Melting and Pouring Steel

Unfortunately for this part of casting I was alone. I didn’t have anyone present to operate the camera while I was pouring the part. But I did get video of my initial melt and test run. These I’ll post later on, along with video of the next gun parts I cast.

I prepped my cope and drag with Petrobond casting sand by placing the original broken part in the bottom and coating it lightly in corn starch as a kind of parting.

I rammed the sand as tightly as I could.

I carefully removed the broken part from the sand mold.

I clamped the cope and drag together in preparation for the pour.

I got the furnace preheated and the crucible inserted in the chamber.

The fuel tank is set up away from the furnace, and I keep a fire extinguisher handy. Safety third, you know.

Getting ready for the pour.

The poured gun part after cleaning it up and getting it ready to be fitted. It still needs to be heat treated and matched to the gun. There’s a lot to this that I didn’t get pictures of yet. The pour itself, removing from the mold, heck, I forgot to take pictures of the vents being scratched into the sand. It’s been quite the process just getting to this point. Not to mention how many times I had to remold the part and cast it again because of some failure on my behalf to get it right the first try.

But as more parts are cast, I’ll be getting more photos of the process. There will be more parts made and more photos coming in the future. This is not done by any means. This is just the start. It took me a year of research and experimenting and 10 attempts just to get this one shotgun hammer. But I stuck with it and I’m working on getting better with this.

Keep in mind I’m a guncrank doing this by himself. I’m going to make mistakes. I’m going to miss getting pictures.