Construction of my Gingery Style Foundry
Last update 11-20-2007
The initial thing that got me started on making the series of Gingery
Equipment is that I have started a project that requires the use of
metal working equipment. And not being very rich I have come to
the conclusion that I will have to make my own equipment to get what I
need to build my project. So in searching around for a solution I
happened upon Lindsay's Books.
I then discovered that they had a series of books written by Dave
Gingery on "Build Your Own Metal Shop From Scrap". Hot Dam - this
appeared to be just what I was looking for to solve my problem. So
investing in one set of books later I have started down the road to
someplace I have never been before. The first thing that I needed
from the book list it appears is a foundry. This will let me
create the parts I needed to make the machine tools to make my project.
Now the foundry should look like this when it is finished.
Now the important thing about the foundry is that it uses Charcoal
and Air to melt Aluminum and Die Cast metal. Now I picked up a
few changes along the way to building the Foundry. Based upon the
book I didn't need to put the chains and turnbuckles on the foundry but
supporting the far end of the lid this just seemed to be the way to go.
The lid support mechanism is from the book by Stephen D. Chastain "Metal Casting: A Sand Casting Manual for the Small Foundry Vol. 1".
To get started I had to find a 5 gallon metal bucket. When
was the last time you saw a 5 gallon metal bucket just laying around.
So out on the Internet and I found a company that sells them.
"Freud Containers"
stocks all types of containers. I am a very happy purchaser of
their products. They took my credit card info and shipped
immediately. Next I could have make my own refractory using
Dave's recipe but I only wanted to do this once. So I went to a
local refractory supply place named "SMITH-SHARPE
FIRE BRICK SUPPLY".
They had what I needed. I got some fire brick and also some
refractory that came in a plastic bag in a box. Now the
refractory is not cheap but as I said I only wanted to make the foundry
once.
So following Dave's directions I had gotten some
sheet metal at my local Ace Hardware. I cut out the sizes for the
internal form from the sheet metal and cut out 2 pieces of plywood into
7 inch circles to hold the sheet metal round. I then taped them
together so they formed a cylinder. I also cut out the 4 pieces
of wood that are used to center the form in the pail. I am sorry
that I did not take any photos of this phase of construction.
Next came the harder part of making the foundry. I cut off
chunks of the refractory and using a stick that fit down in the space
to be loaded I pounded the refractory into the void that had to be
filled. I pounded and added a small chunk and then pounded it
again. It took about 3 days of pounding off and on to get the
form filled tightly. Why all the pounding, well if you do not
remove all the air pockets from the void area then the foundry will
burn thru to the outside and you can just throw it all in the trash.
So when you make a foundry expect to have an arm and shoulder
about like California's Governor Arnold for a while. By the
way use a stick about 1 by 2 inches and a rubber mallet to do this
work. After filling the form I then followed Dave's directions
and removed the form from the pail. After removing the form ( not
easy work by the way ) I then drilled a 1/2 inch whole in the center of
the bottom for an emergency drain. I then place refractory on the
bottom of the pail and pounded it into place. After finishing that I
cleared the hole in the refractory with a drill from the outside
bottom. I then installed a wooden form that I had made from 2
dowels, that had 1 - 1 inch piece tee'd with a 1/2 inch piece.
I pounded this into place to form a drain at the bottom. Notice that you cannot see
the air vent tubing placed on the left hand side in this picture but it
is a 1 1/2 inch piece of galavanized tubing. This is the air venturi
hole to add the air to burn the charcoal.
Here is an external picture
that shows the tubing at the bottom right of the pail.
The next part was to create the top. According to Dave you need
to form a mold that is the outside diameter of the pail and create a 4
inch hole in the center. There is a sheet metal outside band and
I used a coffee can that was about 4 inches in diameter when making the
top. I also had some heavy gauge wire on hand and strung it inside
to support the refractory so that it would not fall out. When I
finished it looked like this in the form I used. The can is in
the background.
The finished top looked like this.
I then let the whole foundry set in sealed plastic bags for about 3
weeks so that all the moisture level would even out. Also I was
busy for those 3 weeks and was not in a rush. After that time it
was time to fire the whole mess and see if my work was any good.
I put 1 whole 18 pound bag of charcoal thru the furnace.
Initially I put in 3 to 4 layers of charcoal in the foundry and
started the fire up. ( I just love this part ) I tried
using my shopvac to blow air into the foundry but found that all it did
was blow the flames and heat right out of the foundry. So I went
into the house and bargained with my wife and daughter for a hair
dryer. If you give me one today then I will gladly buy you one on
Tuesday. ( famous Wimpy saying from Popey the sailor man cartoon) .
I got the hair dryer and used some tape to make the air pipe fit
it. It worked out real fine. I set the dryer on low and
gently feed the air to the fire.
When the fire was almost out I
then removed the top and filled up the foundry with charcoal and put
the top back on. I then turned the dryer up to high/cool and got
the foundry real hot. After about 1/2 of the charcoal was used up
I added more to keep the foundry hot until all the bag was used.
I then put firebrick over the top and in front of the air hole
and let the foundry cool down over night.
The next thing to build is the lid lift mechanism.
This next piece was built out of black pipe and 1/2 inch rod.
After cutting and grinding on it for a while it turned out like
this.
And after getting a MIG welder I started practicing on my foundry. So don't laugh when the welds turn out like this.
The most important thing that I have learned so far is that if it does not fall off then it is good enough.
After finishing up with all the parts it finally looks like this.
Now for all the work of trying to burn the unit up it looked like this inside.
And the top looked like this after the firing.
Just to let you know here is picture of using the foundry to melt Aluminum.
Here is the foundry after having dumped the metal in the ingot forms and back in the foundry for the next heating.
I also needed a crucible to heat the metal in. What my friend made for me was this.
And the other side.
And the tools for handling the crucible.
So now as you can see even you can to this if I can.
Next thing to build is the lathe.