Two gadgets

As you know, I have been making shaped planes and John has been melting aluminum (aluminium, for my British readers)  to make castings. Now both of these activities have groundwork to be done. In my case I make my own plane blades from scratch, namely scrap steel. I cut my blades from circular saw blades. In John's case, he cannot obtain very fine-grained sand without importing it from the lower 48 states, at enormous expense, so he sifts it by hand from what he can find. Both these activities have one thing in common. They involve extensive manual labor.

A circular saw blade is cheap. A used circular saw blade is free. It is very tough steel. It may even have carbide teeth, which cannot be cut (or sharpened) by anything short of a diamond cutter. I collect used circular saw blades. But they are difficult to cut with a hacksaw and the process finally got to me. So I built gadget one.

Long ago I acquired, at a thrift store, a used Makita hand-held circular saw. It had no blade guard, so it went really cheap. I used it on construction projects.  Now I really hate power tools, but this is an excellent one of its kind. So what I did was to put an abrasive cutoff blade on it (ACO).  This is much better than buying an angle grinder. I made a sort of tablesaw out of it. I bolted it to a piece of scrap "table" I had lying around. I am a wood scrounge.  The hardest part was bolting the thing to the table. Circular saws are not meant to be bolted to tables. The manufacturers want you to buy their tablesaws, which I consider an invention of the Devil. But with this gadget I can cut up a circular saw blade in minutes. I can use both hands on the work. I can use the sides of the blade as a rough-and-ready grinder. Mind you, I am no stranger to the hacksaw. But neither am I a 100% purist. Hand tools only? Well, there is a limit. Just try hacksawing a circular saw blade yourself. And of course the whole thing bolts to the faithful shop Workmate, the greatest British invention since the steam locomotive. I have it weighted down with about 50 Kilos of logs, so it isn't going to move easily. I can use both hand on the work. I can cut metal or even rough-grind it to size. Invaluable for making metal objects, such as plane blades.
 
 Gadget two is a bit more specialized. It is a power sand siever or sifter.  I did not invent it. I found the idea on  the myfordboy blog, on his YouTube channel, video #31. This is a blatant knock-off. My thanks to myfordboy. It is a power sifter based on a reciprocating saw, the kind called a sawz-all in the trade. No doubt a trademark. I picked this one up for about $10 at a yard sale; the trigger is very dicey. But it works.

The reciprocating saw drives an arm connected to the saw. Arm is connected to sieve. The cost, apart from the $10 reciprocating saw, is zero. It's all someone else's offcuts, plus some salvaged strapping steel as guides.  By the way, it is very difficult to drill holes in sawz-all blades. I had to use a drill press. Even then it was difficult. Also had to add weight to the thing. But the thing works. It sifts as fast as you can shovel the sand in.

 Note the duct tape, known as "gaffer tape" in the UK. Without this commodity, the state of Alaska would grind to a screeching halt. I do not remember the official motto of this state, but the unofficial motto is "if it moves and shouldn't: duct tape. If it doesen't move and should: WD-40." Oh, how true.

John melts metal

 John has been working on casting molten aluminum. See previous posts under lables "flowerpot furnace" and "forge." The molten aluminum is poured into sand molds, and that is a whole 'nother story. But for now let us look at the evolved process. First, you find some scrap aluminum. Then you melt it in a furnace. John was originally into the Gingery charcoal furnace. So he built one. After some experimentation, we found that the Dragon Lady is the way to go. Put your scraps into a crucible (currently an old plumber's pot, destined to melt lead) and turn the Dragon Lady loose.

 

The Dragon Lady makes short work of the melting. Much faster than charcoal.  When the Lady gets going you can't see what is happening. But it is turning into a liquid at a great rate. There is a lot more to this. I recommend the Dave Gingery series on building your own machine shop from scratch. Especially Volume 1; you can Google on Gingery and get many hits.














After about ten minutes the scrap aluminum is poured into a sand mold. That is material for another post. In the meantime, if you are interested in sand casting, do look at myfordboy's blog, q.g., and look at his videos.  This is a great blog; I am adding it to my follow list.

More to come.

Melting metal at Chalupy

First of all, this is not my project. It is all John's doing. Second of all, what you will see is not entirely as safe as turning on your kitchen stove. It can be dangerous. In these litigious days be very careful and wear proper safety gear, blah blah. Consider yourself warned. Chalupy Acres disclaims all resposibility, blah blah.

What we are doing is melting Aluminum to (eventually) make castings. Before you do this for yourself, you must read the sources. We acknowledge hereby these sources. The first and most inspirational is the late lamented Dave Gingery's "Build your own Metal Working Shop from Scratch" series, 6 volumes. The first is The Charcoal Foundry, all available from Lindsay Publications. From the same source get Lionel Oliver II's The Flowerpot Crucible Furnace. Very cheap stuff, I may add.

Finally get on the net. Go to Myfordboy's blog; it should appear on the sidebar on this blog. Select his channel on YouTube. There are 30 videos (as of today) on casting; you should watch them all.

OK, on to melting metal. John built the forge. We started out with the idea of a Gingery/Oliver smelter. This runs off grocery store charcoal, the kind you use to barbecue steaks.
The basic forge involves (1) a 5 gallon Kerosene drum, main part of the thing (2) a clay flowerpot. This is imbedded in a concrete lining. The concrete is just Home Depot (or was it Lowe's?) standard stuff. There is a hole cut through all this. A piece of galvanized pipe goes through it all. In forge-speak, this is called a tuyere, the french word for "piping". A hair dryer, long defunct, provides air. With this setup you can melt Aluminum. John soon found that the Dragon Lady is a far preferable substitute. The Dragon Lady has appeared on these pages before. She is a heavy-duty propane torch bought from Harbor Freight for $13 back when. She melts snow, clears out weeds, starts charcoal fires. As it turned out we could have dispensed with the charcoal.
John is very happy. Aided by the Dragon Lady he has melted Aluminum. Lovely stuff, melted Ally. Looks like silver or perhaps like Mercury. The big pipe holds a stainless steel spoon, used to skim off the dross. This is junk, impurities you do not want. Today John will pour Aluminum cupcakes; we are not yet into making real molds.
John added common salt as a flux (makes things flow) and baking soda as a degasser. About a teaspoon each. Very effective and thank you Myfordboy. We are using fireplace tongs to hold the crucible, the container in which you put the metal. This I found long ago at a thrift store for two bucks. It is a plumber's pot originally meant for melting lead. A bit more close to the pouring process we have

At the end of the road we have taken some literally castoff Aluminum-- it was stuff I found by the roadside on a bike ride and went back and salvaged. We produced two cupcakes -- as I have said we are not yet up to casting into molds -- each weighing about 100 grams. Ten cupcakes to a Kilo. The potential is endless. John wants to make the Gingery Lathe. Refer to the sources.