battles of the cultures was: old battle of the lovees was: PDP1 3554

2 weeks ago I volunteered for a day at a small iron foundry in Ohio, helped pour 8 or 9 flasks and did a bunch of other stuff. He does ductile and grey iron for things like small engine pistons, straightedges, machinery parts etc.. stuff up to 30lbs. He is able to control the metallurgy quite well just by adjusting how big a handfull of additives he throws in. His raw material is mostly pig iron ingots, chuck it into the crucible to adjust the mix.

The trick is getting the iron up to the right temp and having a crucible & ladle that will stand it. He has a 100kw induction heating system which will melt the 30lbs of iron in about 3 hrs- which is lots faster than it sounds when the intervening time is spent working on the flasks.

If he didn't have 100kw to throw around, I imagine he'd be using an old-fashioned coal fired cupola, which aren't used much these days but were common on fairly large scales some time ago. Either way, his 1 man operation (his wife helps him prep molds), could produce almost all the internal parts of a several HP steam engine or pump. The main castings would need a bigger facility but with the addition of a reasonable machine shop, finished machines could be made just like they were in the later 1800's.

Gregm