A Foundry can be dangerous on occasion

[SLAG]

Late breaking news.

Foundry explodes.

check out,

8 injured at mill after furnace used to melt steel explodes (msn.com)

SLAG.

[Frosty]

Those are 8 lucky people! The fire department spokesman who was interviewed said it was thought a cooling system problem leaked water. 

Molten steal and water are BAD JU JU!

Then I went down the fireworks stored in a subdivision home exploding, rabbit hole. Lots of videos of that one, lots of explosions smoke and fleeing people. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Foundries are dangerous all the time and on occasion disastrous.

[JHCC]

There’s one near me that keeps getting shut down for accidents and fires. Even their recruitment video had OSHA violations. 

[ThomasPowers]

When I lived in Central Ohio there was an OLD foundry then casting steel using electric arc furnaces.  They seemed to have a fatality every year which was why I sat up and took notice when I found out that their brass casting section would reject an entire train car load of brass scrap if they found *1* piece of Beryllium bronze in it.  They would also then clean and wash out the scrap bin it had been dumped in.   If they were that paranoid; perhaps I should be as well...

[JHCC]

I just read a description of one injury at the foundry I mentioned above. It's pretty hairy:

Quote

In 1995, N. began working at the X. Foundry Company, Incorporated, appellee, a metal foundry and casting plant.   His job involved pulling casings out of the foundry pit, breaking apart molds, and loading the castings for shipment.   The castings and molds were often tall, and, therefore, were often placed in a deep pit in the foundry.   In order to accomplish his job, N. was required to attach a chain from a crane to the top of the mold or casting.   The only way to access the top of the molds was, apparently, by riding the chains of the cranes, as no ladders were provided.   On June 30, 1998, N. was, apparently, instructed to ride the chain to the top of a twenty-five-foot-tall casting flask so that he could disassemble it.   However, the crane malfunctioned and did not stop lifting at the appropriate time;  rather, it lifted N. higher and higher.   Finally, the crane reached its limit switch, which sheared off a pin and sent N. and the chains on which he was riding plummeting to the floor, some thirty feet below.   Momentarily, N. landed atop the mold onto which he was planning to attach the chain that he had been riding.   However, he was knocked off the mold by falling debris.   N. was injured as he fell from the top of the mold, landing upon the concrete floor far below.   At that point, a block broke free from the crane and plummeted to the ground.   It landed atop N.'s leg, severing it from his body.   An ambulance was immediately summoned;  however, despite medical care, N.'s leg had to be amputated.

 

[Steve Sells]

I bet OSHA had  a chat with them about his riding the chain after that one, ladders dont seem so expensive now do they

[SinDoc]

I have dealt with 2 companies that used arc furnaces. One had an accident nearly every year, one of which was right after their new building went into operation and a crucible full of molten steel was dumped all over machinery, including the brand spanking new motor control center (I am sure you know just how absurdly expensive those are Steve, as I believe I seen read somewhere you are an electrician) for one side of the plant and melted it. It had been in operation for less than a month before it was turned into charred scrap.

The second facility dealt strictly with copper. They were a major supplier of copper for wiring. That particular plant also produced what I believe they referred to as 101 copper, which is used for undersea cable and has zero impurities so it doesn't corrode. They said a single ounce of the wrong copper would ruin an entire multi-ton batch. While walking their plant with some of the big wigs while designing them a new lighting system, I got to see one of their furnaces during a "burn out". The guys working around them were in heat resistant suits. The heat was so intense, I don't think I could have gotten within 50 feet of the furnace if I had even wanted to. It was so hot, they had problems with the light fixtures on the ceiling around it as it was melting the bulbs in the high bays 30 feet up! The average life of a lamp in those fixtures was the cycle from one burn out to the next. Also, the place was FILTHY and everything was coated in a carbon powder.

[ThomasPowers]

The Mid Ohio Blacksmiths, sadly defunct, once got a tour of the steel casting plant---it was in the middle of the night as that's when power is cheapest.  Their Arc furnaces used 16"? diameter graphite electrodes, 3, and their meters were calibrated in Kilo amps.  I was amazed by how LOUD the process was.   The plant started around ACW times and was HUGE, I remember walking through a building they used for storage at that time and having to elbow my train mad friend to show him where a locomotive was "hiding" in the mess.  Lovely little H frame steam hammer and large, ok, huge anvil tucked away where they used to forge items for the factory...  Wikipedia has a nice summary under Columbus Castings...

I hear they shut down around 5 years ago; I wonder where the smithing stuff ended up, or if it's moldering in the ruins...   Satellite view at 39.917636029785434, -82.98721439176988  show the old place.

[SinDoc]

I was wondering while reading that if you were talking about Columbus Castings/Buckeye Steel. I work on high street, one exit over from Parsons where its located. I "think" PSC metals took it over. I could be wrong however but I am positive there is another entity in there now. We always had horrible dust problems from our close proximity to the plant. Black soot was always on stuff and you could tell how long something was there based on how black it was.

I had been in there years ago with some of the electricians. Probably a year or so before they shut down.

[ThomasPowers]

I used to live a few blocks off High Street, 1409 South 5th st.  15 years and selling it helped pay for my current place so we could pay it off early!

[SinDoc]

Ah yes I know where 5th is. Small world!

[ThomasPowers]

We lived on an unconnected 2 block section  with one way streets at either end.  Pretty much zero traffic except for the neighbors.  South High Drive In was the fleamarket where I loaded up on so much stuff.   Got a CIS degree from OSU while working for Bell Labs and having a young family and a 100+ year old house.

[11xray]

Early noob mistake for me was pouring brass into a cast iron ingot mold that I had not properly preheated. The result was an explosion that ruined my face shield (thank god I had that on) my glasses underneath the shield (thank god for those too), brass went through my foundry gloves and between my wedding band (titanium) and finger, went through my Apple Watch and onto my skin, turned my shirt and undershirt into Swiss cheese. Total damage to me was about 30 pencil-eraser sized 3rd-degree burns on my torso and shoulder. 
For anyone that hasn’t enjoyed this experience, it sounded like a hand grenade went off. Took me two weeks to even consider melting again. 
 

I’m glad these folks survived. Y’all stay safe and ffs preheat your molds properly.

[ThomasPowers]

Thank you for telling your experience.    (Though you didn't mention secondary spousal damage---my wife would have killed me if I had come in asking for an urgent care/ER/A&E run like that!)

[11xray]

Indeed, I played it off initially. She was inside with earbuds in, and I cleaned up the mess quickly. Changed shirts, dressed wounds, and gave myself a minute to figure out exactly what happened and calm down. Fortunately, I had the foresight to have a full burn attention kit ready before doing my first melt over a year before. That silver-whatever prescription burn cream is so great. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

Yep... SSD 1% Silver Sulfadiazine cream. I have a 400 gram jar of it. It's about half gone now.

[ThomasPowers]

Silvadene?   Yes; it's considered the "gold standard" by a lot of folks.

I've had my "wrap the wound with a dirty shop rag and ask my wife for transportation"  incident before; only with a grinder and greater idiocy.---I was recovering from being sick and tried to catch up on a project when I wasn't in any shape to do so.

[11xray]

That seems to be the precursor to many of my missteps. That night with the brass, I was refreshing sand molds while brass was melting. I remember having to redo one mold, delaying the next pour, and I believe that time allowed the brass to get way too hot. Rushed outside, pulled the crucible, put the ingot mold into the foundry to preheat, poured the cast mold and pulled the ingot mold out, poured the leftovers into that and boom. Odd thing is, the crucible was fine (I managed to drop it sitting-up, thank GOD), and the ingot mold was fine. I'm still using both today. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

I found out about SSD effectiveness back in 2007 when a tick bite turned into a MRSA infection and I came close to loosing my leg. It left a spot on my leg about the size of my hand with no skin. My wife played nurse for about 2 months keeping the wound clean and SSD troweled on and sterile wrappings. No scaring, which is a miracle to me.

[ThomasPowers]

And the first thing a cold mold does is to turn some hot exhaust into moisture.    My casting instructor had a very similar story about one of his first pours.

[11xray]

I do NOT recommend refreshing sand molds while melting. By "refreshing", I mean pouring into the mold, allowing to cool VERY briefly (just set), collapse the sand etc into a safe container and reload the mold with fresh sand and template, then take it out for pour. 

I made a ton of mistakes, but I did get 7 different castings done in one night. It would have been better to simply build more molds, kind-of a duh moment for me just now. 

[Irondragon Forge ClayWorks]

For a while when I was a teenager, I worked in an aluminum foundry, making custom vehicle license plates. We would pour 50 molds at a time and one of my jobs was to break the molds apart after the pour, sift the sand and check the moisture content. I decided rather quickly that I wouldn't want to make that a career.

[ThomasPowers]

Isn't that in the definition of a Hobby: "Something that they couldn't pay you to do as a job!"