I think because I made the Gingery lathe and a lot of other bits and pieces the practice has resulted in repeatable results.? Like a musical instrument, practice, practice, practice.? And I know nothing.

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The X axis motor mounts are an example of dealing with limitations.? In this case not a large enough crucible for the entire mount plate so I made it in two pieces and bolted them together.? The exploded diagram shows what I wanted to do including the angular contact bearings.

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The castings came out without any issues.? The one that holds the bearings is a two part since there's the relief on the bottom side.?

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The close-up with the bearing cap and the angular contact bearings shows the surface finish isn't great but isn't too bad either. My green sand is actually quite coarse. ?If I was I using Petrobond or surrounding the pattern with a really fine grit green sand I'd see much better finish.

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厂迟颈濒濒…

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The Shumatech DRO made repeatable positioning for the holes a no brainer. ??I use the ELS, turning my rotary chuck, to position the holes in the hub.

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It all fit together exactly as designed.

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What I like about my Gingery furnace is that the small ATMEL micro-processor that runs the ignition coil and PWM speed control for the fan is completely turnkey.? I walk up to it, plug in power, turn on natural gas, lift and pivot the lid and press the start button.? The Fan comes on at a very slow speed, then spark plug starts making buzzing noises, and then the solenoid that allows the gas through opens and there's a bit of a whump and a very rich flame yellow is coming out the top of the furnace.? Then the fan accelerates up to burn speed and the flame pulls down into the furnace, becomes blue and the noise level increases slightly.? Between 12 and 15 minutes later I have about 5 pounds of melted aluminium.

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Switching it off is much the same.? Turn the switch to off (center position) and the solenoid goes out and the fan blows for a few more seconds to evacuate any fumes or gas. ?Then it shuts off.? I can then lift up the body and pull out the crucible.? By now I've also done any degassing etc.? Once the metal is poured the crucible goes back into the furnace, and the master switch is turned to the other ON position which runs the fan at a very slow speed to slowly cool down the interior.? In the winter it warms the shop up nicely.

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One day I may add the flame detector.? The software is there for it but that requires some reconstruction and I've just not had the time.

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John

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