 1.5 to 2x its
diameter. Sometimes a larger sprue may help in keeping voids out of a
casting while its chilling down, but its rare i have ever needed a
sprue much over 1" in diameter no matter what it was that I was
casting.

check out my home foundry at http://frugalmachinist.com

Regards


On 23 Nov 2005 07:39:28 -0800, "Tom" wrote:

===Hi,
===
===just have to share the excitement. Last weekend I finally
===finished all the accessories to do a melt, and fired up the
===foundry!! For safety, I melted a very small amount of aluminum,
===and cast it. It melted in about 15 minutes and I left it in for
===another 5 to pour at a higher temperature. Casting didn't
===quite work (sprue too thin, sand too wet) but I'm learning
===from my mistakes.
===
===I'm thinking of casting sculptures and parts for a Gingery
===Lathe. What is the interest out there for rough castings for
===such a lathe? I've built the foundry a bit bigger than the
===charcoal foundry, so I can make a longer or thicker bed...
===
===The other thing is the resulting cast seemed a bit soft...
===I've looked through the archives and heat treating the cast
===seems like a bit of a pain. Would a longer sprue make the
===cast denser/harder? Or is it just the lawn chair aluminum
===that's not too great for this?
===
===Thanks,
===Tom.
===http://www.TomEberhard.com



================================================== =


This is worth repeating for benefit of all newbies!
Jo Ann asked Dr. Solo to remind people that while she has retired from selling GF (and sold
the business to Ken Fischer http://dandyorandas.com/) she has NOT retired from
helping people with sick GF and koi FOR FREE. 251-649-4790 phoning is best for
diagnosis. but, can try email put "help sick fish" in subject. Get your fish at Dandy Orandas
Dandy Orandas Dandy Orandas........you guys got that DANDY ORANDAS