Steamboat Casting a Steam Engine Bedplate at Kinetic Steam Works

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Steamboat Casting a Steam Engine Bedplate at Kinetic Steam Works

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11 ай бұрын

Casting a bedplate for the Grosjean compound marine steam engine at the Kinetic Steam Works in Oakland, California. Special thanks to Troye Welch for staying up till 3am and showing me his depth of knowledge in casting. The improvised core box was due to me forgetting to grab the original core box home. Cores were baked greensand. no binders. Sand was 120 mesh greensand.
Pattern made by Charles Grosjean of Poway, California for the steamboat 'Wayward Belle's he designed and built.
For more information about Kinetic Steam Works and volunteering possibilities, visit www.kineticsteamworks.org/
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Пікірлер: 14

@TroyeWelch 11 ай бұрын

So you see why I don’t post a lot of my casting videos - if you’re doing the pour (unless you’re wearing a body camera) you don’t capture the pour itself and that’s the part that most people want to see. 😅 Nice video editing though. I think when we get that machined (or a second casting with a little less solidification shrinkage), we should do a followup video- people like to see shiny metal too and it will give us an idea if there’s any subsurface porosity. For those at home, this was primarily a test pour as the original designer and pattern maker had gone through several iterations and changes to the gating and metal flow within the mold, but he’s not around anymore to ask for clarification. We were left with what we believe was intended as two knife gates into the mold and Wes wasn’t convinced that enough metal would flow through them quickly enough to avoid freezing. We were also concerned about 6 chunky areas of the casting which would hold heat and freeze last and thus be subject to shrinkage. Well, the knife gates worked very well (they were thin, but still fairly wide) and we put risers on 2 of the 6 potential trouble spots. We got very slight shrinkage on the other 4, so that was as expected and we could put risers on all 6 and probably be good. Possibly this bed plate would be useable as is or it can be a test piece for setting up a CNC program.

@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE 11 ай бұрын

Thank you Troye for the much more clear explanation. I've pinned your comment, and might add it to the video description. With your permission of course.

@TroyeWelch 11 ай бұрын

@@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE go for it! Modify as needed. Hopefully we get a whistle or two cast today. On my way to the shop now :-)

@rhavrane 11 ай бұрын

Bonjour Wesley, Casting is always very interesting and I have no idea where I could see one even if I know that its exists also for models so many thanks to share with us this process. I will be happy to follow this new build, Amicalement, Raphaël

@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE 11 ай бұрын

Bonjour Raphaël, You may be surprised the carports or gardens where people might be doing some at-home casting. It's a fascinating process. I'm really thankful for Troye teaching me how to do it. Perhaps your model group has someone dabbling in it and home?

@alwaysbearded1 11 ай бұрын

Cool. I did not know we had a working foundry in Oakland, my home town. I'll have to check it out. ABI is about to be torn down. Don't know if there is anything left of value there but I spent a few hours in a community mtg. about the demo work.

@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE 11 ай бұрын

Just a hobby job. They're "in Mexico" whenever casting occurs 🫣. I'm not familiar with ABI

@alwaysbearded1 11 ай бұрын

AB&I is, or was an industrial foundry that mostly made cast iron pipe. The people of East Oakland have complained for years about the downwind pollution. Well, now we have to protect them from the demo. There will be lots of lead and maybe some asbestos they did not already abate. I wish I had known earlier that they were closing and demolishing the building. Would have been nice to come up with an excuse to inspect. I work for City of Oakland, Building Inspection. Would have been interesting to see what equipment they had. Wonder where it all went? @@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE

@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE 11 ай бұрын

@@alwaysbearded1 sure would have been nice to get an induction furnace or two

@Akitene 11 ай бұрын

That is quite a promising project. High pressure twin or compound engine?

@WesleyHarcourtSTEAMandMORE 11 ай бұрын

Thank you! It is a compound engine with piston valve High Pressure and balanced slide valve Low Pressure. Stephenson Link valve gear. Bores and stroke 2" + 4" x 3-1/4" (50.8 + 101.6 x 82.6mm). Designed to run up to 800rpm.