15 ms·

Backyard Metalcasting (2018)

94 points by ishtanbul 3y ago

hinkley 3y ago
YouTube videos about metalworking are how I learned there are several degrees of burn worse than 3rd degree. I’ll spare you the gorey details, but molten metal is not something to fuck around with on a whim. You’re basically lion taming as a hobby. Disrespect the “cat” and it’ll eat your liver. I might some day try forging, but I’ll leave casting to the experts.
- actionfromafar 3y ago
  If you can do it with some remote controlled contraption and wait 24h until everything cools off before entering?
- hef19898 3y ago
  I started forging, knives for the time being, a while ago. Once I graduate to swords, I already have some parts I want cast in bronze. Which is, apparantly, easier to do than metal casting. In the speed I work on this stuff so, ask me again in 5-10 years whether or not it is actually true...
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    Bronze casting is metal casting.
    - hef19898 3y ago
      Hah, there I read metal as iron/steel in my head... it surely is hot round here...
      - jacquesm 3y ago
        If I may suggest: if you want to get into this stuff start off with lost foam (xps for best results) casts in Aluminum. It's probably the simplest process (after casting lead...) and it will at least give you an idea of the basics before more complicated moves.
  - zrobotics 3y ago
    Tip for future you: start with aluminum, it's much more approachable. Just make sure your feed stock is a castable alloy, stuff like t6 or cans will make terrible castings. Easiest way to do this is to use chunks of scrap that you know were cast, so look for signs that the original part was cast like mold lines or unmachined surfaces. The reason to start with aluminum is the temp is way lower so it's much easier to build the furnace and the metal is cheap and readily available. You aren't wasting your time, since all the basics of mold design still apply such as controlling shrinkage and preventing freeze off. Paul's garage on YouTube has some excellent videos that cover the process in an instructional way, many of the other channels that cover casting just focus on the finished project. While very cool, these videos aren't always super helpful for a beginner. People also hate on the gingery books, but there is a wealth of super useful information there and the fundamentals haven't changed. It's a super fun hobby, especially if you're already into blacksmithing. But do be careful and definitely heed the safety warnings, there is definitely the potential for an explosion or very harmful fumes.
    - hef19898 3y ago
      Thanks for the tip with aluminium, I'll keep that in mind. Once I get to it so, I'm already 8 months late on my son's kukri... Lucky for me so, the maker space I forge at, sometimes, has a blacksmith that drops by. So if I need help, there is a pro available!
- defrost 3y ago
  Metal spits and sticks to flesh, it's nasty. Metal poured into anything with latent moisture (damp ingot tray, etc) is a steam powered mini bomb with molten shrapnel. Glass working, hot or cold, is much better for your mental health, it doesn't spit or stick.
  - hinkley 3y ago
    The steam bomb scenario is the most alarming scenario to me. Though I’ve seen people destroy their garage floor as well.
    - HideousKojima 3y ago
      Nah, the scariest is that aluminum, like other alkali metals, literally explodes when it comes into contact with water. This is extremely rare with aluminum since aluminum quickly forms a layer of oxide, and even when casting it's unlikely to happen, at least in hobbyist foundries. You can even find videos of idiots pouring molten aluminum into a swimming pool to show that it's "safe" and nothing bad happens. But the possibility is very real, and while it's pretty dang unlikely there's no good reason to intentionally pour your molten aluminum anywhere near water. Edit: found a Hackaday article that covers this in more detail https://hackaday.com/2020/12/30/water-and-molten-aluminium-is-a-dangerous-combination/ https://hackaday.com/2020/12/30/water-and-molten-aluminium-i...
      - jacquesm 3y ago
        Aluminum makes it worse but steam explosions as such are nothing to sneeze at. And there are quite a few ways to inadvertently set you up for one.
        defrost 3y ago
        Yep. A classic video of the most common lab mishap with molten metals gets discussed to death here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQjud8VCTYc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQjud8VCTYc It's rare to find anyone who's ever done home casting that hasn't had a similar near miss at least once in their early days. It's funny to look at .. but all it take to escalate is for molten drops to land on bare skin or flammable rags.
- rewmie 3y ago
  > YouTube videos about metalworking are how I learned there are several degrees of burn worse than 3rd degree. Isn't 4th degree the last stop? https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=90&ContentID=P09575 https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?Con... After burning through muscle and bone, there is not much beyond that to warrant another level in the classification. In fact, some classifications just end in 3rd degree, and bundle muscle and bone damage in it.
  - print_goto_ten 3y ago
    >After burning through muscle and bone, After bone its muscle and skin as it comes out the other side.
  - hinkley 3y ago
    I'm not sure why you'd classify everything up to destroying the skin as 1-3 and then label 4 as destroying bone. This one goes to six: https://nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/burns.aspx https://nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/burns.aspx
    - rewmie 3y ago
      > I'm not sure why you'd classify everything up to destroying the skin as 1-3 and then label 4 as destroying bone. I'd wager that from a medical standpoint there is no functional difference between burning through fat layer, or going even deeper and hitting muscle and/or bone.
      - hinkley 3y ago
        And yet the NIH says six.
jstanley 3y ago
In my (admittedly limited) experience metal casting is a waste of time if you want to produce usable parts. It never goes right. It always has porosity. It very rarely even fills the entire mould. And preparing the mould and heating the metal takes forever, so it doesn't take too many failed attempts before you have sunk days into a project with nothing to show for it. It's fine if you just want to cast metal shapes as a hobby, knock yourself out. But if you are casting because you want to make parts that you can use, then you're better off machining them out of solid material if you can. You'll save yourself time and trouble.
- antigonemerlin 3y ago
  The lathe is honestly one of the most underrated inventions of modern civilization. Though I can't recall of the top of my head, there are certainly more than a few inventions which were simply not practical to build before the invention of the lathe because the tolerances were not good enough with traditional techniques.
  - Youden 3y ago
    The practical kind of steam engine that drove the industrial revolution is one example. Steam engines existed earlier but when they started turning the cylinders, they became much more efficient which allowed them to be used for a much larger variety of tasks. "The Perfectionists" by Simon Winchester goes into a whole lot of detail about the history of precision and the role it's taken.
    - roelschroeven 3y ago
      Also Machine Thinking's videos "The 1751 Machine that Made Everything" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djB9oK6pkbA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djB9oK6pkbA), "Origins of Precision" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNRnrn5DE58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNRnrn5DE58) and some others on his channel.
  - WillAdams 3y ago
    There's an entire books series on this concept, the "Gingery" books where the first in the series is setting up a foundry for casting, while the second is making a lathe from investment castings because a lathe is the only tool in a workshop which can duplicate itself. https://gingerybookstore.com/ https://gingerybookstore.com/ the balance of the books are making the other tools in a machine shop. Had the second book once upon a time, and will eventually get the entire set.
sentientmachin3 3y ago
Not related to metals: how cool is this website? Back in the day when the internet had no bs and it was just pure HTML
JKCalhoun 3y ago
Love the 300-pixel-wide images. Actually, I hate them. I remember for the longest time people clung to small images on the Web. Sites would add "Zoom" buttons but when you clicked on them the images were enlarged maybe 50%? What was the point? Sites like this were what made the early web awesome though. I confess though that someone's passion site like this though is probably better replaced now with the dozens of YouTube videos you will find on the subject. Video definitely killed the JPEG star when it comes to how-to.
- globular-toast 3y ago
  Have you forgotten how slow 56k dial-up was? A high-quality 1MP JPEG would take the best part of a minute to load under ideal conditions. Firefox lets you simulate this in the responsive design mode. You can view the website at a resolution of the day (like 1025x768) and throttle the speed to GPRS, which is similar to 56k speed. You can easily see why they used small images. Having the larger images available was just them being nice, but it wasn't at all practical to have them by default. Amazing to think that today we expect videos to start playing instantly.
  - regularfry 3y ago
    The other thing is that at 1024x768 a 300px image isn't actually that small. On a 16" screen it would have been something like 5" diagonally.
  - Arrath 3y ago
    Watching images load in line by line at a torturously slow pace over dialup may have helped me build such zen-like patience. ....or explain my appreciation for delayed gratification. Didn't even know I was developing that as a teenager.
marthasimons 3y ago
[flagged]
imakeinternet 3y ago
Whilst casting isnt for me... this website definitely is. One helluva error page too... "END OF THE INTERNET" http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/error.html http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/error.html
- uticus 3y ago
  Having trouble detecting if the bits are random or encoding something. Ignoring the spaces and encoding to ASCII yields gibberish, maybe something else?
forgotusername6 3y ago
I made a flowerpot furnace many years ago. I think maybe this site was the guide. It worked really well. I started off with sand casting and then used the lost wax method. I cast things like Lego men or chess pieces. I cast a variety of metals, lead (horrible, don't do that), aluminium, copper and this weird aluminium/magnesium mix I obtained from a burnt out car engine block. For the crucible and various components for the furnace I'd make items out of fireclay and fire them first. The blower for the furnace was a vacuum cleaner with a copper pipe attached to the vent. It was a fun project though took quite a bit of time to get the metal up to temperature.
- tomcam 3y ago
  What did you cast with the aluminium/magnesium mix? Was the origin of the mix an old VW Beetle engine?
  - forgotusername6 3y ago
    More lego men. I didn't take much of the engine block. The car had been abandoned and burnt out and the engine had melted and pooled over the road. I don't remember the make. I took pieces that I could scrape up easily. I'm only guessing at magnesium because of the way it reacted when prodded. It would sort of pop and spit when I poked it when molten. I'd be happy to be corrected if someone knew of another metal that would react so violently when exposed to air.
    - tomcam 3y ago
      That must have been fun
- quaddo 3y ago
  My wife fell in love with metal sculpting years ago, thanks to the local college offerings. Each of her courses exposed her to various approaches, such as welding and bronze casting. Her favorite by far was the once-a-semester iron pour. There are 4 classes total, and you're allowed to take each class a maximum 2 times. So she maxed herself out because she couldn't get enough. There was a road trip one year to another state, a gathering of like minds. It was held at a decommissioned iron foundry / museum. Various people gave talks on their style and techniques, which was super interesting according to my wife. She and the other students (and the instructor) had also brought along the molds they'd been working diligently on (wax filled) so that they could enjoy doing their iron pour onsite. My wife's project was 72 lbs once completed. She said that between the weather (hot and humid), the locale, and the protective gear, she spent a lot of time uncomfortably hot and gritty. And loved every moment. It's her happy place. She almost went with a group to Germany to do something similar; a metal sculpting retreat for a week or so. But the pandemic threw a spanner into that.
thomasjb 3y ago
I love the lathe project [1], I recall looking at it quite seriously when I was younger. Inspired by this site, I welded up a crucible and setup to cast aluminum using charcoal in the bottom half of an old pot belly stove, with a hand dryer reused as a blower for heat. I did manage to melt some scrap, but I didn't have a mold ready that time. My diy flasks weren't great, and I lost interest while trying to get some green sand. I would like to try again though [1]: https://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/lathe1.html https://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/lathe1.html
- lfowles 3y ago
  I had the first book of the Gingery set, but as I was rapidly moving around during college I never acted on it. The proposed workshop bootstrapping really made my imagination run...
lerchmo 3y ago
This type of website is where I spent the late 90’s. Tesla coils and quarter crusher instructions. This is a great website!
detourdog 3y ago
This website set me off on my current path in about 2005ish.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  What is your current path? (Besides it being a detour...)
  - detourdog 3y ago
    The simple explanation is the belief that (generally) High-end appliances charge too much money for too little thought. The use of material is inefficient and the supply chain could be better. I'm trying to make (ambition dates to 1990) a computing platform with a 100 year view of usage. The idea is that actual human usable technology can be quite slow becuase the human time scale is long. The churn of current technology is actual vestigial growth. As soon as I could I registered cogs.com under the belief that in the future we will only understand technology metaphor. Flash forward 30 years and I have finally established a small run manufacturing facility in an old school. I converted the 7 classrooms into studio apartments to facilitate my design ideas. The idea is rent the apartments for income and develop appliances with my CNC in the 60' x 30' gym/cafeteria/auditorium. Backyard Metalcasting set me off on building: wooden CNC with gecko drives from that guy who built the prototype kit in the bathroom with his wife yelling at him in processed unintelligible language with kids crying... The idea was that I can use it to make molds. Initial I was going to make appliances in batches of 10 and either stock what didn't sell or make more of what did. The idea of 10 is that technically I'm an industrial designer BSID 91 UArts. No industry no industrial design and I reasoned that by creating 10 of something it was proof of industry as opposed to art. I got a legitimate CNC for my studio behind my house and with 15 minutes of installation realized I needed to move it to a legitimate location. Found a school for sale a mile from my house house and decided to flip the script. I would simply make appliances in the gym and use the rental income instead of worrying about all the sales work. 7 was close to 10 and maybe I could get 3 walk sales. A short 5 years later the school is finally producing income with 2 studios rented one more and I'm either breaking even or a little ahead on an annual basis. I currently break even most months. (tax bills and insurance). I'm actually at the point where I can truly get started and I have been finalizing my technology stack. I plan to develop a sloppy in-efficient prototype version that considers the entire building as this 100 year computer and the HVAC/Power/cleaning/snow removal will all be managed by this computer. The belief is that the magic of the computers is in the integration of human need and simple experiences. There will also be a parallel track of development for a streamlined ultra efficient implementation of the same model. The reasoning between developing along those 2 tracks is that with the building I can focus on the human experience practicalities be damned. The refined version with be resolved experiences in the smallest form possible. Here is my studio. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YJEsNWnJEa0eN https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YJEsNWnJEa0eN Here is the rental site with outdated photos but some pictures. view.cogs.com Shameless plug studio 4 and Studio 1 are currently available. The rent includes fiber connection and we can talk about a static IP if needed. Finally for the doomscrollers out there I have 4000 photos of the whole project here. Anyone can view this shared album at: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0Y5oqs3qnakFd https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0Y5oqs3qnakFd HN provides a great survey of old and new technology trends with no ads. I find it is like shouting into the wind and marvel that the site works. I feel my path has been very consistent and filled with obstacles. I'm aware that I'm my own biggest obstacle.
numblPleeb 3y ago
This is probably a stretch but: if anyone knows how to contact the site owner Lionel Oliver, I know many old-school hobbyist metal casters who would really love it if he brought back the sister-site forums at alloyavenue.com. Thanks!
- jacquesm 3y ago
  At the bottom of the page: ironwords@hotmail.com Does that work for you?
  - numblPleeb 3y ago
    Thanks! Unfortunately I’ve heard that Lio has been unresponsive at that email address for several years
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      That sucks, makes you wonder if he's ok.
- Etrnl_President 3y ago
  Try https://www.iforgeiron.com/ https://www.iforgeiron.com/
  - numblPleeb 3y ago
    Thank you! I’ve been told however that members of the iforgeiron community routinely redirect casting questions to alloyavenue despite the latter having been largely unusable for awhile now
xbar 3y ago
Gosh I spent a lot of time contemplating a sojourn into backyard metalcasting. Building my own lathe was a longtime dream.
hacknewslogin 3y ago
For anyone looking for an awesome series of books, these will expand your backyard workshop. Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap: https://www.gingerybookstore.com/ https://www.gingerybookstore.com/ You start with learning how to cast, then work on casting parts for a lathe and other projects. edit: It looks like the site's author has some of these books! He has a page detailing building the lathe: https://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/lathe1.html https://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/lathe1.html
raintrees 3y ago
For those interested, a fairly comprehensive book on backyard metalcasting from scrap (from the ground up) is David Gingery's Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/build-your-own-metal-working-shop-from-scrap-complete-7-book-series/9156198/ https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/build-your-own-metal-working-s... Starting with green sand, scrap metal, charcoal, and a pot, pour parts to build a lathe, and so on. It looks like he has put out quite a few "how to" books: https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/david-j-gingery/381968/ https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/david-j-gingery/381968/
dieselgate 3y ago
this is awesome and seems like a great resource; i'll personally stick to backyard welding (no pun intended)

94 points by ishtanbul 3y ago

YouTube videos about metalworking are how I learned there are several degrees of burn worse than 3rd degree. I’ll spare you the gorey details, but molten metal is not something to fuck around with on a whim. You’re basically lion taming as a hobby. Disrespect the “cat” and it’ll eat your liver. I might some day try forging, but I’ll leave casting to the experts.

actionfromafar 3y ago
If you can do it with some remote controlled contraption and wait 24h until everything cools off before entering?
hef19898 3y ago
I started forging, knives for the time being, a while ago. Once I graduate to swords, I already have some parts I want cast in bronze. Which is, apparantly, easier to do than metal casting. In the speed I work on this stuff so, ask me again in 5-10 years whether or not it is actually true...
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Bronze casting is metal casting.
  - hef19898 3y ago
    Hah, there I read metal as iron/steel in my head... it surely is hot round here...
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      If I may suggest: if you want to get into this stuff start off with lost foam (xps for best results) casts in Aluminum. It's probably the simplest process (after casting lead...) and it will at least give you an idea of the basics before more complicated moves.
- zrobotics 3y ago
  Tip for future you: start with aluminum, it's much more approachable. Just make sure your feed stock is a castable alloy, stuff like t6 or cans will make terrible castings. Easiest way to do this is to use chunks of scrap that you know were cast, so look for signs that the original part was cast like mold lines or unmachined surfaces. The reason to start with aluminum is the temp is way lower so it's much easier to build the furnace and the metal is cheap and readily available. You aren't wasting your time, since all the basics of mold design still apply such as controlling shrinkage and preventing freeze off. Paul's garage on YouTube has some excellent videos that cover the process in an instructional way, many of the other channels that cover casting just focus on the finished project. While very cool, these videos aren't always super helpful for a beginner. People also hate on the gingery books, but there is a wealth of super useful information there and the fundamentals haven't changed. It's a super fun hobby, especially if you're already into blacksmithing. But do be careful and definitely heed the safety warnings, there is definitely the potential for an explosion or very harmful fumes.
  - hef19898 3y ago
    Thanks for the tip with aluminium, I'll keep that in mind. Once I get to it so, I'm already 8 months late on my son's kukri... Lucky for me so, the maker space I forge at, sometimes, has a blacksmith that drops by. So if I need help, there is a pro available!
defrost 3y ago
Metal spits and sticks to flesh, it's nasty. Metal poured into anything with latent moisture (damp ingot tray, etc) is a steam powered mini bomb with molten shrapnel. Glass working, hot or cold, is much better for your mental health, it doesn't spit or stick.
- hinkley 3y ago
  The steam bomb scenario is the most alarming scenario to me. Though I’ve seen people destroy their garage floor as well.
  - HideousKojima 3y ago
    Nah, the scariest is that aluminum, like other alkali metals, literally explodes when it comes into contact with water. This is extremely rare with aluminum since aluminum quickly forms a layer of oxide, and even when casting it's unlikely to happen, at least in hobbyist foundries. You can even find videos of idiots pouring molten aluminum into a swimming pool to show that it's "safe" and nothing bad happens. But the possibility is very real, and while it's pretty dang unlikely there's no good reason to intentionally pour your molten aluminum anywhere near water. Edit: found a Hackaday article that covers this in more detail https://hackaday.com/2020/12/30/water-and-molten-aluminium-is-a-dangerous-combination/ https://hackaday.com/2020/12/30/water-and-molten-aluminium-i...
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      Aluminum makes it worse but steam explosions as such are nothing to sneeze at. And there are quite a few ways to inadvertently set you up for one.
      - defrost 3y ago
        Yep. A classic video of the most common lab mishap with molten metals gets discussed to death here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQjud8VCTYc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQjud8VCTYc It's rare to find anyone who's ever done home casting that hasn't had a similar near miss at least once in their early days. It's funny to look at .. but all it take to escalate is for molten drops to land on bare skin or flammable rags.
rewmie 3y ago
> YouTube videos about metalworking are how I learned there are several degrees of burn worse than 3rd degree. Isn't 4th degree the last stop? https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?ContentTypeID=90&ContentID=P09575 https://www.urmc.rochester.edu/encyclopedia/content.aspx?Con... After burning through muscle and bone, there is not much beyond that to warrant another level in the classification. In fact, some classifications just end in 3rd degree, and bundle muscle and bone damage in it.
- print_goto_ten 3y ago
  >After burning through muscle and bone, After bone its muscle and skin as it comes out the other side.
- hinkley 3y ago
  I'm not sure why you'd classify everything up to destroying the skin as 1-3 and then label 4 as destroying bone. This one goes to six: https://nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/burns.aspx https://nigms.nih.gov/education/fact-sheets/Pages/burns.aspx
  - rewmie 3y ago
    > I'm not sure why you'd classify everything up to destroying the skin as 1-3 and then label 4 as destroying bone. I'd wager that from a medical standpoint there is no functional difference between burning through fat layer, or going even deeper and hitting muscle and/or bone.
    - hinkley 3y ago
      And yet the NIH says six.

jstanley 3y ago

In my (admittedly limited) experience metal casting is a waste of time if you want to produce usable parts. It never goes right. It always has porosity. It very rarely even fills the entire mould. And preparing the mould and heating the metal takes forever, so it doesn't take too many failed attempts before you have sunk days into a project with nothing to show for it. It's fine if you just want to cast metal shapes as a hobby, knock yourself out. But if you are casting because you want to make parts that you can use, then you're better off machining them out of solid material if you can. You'll save yourself time and trouble.

antigonemerlin 3y ago
The lathe is honestly one of the most underrated inventions of modern civilization. Though I can't recall of the top of my head, there are certainly more than a few inventions which were simply not practical to build before the invention of the lathe because the tolerances were not good enough with traditional techniques.
- Youden 3y ago
  The practical kind of steam engine that drove the industrial revolution is one example. Steam engines existed earlier but when they started turning the cylinders, they became much more efficient which allowed them to be used for a much larger variety of tasks. "The Perfectionists" by Simon Winchester goes into a whole lot of detail about the history of precision and the role it's taken.
  - roelschroeven 3y ago
    Also Machine Thinking's videos "The 1751 Machine that Made Everything" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djB9oK6pkbA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djB9oK6pkbA), "Origins of Precision" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNRnrn5DE58 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNRnrn5DE58) and some others on his channel.
- WillAdams 3y ago
  There's an entire books series on this concept, the "Gingery" books where the first in the series is setting up a foundry for casting, while the second is making a lathe from investment castings because a lathe is the only tool in a workshop which can duplicate itself. https://gingerybookstore.com/ https://gingerybookstore.com/ the balance of the books are making the other tools in a machine shop. Had the second book once upon a time, and will eventually get the entire set.

sentientmachin3 3y ago

Not related to metals: how cool is this website? Back in the day when the internet had no bs and it was just pure HTML

JKCalhoun 3y ago

Love the 300-pixel-wide images. Actually, I hate them. I remember for the longest time people clung to small images on the Web. Sites would add "Zoom" buttons but when you clicked on them the images were enlarged maybe 50%? What was the point? Sites like this were what made the early web awesome though. I confess though that someone's passion site like this though is probably better replaced now with the dozens of YouTube videos you will find on the subject. Video definitely killed the JPEG star when it comes to how-to.

globular-toast 3y ago
Have you forgotten how slow 56k dial-up was? A high-quality 1MP JPEG would take the best part of a minute to load under ideal conditions. Firefox lets you simulate this in the responsive design mode. You can view the website at a resolution of the day (like 1025x768) and throttle the speed to GPRS, which is similar to 56k speed. You can easily see why they used small images. Having the larger images available was just them being nice, but it wasn't at all practical to have them by default. Amazing to think that today we expect videos to start playing instantly.
- regularfry 3y ago
  The other thing is that at 1024x768 a 300px image isn't actually that small. On a 16" screen it would have been something like 5" diagonally.
- Arrath 3y ago
  Watching images load in line by line at a torturously slow pace over dialup may have helped me build such zen-like patience. ....or explain my appreciation for delayed gratification. Didn't even know I was developing that as a teenager.

marthasimons 3y ago

[flagged]

imakeinternet 3y ago

Whilst casting isnt for me... this website definitely is. One helluva error page too... "END OF THE INTERNET" http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/error.html http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/error.html

uticus 3y ago
Having trouble detecting if the bits are random or encoding something. Ignoring the spaces and encoding to ASCII yields gibberish, maybe something else?

forgotusername6 3y ago

I made a flowerpot furnace many years ago. I think maybe this site was the guide. It worked really well. I started off with sand casting and then used the lost wax method. I cast things like Lego men or chess pieces. I cast a variety of metals, lead (horrible, don't do that), aluminium, copper and this weird aluminium/magnesium mix I obtained from a burnt out car engine block. For the crucible and various components for the furnace I'd make items out of fireclay and fire them first. The blower for the furnace was a vacuum cleaner with a copper pipe attached to the vent. It was a fun project though took quite a bit of time to get the metal up to temperature.

tomcam 3y ago
What did you cast with the aluminium/magnesium mix? Was the origin of the mix an old VW Beetle engine?
- forgotusername6 3y ago
  More lego men. I didn't take much of the engine block. The car had been abandoned and burnt out and the engine had melted and pooled over the road. I don't remember the make. I took pieces that I could scrape up easily. I'm only guessing at magnesium because of the way it reacted when prodded. It would sort of pop and spit when I poked it when molten. I'd be happy to be corrected if someone knew of another metal that would react so violently when exposed to air.
  - tomcam 3y ago
    That must have been fun
quaddo 3y ago
My wife fell in love with metal sculpting years ago, thanks to the local college offerings. Each of her courses exposed her to various approaches, such as welding and bronze casting. Her favorite by far was the once-a-semester iron pour. There are 4 classes total, and you're allowed to take each class a maximum 2 times. So she maxed herself out because she couldn't get enough. There was a road trip one year to another state, a gathering of like minds. It was held at a decommissioned iron foundry / museum. Various people gave talks on their style and techniques, which was super interesting according to my wife. She and the other students (and the instructor) had also brought along the molds they'd been working diligently on (wax filled) so that they could enjoy doing their iron pour onsite. My wife's project was 72 lbs once completed. She said that between the weather (hot and humid), the locale, and the protective gear, she spent a lot of time uncomfortably hot and gritty. And loved every moment. It's her happy place. She almost went with a group to Germany to do something similar; a metal sculpting retreat for a week or so. But the pandemic threw a spanner into that.

thomasjb 3y ago

I love the lathe project [1], I recall looking at it quite seriously when I was younger. Inspired by this site, I welded up a crucible and setup to cast aluminum using charcoal in the bottom half of an old pot belly stove, with a hand dryer reused as a blower for heat. I did manage to melt some scrap, but I didn't have a mold ready that time. My diy flasks weren't great, and I lost interest while trying to get some green sand. I would like to try again though [1]: https://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/lathe1.html https://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/lathe1.html

lfowles 3y ago
I had the first book of the Gingery set, but as I was rapidly moving around during college I never acted on it. The proposed workshop bootstrapping really made my imagination run...

lerchmo 3y ago

This type of website is where I spent the late 90’s. Tesla coils and quarter crusher instructions. This is a great website!

detourdog 3y ago

This website set me off on my current path in about 2005ish.

jacquesm 3y ago
What is your current path? (Besides it being a detour...)
- detourdog 3y ago
  The simple explanation is the belief that (generally) High-end appliances charge too much money for too little thought. The use of material is inefficient and the supply chain could be better. I'm trying to make (ambition dates to 1990) a computing platform with a 100 year view of usage. The idea is that actual human usable technology can be quite slow becuase the human time scale is long. The churn of current technology is actual vestigial growth. As soon as I could I registered cogs.com under the belief that in the future we will only understand technology metaphor. Flash forward 30 years and I have finally established a small run manufacturing facility in an old school. I converted the 7 classrooms into studio apartments to facilitate my design ideas. The idea is rent the apartments for income and develop appliances with my CNC in the 60' x 30' gym/cafeteria/auditorium. Backyard Metalcasting set me off on building: wooden CNC with gecko drives from that guy who built the prototype kit in the bathroom with his wife yelling at him in processed unintelligible language with kids crying... The idea was that I can use it to make molds. Initial I was going to make appliances in batches of 10 and either stock what didn't sell or make more of what did. The idea of 10 is that technically I'm an industrial designer BSID 91 UArts. No industry no industrial design and I reasoned that by creating 10 of something it was proof of industry as opposed to art. I got a legitimate CNC for my studio behind my house and with 15 minutes of installation realized I needed to move it to a legitimate location. Found a school for sale a mile from my house house and decided to flip the script. I would simply make appliances in the gym and use the rental income instead of worrying about all the sales work. 7 was close to 10 and maybe I could get 3 walk sales. A short 5 years later the school is finally producing income with 2 studios rented one more and I'm either breaking even or a little ahead on an annual basis. I currently break even most months. (tax bills and insurance). I'm actually at the point where I can truly get started and I have been finalizing my technology stack. I plan to develop a sloppy in-efficient prototype version that considers the entire building as this 100 year computer and the HVAC/Power/cleaning/snow removal will all be managed by this computer. The belief is that the magic of the computers is in the integration of human need and simple experiences. There will also be a parallel track of development for a streamlined ultra efficient implementation of the same model. The reasoning between developing along those 2 tracks is that with the building I can focus on the human experience practicalities be damned. The refined version with be resolved experiences in the smallest form possible. Here is my studio. https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YJEsNWnJEa0eN https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0YJEsNWnJEa0eN Here is the rental site with outdated photos but some pictures. view.cogs.com Shameless plug studio 4 and Studio 1 are currently available. The rent includes fiber connection and we can talk about a static IP if needed. Finally for the doomscrollers out there I have 4000 photos of the whole project here. Anyone can view this shared album at: https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0Y5oqs3qnakFd https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0Y5oqs3qnakFd HN provides a great survey of old and new technology trends with no ads. I find it is like shouting into the wind and marvel that the site works. I feel my path has been very consistent and filled with obstacles. I'm aware that I'm my own biggest obstacle.

numblPleeb 3y ago

This is probably a stretch but: if anyone knows how to contact the site owner Lionel Oliver, I know many old-school hobbyist metal casters who would really love it if he brought back the sister-site forums at alloyavenue.com. Thanks!

jacquesm 3y ago
At the bottom of the page: ironwords@hotmail.com Does that work for you?
- numblPleeb 3y ago
  Thanks! Unfortunately I’ve heard that Lio has been unresponsive at that email address for several years
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    That sucks, makes you wonder if he's ok.
Etrnl_President 3y ago
Try https://www.iforgeiron.com/ https://www.iforgeiron.com/
- numblPleeb 3y ago
  Thank you! I’ve been told however that members of the iforgeiron community routinely redirect casting questions to alloyavenue despite the latter having been largely unusable for awhile now

xbar 3y ago

Gosh I spent a lot of time contemplating a sojourn into backyard metalcasting. Building my own lathe was a longtime dream.

hacknewslogin 3y ago

For anyone looking for an awesome series of books, these will expand your backyard workshop. Build Your Own Metal Working Shop From Scrap: https://www.gingerybookstore.com/ https://www.gingerybookstore.com/ You start with learning how to cast, then work on casting parts for a lathe and other projects. edit: It looks like the site's author has some of these books! He has a page detailing building the lathe: https://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/lathe1.html https://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/lathe1.html

raintrees 3y ago

For those interested, a fairly comprehensive book on backyard metalcasting from scrap (from the ground up) is David Gingery's Build Your Own Metal Working Shop from Scrap https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/build-your-own-metal-working-shop-from-scrap-complete-7-book-series/9156198/ https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/build-your-own-metal-working-s... Starting with green sand, scrap metal, charcoal, and a pot, pour parts to build a lathe, and so on. It looks like he has put out quite a few "how to" books: https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/david-j-gingery/381968/ https://www.thriftbooks.com/a/david-j-gingery/381968/

dieselgate 3y ago

this is awesome and seems like a great resource; i'll personally stick to backyard welding (no pun intended)