I have long admire the Cretors brand of popcorn steam engines, but I have always wanted a larger Cretors than I could purchase, and so the only alternative was to build my own jumbo Cretors engines.
On a whim, I decided to try and make a Cretors-replica jumbo flywheel.
I did not think it would turn out, but low and behold, the end result looked pretty good in my opinion.
I would use this on a jumbo Cretors No.06 with perhaps a 2" bore.
Great job, that looks great!
Oh my. Your a very resourceful & talented fellow.
Thanks much for the kind comments.
I appreciate those.
When I first attempted to make a few engine parts back in I think 2009, I was hogging things out of blocks of gray cast iron, such as cylinders, flywheels, etc.
It was miserable going, and the parts I made were very poor quality. I keep those parts as a reminder of how it was in the beginning.
I purchase a casting kit for a steam engine, but was not really pleased with the design of that, and the castings were in aluminum, which was somewhat gummy to machine.
The engines I really wanted to make were and are not available anywhere, and so as a last resort, I decided to build a foundry and make my own castings in iron.
I was trying to explain to my sister that it was much easier to build an engine from castings, since the only machining generally required was a light skimming of some of the surfaces.
My sister said "Yes, but you had to build a freaking foundry to do it !", and I said "Yes, but I still find it easier to make my own castings rather than try and hog out parts from solid blocks of metal".
The foundry stuff is tremendous fun, and I enjoy that as much or perhaps more than actually machining and assembling the engine.
I like engine design too, and use Solidworks to create a 3D model that will run in a virtual simulation, so that I can verify the design before I start casting parts.
Its a great hobby, and a great escape from the rigors of work and such, which is a large part of why I do it.
And lots of nice folks in this hobby too, and so much talented out there. Just attend NAMES and you will see what I mean.
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I had several folks tell me early on that I could not make my own iron castings, and if I did, they would be poor quality, have hard spots and inclusions, and also I would be incinerated by the heat from an iron furnace.
All of that doomsday prophecy turned out to be false (thank goodness), and my iron castings are defect-free, easy to machine, with no defects, and while I did get some nasty burns on one hand when an ingot mold popped on me and splattered molten iron on my welding jacket, which then ran down into my gloves, I have not been incinerated thanks to a few strategically placed heat shields and lots of leather coverings.
Here are a few hand burns.
The molten iron tends to vaporize skin, but luckily it destroys the nerve endings too, so there is no pain.
My wife said "You probably need to go see a doctor and get a skin graft".
I responded "Nonsense, its a minor scratch".
Curad Silver solution healed it in no time.
I know others who do iron who have had much more serious burns, and so I feel fortunate.
I use extreme caution when I pour iron these days.
Better safe than sorry.
No pain, no gain as they say.
You do need welding goggles to protect against the IR, which is very intense when the furnace is opened.
I'm not going to complain about my occasional minor burns anymore.
Nice castings, be very careful.
Thanks much.
I do take a number of precautions with the iron, and the mold making process, and use industrial grade respirators, etc.
The iron pours were a bit unnerving at first, but one gets use to them eventually, and they become routine.
Using quality crucibles is critical, and only using crucibles that are in good shape is a must.
Worst case is a crucible breaking in mid-lift, and thus a potential iron splash up under the faceshield.
My plans for next year are to build a small crane to allow me to pull the crucible from the furnace without having to stand so close to the furnace or crucible.
As far as splashing molten iron, its generally no big deal with full leathers and boots, with pants over the top of the boots.
Its called the waterfall rule, where you wear protection for falling molten iron, like rain on a roof.
The art-iron folks splash molten iron everywhere, and so they make everything I do look downright safe, LOL.
Not for everyone for sure, but it is totally feasible in a backyard setting for a technical-oriented person.
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Some nice work on that flywheel
Makes my brass flywheels i cast last weekend an embarrassment.
I think i shall hide in the corner .
Cheers
Dennis
My first casting attempts were quite simple and crude.
We all have to start somewhere.
I knew absolutely nothing about casting metal just a few years ago.
I will start a thread to show my first casting work.
Great stuff.
Can you add pictures of your Foundry set-up?