Reproduction Parts

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Howdy everyone 

I was curious if anyone had any recommendations for a foundry to cast new cast iron parts to replace broken ones 

im working on a couple of antique farm machines and there’s a few cast iron parts that I need to replace 

I have the parts so I’m assuming they just take the old part and make a mold to pour it in using the old parts 

I googled and found places all over the country that offer that service but i wanted to ask here and see if anyone had a recommendation for working with a foundry on one off castings 

 

[Dave51B]

I don't recommend casting on a sailboat........             Life is good         Dave

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Dave

 
Noted

I won’t attempt to cast the parts on a sailboat! Or anywhere else for that matter! Lol 

[Frosty]

Don't tell a 18th century sailing ship that, Dave! Probably not an iron foundry but a blacksmith's shop wasn't the only HOT metal work needed doing on a cruise around the horn.

How much iron do you need to cast Billy? You can ram up sand in flasks for molds. And build a cupola to melt the iron. I like resin bonded sand though oil bond is supposed to work well too. Even if you don't have coke available charcoal will work but so will a propane burner though larger than we use in a forge.

Just be aware casting anything, especially iron is inherently VERY dangerous, IIRC 10lbs. of molten iron contains the explosive equivalent of a case of 40% dynamite if it comes in contact with water. Think damp ground and molten iron flying 50' +/-. dangerous.

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Thanks Jerry

There some smaller parts that I could probably do myself

then there are some that are way to big for a little home foundry

I have plenty coal, and plenty propane but I don’t really have a desire to get into foundry making myself,

I’ve got to many other projects running at the same time to start a new one lol 

it would just be faster and simpler to have a professional cast what I need 

and like you said some of the stuff would require an amount of molten metal that would be extremely dangerous to attempt at home more than 10 lbs 

so it just made sense to me to have someone that can do both big and small casting at the same time 

I found a few companies that offered small runs and down to just one part, and some companies that said they could recast a broken part

but i thought I’d ask on here first and see if anyone here had any recommendations or experience having a part cast 

I lurked in on vintage machinery forum and smokestack forum to see if there was any lists on those websites,

i figured that the folks on both sites that restore old machines would have some list but I didn’t see anything on either forum 

[Frosty]

We have an iron casting section at the local "Art On Fire" every year, weekend before July 4th. usually. The caster in our club Pat runs it and IIRC usually taps the cupola for more than 100lbs. at a time. He fires it with petroleum coke. Using coal in a cupola melter would be a bad thing, too much sulfur and phosphates in raw coal.

How much weight are you needing cast?

Frosty The Lucky.

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

Jerry

i don’t know for sure haven’t weighed it

a couple of parts are less than a pound and some around 10 if I had to guess 

and then a couple that are probably around-30-40 pounds

 

[Frosty]

Cast iron weighs .2637 lbs/cu" I rounded it, there's variation depending on carbon content but that's within a few 10 thousandths of a lb./cu/". For example a Campbells soup can is 2.5" dia x 3.75" for 18.4 cu/in x .2637 = 4.58lbs. of cast iron.

The easy way to determine the volume iron you'll need is weigh the parts and add say 10% for loss.

From watching Pat's casting demos it's a struggle for 2 strong people to safely move and pour a 3lb. coffee can sized ladle.

There are ways to gang cast parts directly from a cupola but ramming up molds cutting channels, etc. is more involved. 

Frosty The Lucky.

[George N. M.]

Billy, I'm kind of late to the discussion but I have a couple of thoughts:

1) depending on what the part is and how much load it has to take would casting it in something easier than iron, e.g. aluminum or brass/bronze, be feasible?

2) depending on the complexity of the shape would machining or forging it out of steel work?

3) If you have the parts they may be able to be welded by someone who is experienced with welding cast iron.

GNM 

[TWISTEDWILLOW]

George 

yes I’ve thought of having one piece cast in aluminum that doesn’t carry a load

there is one small piece that would actually benefit from being machined out of steel instead of being cast

as far as welding goes someone already tried on one part and botched it up really bad,

the small piece is an odd shape and acts as an actuator, it’s kinda curved on one side and goes up against another curved surface and has a ratchet handle that puts pressure on it, I don’t think welding would work 

One piece probably could be brazed by someone with better skills than me 

the last piece I could technically work around and use as is if I want too 

 

 

[Scott NC]

  I'm curious what kind of antique farm machines you are rebuilding or restoring.  I've had ones I wanted to canabalize in the past for scrap art projects but left intact.

[Nobody Special]

Good evening. If you have the original parts, and they're broken or worn down, I would talk to a local welder and/or foundryman. Casting has a steep learning curve, and cast iron is much is a great deal more difficult, not to mention dangerous at home than aluminum or pot metal. Brazing works fairly well and is a good bit easier for welders to do than welding cast iron. Some can weld it well, and if you find them, they're worth their weight in...well, they're worth their weight. I think you can forge braze it, but you'd have to keep a close eye on it at the least.

Another thing that is still done to an extent, and used to be done a lot, was for foundrymen to use the original broken or worn parts either as patterns, or to cast patterns, building them up a bit first to allow for shrinkage during the casting process. The old US Navy foundry manual can still be found online in a pdf and describes the process well.