On Mon, Oct 25, 2010 at 6:36 AM, jeflhl02 <greengold02@hotmail.com> wrote:
> crucible breaks/bursts, will it be an outward blast that will send
> pieces of the crucible AND molten metal outward (toward me)? OR Will
> the crucible fall to pieces in a downward direction?
>
Down. But when molten metal hits the ground, it can splash and will run.
So downward still implies toward you. (There won't be any "blast" from a
crucible breaking, but there can be when pouring into something wet and
water turns to steam; that's a different hazard to watch out for.)
I don't think I will use a sprue since I'm not sure what you
> mean by "cutting off the sprue". I know what a sprue is and
> what a sprue cutter is, (via Google Images) but what spruce would I be
> cutting off...? The pictures I'm seeing on Google may not be doing
> a good job of visualizing this... Also, I will learn how to pour both
> open face and cavity in a hole.
>
If you don't know what cutting off a sprue means, then you don't know what a
sprue is. If you are pouring cavity in a hole, you will have a sprue. The
sprue is the metal that fills up that pouring hole. It isn't part of the
object you were trying to cast, so you will want to remove it. If you have
excluded saws from your experiment, then a chisel will work.
Your mental speculation model is interesting, but you have some conflicting
fundamentals and self-imposed limitations that are somewhat arbitrary.
While it is interesting to speculate "what could I do if I were shipwrecked
on an island with just local natural resources", casting aluminum just isn't
one of those things. You simply won't find aluminum to melt, unless you are
working with some sort of artifacts of 20th century civilization. So if you
have aluminum, you have other modern artifacts also. You simply can't find
a situation in the world where you would have aluminum but not steel.
You certainly can draw a line on which modern resources you wish to make use
of or not, but understand that it is arbitrary personal preference and not a
factual limit.
Most people going the Gingery route are doing so either for the education or
the low-cost aspects. Both are attainable, but what methods and materials
you employ will vary based on your goals. If your goal is low-cost, then
you certainly would use local sand and clay, but making flint tools isn't
really necessary.
If your goal is a theoretical paper on survival with limited resources, you
may want to look at blacksmithing and iron/steel forging, rather than
casting (particularly aluminum).
I would recommend just jumping in and *doing* some melting, before
speculating too much farther. Even if you just melt something and then pour
on the ground, It will make all the world of difference in your
understanding of the whole thing.
Good luck with it, and have fun!
- Alan
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