Subject: Charcoal Foundry & Gingery Lathe

From: [email-masked] (Barry Wolinetz)
Date: 31 Dec 94 12:57:38 -0500

I also built Gingery's Charcoal furnace with an eye toward making the Lathe
and other projects. 

I made mine out of a 5 Gal Popcorn tin with a downspout adaptor for the
tuere. I lined it according to the instructions and used a piece of downspout
attached to a bathroom vent fan for air.  It works as advertised and I get
molten aluminum in about 20 minutes.  I made a crucible out of a piece of 
4" pipe with a disk welded to the bottom and it works great.  I also have a
one quart cast iron pot and a 2.5 qt cast iron pot ( The big one is used in
a larger version of the furnace I made out of a 12 gal steel drum).

I use only castings from lawnmower decks, engines and computer parts that the
local field engineers give me when servicing the equipment.

I made all the patterns for the lathe and began casting it.  I then enrolled
in a machine shop class at the local community college to machine the 
castings properly.  It was there that I realised that if I wanted a lathe
that has some real capabilities that I would have to go out and buy one.  I
couldn't see having such a small lathe after playing with the big old
South Bends and Clausings.

I ended up getting an old 12X36 Craftsman/Atlas with a bunch of goodies for a 
little more than $550 and a nice drive in the country.

Now that I have a lathe and the foundry, I am going to make the Shaper or
the milling machine come spring. (I don't like to mess with molten metal
when there is snow on the ground, and I wont melt and pour in the garage
either!!!)

The prior post that describes all the bad things that can happen with molten
metal deserves to be framed and hung in the R.C.M. hall of fame as a warning
about what can happen when dealing with molten metal.  (It was a great post).

Good luck.

Barry

--

Barry Wolinetz                       My opinions, Only!  I would not
The Northern Trust Co                claim to speak for my employer in 
Chicago, Il                          most matters discussed here!

Give some kid(s) a break, Be a Foster Parent!