----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 3:29
PM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Brass vs.
Bronze
Hi Doug.
Your below post made me think of something. I wonder if anyone has ever
used a similiar molding process to cast an entire sub. Imagine if someone used
foam to create the hull thickness and any
exterior and interior parts they wanted casted along with the hull. Then
they could fill the interior with sand and coat the outside with the same
sand. Then the whole thing gets cooked underground
to allow the now molten foam to run out before the metal is poured in.
Then after the mold cooled you would have to remove the sand from the subs
hull interior.
I'm sure I have not stated this procedure technically correct, but you
get the idea. Like the discussions on concrete subs we've had here
before, this would allow hull penetrations, reinforcement rings, and
other things like hatch covers to be cast with, or next
to the sub. I've made a few underground sand ovens for cooking pigs in
the ground Hawaiian style and was
wondering if someone made a mold and then buried it underground so you
could heat it underground like the Hawaiian Umu sand oven, if this idea
is possible. One nice thing would be there would be no
weld joints to ever fail and you wouldn't take as much time in
construction and welding your sub, and you could have thicker portions of hull
material in different spots with ease. I wonder if a guy could actually
dig up his backyard and build a small to moderate size 1 atm sub hull
this way. They used to cast cannons, which are a cylinder, why not a sub hull?
Just a concept idea I came up with.
An even easier idea might be to take a propane tank and encase it with
special concrete and make a concrete sub really cheaply compared to a steel
one. I like the whole molding, casting, pouring, your sub idea,
what a time and materials saver. Every day I look out back on my acreage
and see my two B52 wing tanks and think that if I don't wind up making a
pontoon boat out of them how interesting it would be to encase them
in concrete and make them 1 atm two person subs.
Does anyone know of any information, web sites, etc that might explain
about making a mold out of sand and pouring your own metal sub as well as info
on concrete subs? I remember seeing someone here was building a concrete
sub.
Bill Akins.
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Tuesday, April 11, 2006 2:29
PM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] Brass vs.
Bronze
I have made several parts for my sub project, including a gear
box. The lost foam process that Jon describes is the easiest
especially when using Petro-Bond (oily sand) as the
refactroy. To see details; select
Lost
Foam in Petro-Bond from the top of this page:
http://www.submarineboat.com/sub/foundry.html .
There are lots of examples of things you want to avoid on this page
too! I have only worked with aluminum so far, and I think its a
good starting point. Brass, Bronze and Iron require
significantly more heat. If you dont want to get into
casting your own parts you can get professional quality custom parts at
a big savings by creating your foam parts and then sending them
off to be cast.
Best
Doug