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Foundry sample crucible help needed


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I just purchased a pretty nice anvil.  The story is this big girl was rescued from an old open hearth steel mill.  Each hearth had one by it which they used to knock the samples out of the tool they used to take samples.

I have done a search on any terms I can think of, but no where can I find anything like what I'm looking for.  I'd LOVE to have even a worn out one of these to keep with the anvil.  

Here's a pic of the damage the anvil took over the years doing this job.  Does the imprint look familiar?  Can you help me decipher exactly what this is from?

20161001_162748.jpg.3342d70a813028d32054bba98f744ab7.jpg

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Looks to me like years worth of getting hit by the edge of a steel ladle. I'd say the fellows taking samples had some slight difference with them, their technique or maybe ladle that resulted in two distinct impact zones. Those are two long term wear patterns, not one oddball mark.

If you know whiat foundry it was used in you probably know who the maker was. It was probably made in house even if it's forged most commercial foundries had a forge shop as well. She's a beautiful old beast, lots of history written on her.

Frosty The Lucky.

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Agreed, this is long term wear pattern.  She came from Granite City Steel in Ill.  Would just a ladle be used to take samples?  I saw a video from there where they used the RR track running through to knock the sample loose....I was hoping to see my anvil :(

The fella I got this from said it was a loop shaped thing with ceramic tube???? I've got no idea what he's referring to though.  I'd love to find one or something similar.

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Typically, samples would have been ladled into ingot moulds. Looks like they inverted the still hot mould over the cutting step to tap the ingot out. The heat may have taken the life out of that section of the anvil and promoted wear.....test it for rebound from one end to the other, see if you can notice a fall off toward the cutting step.

As far as accompanyng equipment for the anvil, I suspect you are looking for a ladle, and ingot mould, a hammer and maybe a pair of tongs......

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Just the mold is the dipper from what I can tell from the video.  The hammer, ladle, and tongs are tools I'll be using on the anvil. so that's not going to be a problem.  The mold would tell the story with a visual fit - that's why I'm interested in one.

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Every photo I can find shows a dipper being poured into a mold/ladle.  I suggest that the ladle was then tapped over the edge of the face so the sample would pop out against the table/horn with some impact. You wouldn't do it over any other edge or the sample would end up on the floor. I can't see the exact shape of the wear due to no square top view.  They probably wore one top groove and then moved to a new spot when that one got too big, creating that second groove.

Probably the same speculation you have already done.

Sorry for photo size.

slevarna-chomutov-odebirani-vzorku-555.j

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Think about, turn the ingot out over the step and you can get the tongs underneath to flip the mould off and to pick up the sample ingot....makes life that little bit easier! Tapping out a laddle can be done anyhere so one would not expect it to alway be in one area sufficiently to cause that damage.

The indent in the anvil looks like an oblong mould rim (wall brick shape and approx similar size)

Any chance you can link us to the video you mention Sling-it?

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I watched the video again, and he did pour it from a dipper into a square mold.  Kozzy, you're right :D.  See 5:00 for the sample.  

This is apparently from 1938, which is just a few years before my anvil was made, but the same mill it came from.  Any idea where I could get an old mold like this?

Video here

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  • 3 years later...
On 10/4/2016 at 1:48 PM, Sling-it said:

I just purchased a pretty nice anvil.  The story is this big girl was rescued from an old open hearth steel mill.  Each hearth had one by it which they used to knock the samples out of the tool they used to take samples.

I have done a search on any terms I can think of, but no where can I find anything like what I'm looking for.  I'd LOVE to have even a worn out one of these to keep with the anvil.  

Here's a pic of the damage the anvil took over the years doing this job.  Does the imprint look familiar?  Can you help me decipher exactly what this is from?

 

Sling-it the molds used to make these samples are VERY rare.  Having worked in several old mills that once ran open hearth furnaces, these molds were scrapped decades ago or are lost to the dust and dirt.  I would reach out to US Steel and ask if they have archive drawings you can browse for a "Sample Mold".  Several of the mills I worked at had the drawings for the molds they used and you could take that to a local foundry to be reproduced.  As far as the process, one of the "Helpers" would pull a sample of molten steel using a long spoon and another helper would deoxidize or "kill" the sample in the spoon with some aluminum wire.  The helper would then pour the steel into the mold and let it solidify.  These samples varied from mill to mill but most were approximately 1.5" square and 6 inches long.  Once solidified, they would knock the sample out and quench it.  This is where your anvil comes in....the cooled sample would be set on the step of the anvil and a sledgehammer would be used to break the sample and expose the grains.  This visual check would be used by the melters to determine the carbon and silicon in the steel during the process.  Many melters could determine the carbon content of the heat to within a few hundreths of a percentage point based on the grain sizes.  

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