miquel 0 Posted January 10, 2013 Author Share Posted January 10, 2013 Success! The tuyere looks great and more importantly we have learned the process to make more. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
Jan Ysselstein 66 Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Success! The tuyere looks great and more importantly we have learned the process to make more. miquel. Miquel, That was quite a marvelous casting project, congratulations. I have a couple of questions about the process. Did you switch sands to an oil bonded sand or a sand with an organic binder? Were you able to reuse the original copper material 3 times...was the copper fluxed? Good luck with the next steps in the project ..I very much appreciate the energy you guys are putting into the project ( not to mention costs ). Jan Link to post Share on other sites
Jesus Hernandez 31 Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Fantastic, Miquel! Link to post Share on other sites
Alan Longmire 2,729 Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Congratulations! That was an impressive little steam puff from the first riser in that video of the pour. Glad nobody got burned! Link to post Share on other sites
Mark Green 17 Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 This is so great Miquel. I can't wait to see that Catalan furnace run. Congrats on that casting. That tuyere looks great. Mark Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 Miquel, That was quite a marvelous casting project, congratulations. I have a couple of questions about the process. Did you switch sands to an oil bonded sand or a sand with an organic binder? Were you able to reuse the original copper material 3 times...was the copper fluxed? Good luck with the next steps in the project ..I very much appreciate the energy you guys are putting into the project ( not to mention costs ). Jan Thank you, Jan for the encouragement and the comments. I am glad to be able to answer your questions. As I said, I had no previous experience in foundry work. I understand that oil-bonded sand can be compacted better and allows for more surface detail. We used the most inexpensive way at our reach and the loss of surface detail was a trade-off. If you noticed in the pictures of the open mold, the surface has some continuity failures. We used recycled copper without problems. We avoided copper pipes that had solder remains and only used pure copper. We use borax as a flux. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 (edited) Fantastic, Miquel! Thank you, Jesus for everything... miquel. Edited January 11, 2013 by miquel Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 11, 2013 Author Share Posted January 11, 2013 Congratulations! That was an impressive little steam puff from the first riser in that video of the pour. Glad nobody got burned! Thank you, Alan. The gases were the result of combustion of a refractory paint we applied to protect the mold. We were lucky. Both of us survived unharmed. We also made the mistake of resting the crucible on the moist ground. It could have been really bad… Little by little we learn from our mistakes and we have no intention of winning a Darwin award. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
dennis mcadams 0 Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Well done all around! It's been quite the learning experience just watching and reading. Thank you so much for sharing and glad no one has been injured! molten metal is not very forgiving. Denis Link to post Share on other sites
Dan O'Connor 25 Posted January 12, 2013 Share Posted January 12, 2013 Little by little we learn from our mistakes and we have no intention of winning a Darwin award. miquel. Great perseverance. The line above made me laugh, :D/> Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 12, 2013 Author Share Posted January 12, 2013 This is so great Miquel. I can't wait to see that Catalan furnace run. Congrats on that casting. That tuyere looks great. Mark Thanks, Mark. Just hang in there for a bit longer. I have a lot of pictures to edit and I have to allow the translator some breaks (btw, Jesus is translating for me). May be later on we can talk about the benefits of this copper tuyere. Do you think that this conic shape will have any advantage over the copper pipes that you are using? miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
Darrell @ warehamforge.ca 1 Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 May be later on we can talk about the benefits of this copper tuyere. Do you think that this conic shape will have any advantage over the copper pipes that you are using? Two advantages: 1) Heat absorbed on the furnace end is gathered over a smaller surface area than the available radiating surface provided by the larger input end. An engineer might supply a 'best possible' ratio for this. This is the huge advantage of the forged copper tuyeres that a number of us are using. I would expect this function would be greatly reduced in a straight cylinder. 2) There is a pronounced increase in air velocity at the mouth of a conic tuyere. This in turn pushes the air deeper into the furnace. Coupled with the downward angle that is standard for many furnaces, the net effect is to sweep the heat zone more effectively into the volume of the furnace. This has a number of net benefits to effective operation of the furnace. Again, there may be some ideal proportions for the furnace end vs the supply end (??). Darrell Link to post Share on other sites
Jan Ysselstein 66 Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Two advantages: 1) Heat absorbed on the furnace end is gathered over a smaller surface area than the available radiating surface provided by the larger input end. An engineer might supply a 'best possible' ratio for this. This is the huge advantage of the forged copper tuyeres that a number of us are using. I would expect this function would be greatly reduced in a straight cylinder. 2) There is a pronounced increase in air velocity at the mouth of a conic tuyere. This in turn pushes the air deeper into the furnace. Coupled with the downward angle that is standard for many furnaces, the net effect is to sweep the heat zone more effectively into the volume of the furnace. This has a number of net benefits to effective operation of the furnace. Again, there may be some ideal proportions for the furnace end vs the supply end (??). Darrell The supply tube to the tapered copper pipe can made to intentionally leak and carry heat from the copper back out away from the furnace.. Jan Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 (edited) Darrell and Jan. Thank you for your well-thought out replies. I think we all agree. Edited January 15, 2013 by miquel Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 (edited) Last minute touch-ups. We reinforced the top rim of the furnace so that later on we could use as a leverage point at the time of pulling out the masser, (bloom.) Edited January 15, 2013 by miquel Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 We also added some steel plates in the shape of a funnel to be able to pile up the charcoal later. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 We also made a support bracket for the tuyere which allows us to modify its depth, height and angle. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 Ready for a test drive using wood only. Looks like the trompe is working quite well. All systems are go. We are now ready to run it. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
jensjrgenolesen 0 Posted January 15, 2013 Share Posted January 15, 2013 Maybe this is a bit strange qouistion, but when you cast the tube, cant you use a wooden stick to make the cone inside the tube? I dont think the wood will burn away, just carbonice into charcoal. Im looking forward to see more from your Catalan experimnets. Jens Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 15, 2013 Author Share Posted January 15, 2013 Maybe this is a bit strange qouistion, but when you cast the tube, cant you use a wooden stick to make the cone inside the tube? I dont think the wood will burn away, just carbonice into charcoal. Im looking forward to see more from your Catalan experimnets. Jens That’s a dangerous idea. When the molten metal comes into contact with the wood, gases would be generated which will make the molten metal spill out in a very explosive way. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share Posted January 23, 2013 Having completed all the tests that we could do before hand, the day of truth came. We were a bit concerned as to how to manage the smelt using a this type of furnace but we trusted that our previous experience with other smelts will help guide us. We begun early around 8 AM. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share Posted January 23, 2013 We hooked the tuyere to the water trompe. Started pre-heating the oven with a wood fire while guests begun to show up. Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share Posted January 23, 2013 (edited) Trompe working at lower than 50% of capacity. miquel. Edited January 23, 2013 by miquel Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share Posted January 23, 2013 Most of the guests had arrived as the furnace reached working temperature but we still had enough time to do breakfast before we started charging the ore. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
miquel 0 Posted January 23, 2013 Author Share Posted January 23, 2013 After breakfast we were ready to go. miquel. Link to post Share on other sites
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