Florida Man Metals

It is looking good. What will the table be used for and the height? Is there a reason why you added so many legs? I personally would off made a metal base a couple inches short of the perimeter to support the slab with only four legs. That wood is going to move a mile and in 6 months I won't be surprised if half the legs won't even touch the floor.

Is there a thermal switch that trips? If i had to guess I would say you have a bad capacitor somewhere. I would inspect all the capacitors looking for signs of bloat or swollen aluminum housings on the ends. If you have a bad capacitor it won't keep the proper load.

Acid is way more effective if heated. I always use hot HCL/muratic when trying to put metal into solution. Always make sure that you are adding the acid to the water!!! Not the other way around. Exothermal reaction can be dangerous.

I believe other cultures use clay. They only add straw if they are doing a large piece for reinforcement.

Sorry no experience here. You are basically talking about brass plating through a wicking action. You are heating the iron and through capillary action when the brass becomes molten it will travel to the more porous iron. (wrought iron) This may sound inconsequential but are you sure they were using brass? I would bet it was bronze. Bronze is tin and copper. Tin is basically solder. I have never tried this before but when you melt brass the zinc throws crazy green sparks. I don't know what that might do to the "doe".

I woke up to ice a few times this week. We are neighbors. I'm directly east of you on the treasure coast.

You said it was really cold? Is condensation creating promlems/shorts?

This stuff

If you are only planning on pouring pewter you don't need all that. Just go get a bag of kids kinetic play sand. It is less than 10 dollars and it is ready to go. That is all you need to start. I eventually switched to delft clay for finer details thou.

It being almost a year since my first silver cell post and the price going crazy I figured I would update the group. Even if there isn't anyone interested. Spot silver at time of this post $116.55 usd per ozt. I built a much large silver cell capable of producing a lot more silver crystals before needing cleaned out. It is now a five gallon bucket and I am using a 2500ml reagent flask as my anode basket. It works so much better with a glass bottom to catch any sediment from falling down into the electrolyte. It has been running for two weeks at the time of these new photos. *almost two years

I cast tin all the time. Tin is a low heat metal that will work great for this project. Your idea has merit. What is your tin source if you don't mind me asking? I like to use tin/pewter to cast metal around glass objects. I would just go for it. No one has really tried this before but I like it. My advice as someone who cast tin and pewter regularly is that tin will penetrate even the smallest of gaps. As long as you can keep it from freezing up in the mold. Tin melts at like 400f use a stainless steel pan or bowl to melt in. The most important thing is everything is dry and hot. You will want to take a small mapp torch or something to heat the mold before and during when you pour the metal to keep it from freezing up. The copper will act as heat sinks. I would pickel my copper if it needed it. (salt, vinegar, and a little heat) Worse case scenario (apart from the fire and molten metal) is you don't like it. Melt and try again. You can try a hundred times. Melt, reclaim the tin, pickel the copper, set up the mold and repeat until you are happy.

Thanks John. I knew someone with the words would correct me and help me learn.

I'm more of a silversmith than a blacksmith but i have an analogy that might help. Would you rather have a hang forged ring or a cast ring. I can make a wax ring tree and cast 50 at once making them much cheaper to produce. Or, you can take an ingot of metal and roll or beat it flat. Bend it around and solder it together to make one ring at a time. The forged ring is actually stronger because you are compressing the molecules together. As for the 3d printing as far as I know no one is actually 3d printing true metal objects vs something you have to cook in a furnace other than SpaceX. I use a regular 3d printer to print objects in plastic and use that as my mold to cast metal alloys in delft clay or sand.

What a shame. I noticed his absence the last few days and chalked it up to weather. He will be missed. Let me end this with a Frosty quote because he always seemed to know what to say. "Absent Companions" Rest well Frosty.

I take it you should also avoid nickel silver because of the zinc as well. (Fume fever) Basic nickel silver composition of 60% copper, 20% nickel, and 20% zinc. Or if you have a proper respirator it might work? Or best to just leave it alone all together?