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I just remembered how much I loved this guy

Grant, i think the water in the sand starts boiling and thats why it becomes unstable. The copper is also very heavy and thats why the sand starts floating on top.

I worked in a foundry for many years. We have chemicals to our sand so it sets better and holds it's shape better. One other thing is we never pour directly into the piece we are making. We have runners and vents which allow the metal to flow and fill. I hope this helps.

Failing never stopped you. Forever Rest In Peace the true king of random

Copper dissolves gasses when hot and releases them when cooling thus it is much easier to cast if you add something to disrupt that like a hand full of zinc pennies or a roll of lead free solder.

If the sand is wet the moment the molten copper touches the sand it will evaporate the water. When liquid water changes to steam it expands in volume by about 22 times. That forms a steam barrier between your molten copper and the sand and since it takes a LOT of heat to raise water from room temperature to 100C and then to steam (about 4200 Joules per gram per degree Celsius of liquid water + whatever you need to change water to steam) your copper will conform to the mold of the steam barrier which will probably not be as uniform as the sand mold. That steam also pushes on the 3 little sand pillar in the middle. I think the reason they kept popping off are: 1) Steam forming at the bottom of the mold ( like the bottom face of your gear) is under a lot of pressure since the hole gear is on top of it. It presses against the bottom of your pillars deforming it creating a weakness on a already weak spot. 2) That spot is already under a lot stress from the hydrostatic pressure from the molten copper. (One of the reasons damns aren't perpendicular to the ground, but thicker at the bottom). 3) Sand is also less dense and buoyant force will push the pillar to the surface of the molten copper. Adding water might seem to make the less less "brittle" but i think it's actually detrimental during the actual molding. What I would suggest would be: 1) make the mold more shallow. Maybe make the gear half as thick? It should help the buoyancy problem since it increases proportionally to the volume of your pillar. 2) Less water. Aside from the steam problem it will allow your copper to cool more slowly, which i think was one of the things you wanted. 3) Pour slowly. I noticed the pillar that pops off is usually near where you pour. Copper is very heavy and dense. After is hits the bottom it will start dispersing throughout the bottom of your mold. It will put a lot of lateral force on whatever is in it's way. (Think standing in front of an avalanche, you are the pillar. as you continuously pour copper it's as if snow would keep coming down on you). Maybe a slow steady pour moving around the mold? Ideally you would want all sides of the pillar to have the same height of copper so all sides are being pushed by the copper with the same amount of force.

Rip man, watching every vid and commenting RIP

My favorite youtuber. I wish I had the opportunity to tell him how much I learned from him. Rest in peace my friend and thank you.

Hi Grant, I can help with the issues your having. your close but there are a few simple things that need to be addressed. Your green sand needs to be "milled" this is the process of completely covering your sand with the clay. its a crappy, long and labor intensive process but its the only way to make viable "true" green sand. effectively you need to mix the sand aloooot, one of the best ways is to place it on a tarp and walk on it for ages aka more than 10 mins. you could also put it in a large plastic container and squash it by hand but its alot harder. Second i would recommend not pouring your copper directly into the casting shape but rather through a channel so that falling copper doesn't hit your pattern sand. (all sand casting is done this way unless your using petrobond) The falling copper could weaken the sand or directly damage the pattern. copper is heavy! so it gathers abit of energy as it falls. Last, I would highly highly highly recommend you use the top of your mold! you made it for a reason! that can brace the clay and its possible you can skip the above two steps if you simply give the mold that extra support. hope this helps. I have cast copper, aluminium, gold and silver for years, I even did my undergrad research project on perfecting a high resolution mixture. if you get questions pm me.

You need to make the mold double sided with sand on the top and bottom and use at least 2 breather holes and one pour hole. The added sand on top will help insulate all the heat and keep it molten for longer. Additionally, the sand on top will prevent the center sections from lifting up and floating.

RIP. Hopefully wherever you are you are at peace 🙏

I watch all of Grant's videos again But its not the same

you need two sides of the green sand and make a tube from the middle of the gear to pour the copper from. this allow the shape to stay in tact and the molten copper will not cool that fast.

Professional caster to the rescue! Don't melt the Styrofoam, and skim the slag off the top of the copper. It's a defective impurity. Also a neat trick to the sand is add sand epoxy.

This man was a legend, Hes such a family man and trying to be so kid friendly that he dosent curse and instead of saying "Holy S***" He said "Holy heck" This man was a true LEGEND

Look, I'm trying, okay? But sometimes, I just get overwhelmed. I'll try to be better from now on, I promise.

Why were you casting it in an open mould? why not just making a closed mould with a gate, runner and riser system, in that way you can keep the sand in place, control the pouring speed and it also has a better insulation to prevent premature solidification. The same way you cast the brass knuckles.

Just a thought from my high school metal shop days, but in the process of making bronze for a trinket I tested the capability of our school foundry with copper. I discovered that in casting I needed to add a fluxing agent in order to get a clean cast as gasses end up bubbling up through the molten copper. Another thought to avoid the steam issue might me to switch to oil dampened sand. I don't know the particular oil offhand, but again in my metal shop days we used black sand casting that utilized oil as the binding agent. I'm sure a google search might shed a little light on that option. You might also try using both halves of the sand casting to hold down the middle sections in the radioactive sign so that they don't float away. Anyways, thanks for all the great content!

Argh... Why is seeing your face now is hard?

Its the sand.. Has nothing to do with the copper.

Great vid bud I might have some idea's as to why your having difficulties, I have done greensand copper casts before, I am pretty sure your center detail is popping out because of two reasons. 1: the additional moisture in your greensand allows for steam to be created with the metal being so hot its instant which will weaken your structure as the steam cannot escape through the metal so it pushes through the sand. Ideally greensand is about 6% moisture, and 2: your only using half of your mold, use both the cope and the drag and it will support your mold alot more just make some sprue holes and pour the metal into it the mold will insulate the copper and im sure you will get better results. Feel free to contact me if you wanna talk more about your greensand copper casting,

Grant...grant...grant... The reason the sand kept on popping out was because you didn't pat it enough before you were casting... you need to pat the sand harder and every time you add a new layer. Watch press tubes video, he patted the sand constantly until it was almost a complete solid, the harder you pound the sand around the styrofoam, the more secure and tough your mold will hold while casting.

1. You need to use bentonite clay mixed with the sand to make it stick together. 2. You don't need to burn the foam out. 3. You really should use a cope and drag type mold with gating, your results will be much better with few failed castings.

The fact that. you showed us the failures is testament to your character. I say thank you. As a learning exercise some of the other guys use a releasing agent such as talcum powder to allowing easy release of the template. One guy also talked about using oil to bind the sand. He didn't. say what type of oil. This was an excellent learning resource, thank you.

What you need to do is to sandwich the mold in a top and bottom layer and put two holes on the top layer so one is to pour the liquid in and the others to vent. And it should keep the liquid in the mold hot so the copper can form to the mold better!

Wrong kind of foam? House insulation is fire retardant. When you pour the copper it takes so much energy to vaporise the fire resistant foam it's pulling so much thermal energy from the copper it's thickening. You just need to use cheap polystyrene so that it can instantly vapourish when the copper flows into the mould! upvote so the king can see this!!

I wish I possessed your ability to maintain such composure and positivity during what I can tell is so stressful and aggravating

just a thought, i used to work in the art department of a foundry that produced brass belt buckles, the sand they used was mixed with regular, new motor oil. They were able to achieve fairly fine detail. Their process was very similar to what you are doing. they had hydraulic tampers instead of wood blocks. Each casting was pressed from a reusable Zinc master. They reused their sand after sieving it for chunks.They always faced with new sand. Since was not in the foundry section, i can only offer what i observed. keep up the great videos, i enjoy they immensely.

You need a closed mold, not an open one- the little nubs won't be able to float up if they are joined to both the upper and lower surfaces.

all that work making the green sand forms and you only use one half? the copper cooled too quick because you didnt use the top half of the form to insulate the cast. the sand broke away because you didnt use a spru, the liquid copper is heavy so when you pour it in it erodes the sand and can destroy the shape. using both the cope and drag will solve both issues

Really great video, I enjoyed it immensely! I’m sorry that you didn’t get your full gear ⚙️, but I admire your "Stick-To-It-Ness" you displayed!

He’s not dead, He is alive in all of our hearts, and you can never truly die if you have videos of you, or you are in people’s memories. And don’t say rest in piece, for him say, experiment with happiness and fun.

I like how you show the fails and mistakes one can easily make while doing stuff like this. Science hobbies are all trial and error with an enormous learning curve lol. Great channel!

The problem you had was all because of density! At 7,898 g/cm3, molten copper is very dense. Whereas the density of wet sand is roughly 1.905 g/cm3. The three sand pieces kept falling apart because they wanted to float on top of the molten copper!! Hope this helps!

I'm classified as a professional foundryman, and even though I have a long list of critiques, I still love this guy! We are all missing the king of random!

R.I.P brother. You will be missed.😭😢

Copper is only $2.20/lbs, so unless you have about 30lbs in that gear it isn't $60 of copper. The reasons copper tubes cost that much is the work that goes into processing them. After working with copper I'm sure you are aware that it's not easy to create tubes. P.S. your foundry video was what got me into your channel, please keep doing foundry videos! Test alloys and stuff, I don't know, just do more!

could the problem actually be the styrofoam shrinking as it melts constricting on the pillars of sand in the center ruining them

I loved his enthusiasm ❤️ we miss you dude

When we thermite weld railroad tracks we use a foundry clay. It has sand already in the clay, but the clay needs to be heated slightly prior to pouring your slag/metal. You don’t want your clay to appear slimy because any additional moisture may explode because of temperature difference.

well, here' s our proof that grant is also a human.

I've tried what u need to do is burry the gear and make a funnel in the sand leading to the gear under the sand

RIP man hope there’s a KZfaq in heaven so you can keep educating and doing what you love

I love how that foundry growls like a BEAST

Green sand is not solid enough you need oil sands, and an upper box with spru and riser

You should use a closed mould. This would mean that the radioactive shapes cannot float up and ruin the casting. Also, pouring the copper directly onto the sand could damage the mould. Using spruces instead should help with the problem. Hope this can help you succeed!!!

I absolutely LOVE your persistence!

I have very little experience with casting, however the man that I helped always used a sealed cast for more dense materials. I doubt that is the proper name. but basically completely cover the gear with sand and have a pour spout going into the foam chamber. I could be wrong but I also believe it may help gold the hear in longer. allowing it to fill the mold better.

I think you should use a two piece mold to make the copper more workable and avoid the sand chunks from breaking👍

You do not know but you die 2 years after this video comes out. In 2019 R.I.P.

You’re getting my like for cracking the hollow styrofoam, thank you for the satisfaction:))

The reason why the sand is breaking is not the melting point. The burning mold produces gas. The pressure from the escaping gases has no where else to go. The copper is more dense than the sand. So the Sand gives way. This goes for all who are trying to make molds with foam.

I think the issue comes from the fact that molten copper is around 3.4x denser than molten aluminum. I think the bouency force was enough to separate the bond in the sand. the solution could be placing metal inside the radioactive symbols before packing the sand or by adding somthing inside the mold that would strengthen the bond in the sand. something like the plastic Christmas tree fasteners. Or anything long and with well defined edges.

2017: Argh! Why is copper so difficult? 2019: Argh! Why is COPPA so difficult?

Still rewatching these after all these years, why do the knowledgeable have to die so young.

two things. Green Sand isn't the right level of clay plus talcom powder may be of great use... also, you need the upper portion of your cast mold to retain both structure and heat. you should do a side by side of your greensand compared to the professional grade stuff. second, please build or buy a smelters crucible arm.

Put your chickens in the furnace and melt them down to cast a fake chicken

i had a laughing fit at 3:30 imagining will smith holding the molten cooper and saying "oo that's hot"

RIP...... You touched our hearts, you helped our minds and you will live on forever !!!

why don"t you cover the mold with the top part and make a cavity for copper to go in? this will prevent the sand pieces from popping, and leave only a small part of the mold exposed to air, hence giving copper more time to cool down... That's what I think. btw the last gear is by far your best one :)

Disclaimer: I posted this comment on the last video too. Can your furnace get hot enough to melt rock? Then you would have your own lava for an even greater number of possible experiments.

Hey Grant! As you noticed yourself during the casting of the last gear, you commented on the crispy sand. What if, you put the mold with the styrofoam gear some place hot and let it become a bit crispy. And in that way, make the sand hold together more easily?

First of all I need to say thanks for your efforts and determination on this experiment the problem you almost ran into everytime might be that the sand you use has lower density than that of copper ,which caused those parts to the surface as if they were floating but I must say I'm not quite sure

What about popping the mould into the oven for a few mins? The heat will melt away the styrofoam and it will dry out the sand as well...

Sand is fine if it is constrained by the edges of the mould, but for any internal structure points with no edge reinforcement, the buoyant force of the copper is going to cause the less dense sand to float. It's no surprise this didn't work when you think about the science behind the materials being used. A closed mould may work better as it would give the internal sand structures two points of constraint.

If I use an open mold for projects like your gear I’ve found using a mixture of sand / plaster of Paris adjacent to projects to work wonderfully.

I was a molder when I was young. We made sand or ceramic powder mixed with a resin into a nonstick mold. The resin had a catalist to make it harden. When the resin hardens, it only took minutes then I would separate the mold from the sand or ceramic mixture. After separation you need to heat your mold with a torch to dry it completely out. Your resin was alcohol based so it would burn and dry out faster. After this I would pour the molten brass or other metals.

I saw someone doing casting with some alloy ( probably brass ) in red sand and it included a hole through brass was poured in as well as it was enclosed except the hole and at last the excess part of the metal was cut if excess metal was poured and the casting turned out to be perfect but I am not too sure it will work here since components are different but if wanna try be King of Random Awesomeness. - A Student who likes experiments

looks like your sand needs a binder.

Aside from the starting angle of the mold when the pouring starts, and your way of pouring, my problem when I worked in a foundry was learning to keep the mold the right temp, and checking for graphite buildup inside..

Try melting the crucible. I don't know if it's even possible. But try it once. Thank you so much for the videos. Love them.

Grand, its easy to fix it, it isnt the coppor you need to add a few more grams of clay to the mix from the sand than it will be something harder than it will work ( LIKE THAT HE SEES IT )

Try making the greensand with fireclay instead of normal clay it's what worked for me.

We all miss you, you're always the KING OF RANDOM

there is a way to keep the copper insulated during the poor and to increase the strength of the sand...Basically, do what you did before, but then attach a foam pour spout and a couple of vents to the gear foam. Then place the other half of your sand box on and fill with green sand so that just the top of the pour spout and vents are sticking out. This way, you can just pour into the one spout and let the heat vent out the vents, the copper is insulated through the entire pouring process and the sand is no longer cantilevered as it is supported on both the top and bottom. It will also prevent the top side of the gear from bubbling up...anyway, just a thought; it may work better this way.

Just because you bought 60 dollars of copper pipe doesn't mean there is 60 dollars worth of copper.......

Grant you should add borax yo the copper while melting it, it will make everything easier and get better results

Copper is heavy, man. It will shift any loose parts of the mold aside like they're nothing. You've seen it with the last casting - the pressure of the copper flowing in from all sides simply broke the loose sections apart and pushed them to the top. You'd need something like clay at the very least.

Lmao the sound of the smealter when it gets lit😂😂😂 sounds like snoring

Hey Grant you know if you speak nice things to melted copper it will work better.

It's the foam you're using, it melts slow but also leaves parts of itself behind which can make imperfections in the mold. Also the copper doesn't have time to flow all the way in and completely fill the areas where the foam is making imperfections as you know.

Hi! 2 years to late but I have an idea for the instability of your sand, the problem with moisture and green sand is that what gives its molding capabilities is the sand s friction I interacting with the water particles, thus supporting itself and able to give it shape. My thought is if you moisturize the sand, as well as as a layer of something with a higher melting point than the molten copper in the sand, (eg, particles of a heavy metal) you might get the retention you're looking for with those delicate intermediary pieces ^.^

Love these videos. Just wanted to say I think the problem was you were pouring it in too fast and that's what the trouble was. Very cool though. Amazing job on these videos

Try sprinkling baby powder on top of styrofoam gear in place with the sand mold, then take a make-up brush, and lightly coat the surface, then remove the styrofoam gear from the sand mold, then pour the molten copper... (Your Welcome)

At this point why don't you use a better molding technique

4:08 Omg how you said "rippin' hot!"

Only watched this once but feels like I've watched it a million times.

Man these things really don't copper-rate

if your going to cast copper in green sand you should use more clay in your mixture and bake it first

You mentioned you thought it was cooling too fast, try doubling the distance between the mold snd the outer frame all directions. Pour the copper through metal tubes to mold. A little more clay to bind sand.

Could you try pouring more slowly, and reheating the copper when it gets too cool? That would solve the problem of the notches floating. They're being torn away by the current in the pour. The slower the pour the less current. I don't know if copper will meld or make layers, but it would be fun to find out.

You should use casting sand

Use casting sand then pull out the gear, then heat the mold before pouring. Top is going to be "domed" due to surface tension. Make a 2 part mold with vents to make a perfect cast.

tkor then: we melted copper and steel tkor now: can we extract peanut butter?

Would a Silicon Carbide or Clay Graphite crucible be better for my application? I'm using it for melting copper in a charcoal foundry. I used a silicon carbide for one melt and it worked great, the crucible had an insane amount of glaze on it but I wasn't bothered by it. Though, last night I fired up my foundry again and had the crucible fail and pour molten copper all over the bottom of my foundry.

Grant, in order to do this successfully you must eat the sand.

Hey Grant, try making the water slightly hotter, and then put it in the oven or something to heat up the mold a little bit. Then it would take less heat from the copper, so the copper could flow more easily. Also, try making a channel away from the main gear for the copper to flow down, then it might not push the sand over as easily.

You need to do the mold exactly as is then get another solid mold on top of it with just sand so it's closed in the middle. Then lastly a hole to lead to the mold itself in the compacted top sand. That insures the best possible molding

The way I have done it is to use a two part mold riddling the sand mixed with a bit of oil as a binder and tamping it around the object to be cast. Use a mold release like talc between the two layers. Join the two halves and riddle sand over the first half. Then separate the halves carefully an remove the item to be cast and sprinkle graphite into the mold and carefully create a funnel shape sprue (pour opening) and several small channels to the outside to allow gases to escape. Rejoin the mold halves and clamp. Pour molten metal into the mold thru the sprue hole and let it cool. When cool, separate the mold and clean your casting.