brass casting - Smelting, Melting, Foundry, and Casting - I Forge Iron

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post this but I've got some questions on casting brass. I was given all this brass for free and was wondering if I could cut it into smaller chunks and melt it down and pour it into brass hammer molds. Or if there are other things I can do with them. Now for those of you who know about bushings how they have those ones that have graphite in them theses ones are not all of these are solid graphite free inch thick brass bushings. Each one ways 50lb so if any one knows if this can be done please let me know  also they are out of a turbine of some sort. the one with my hand on it is a quarter of one of the bushings which would be the one with the big chuck gone. there are not cracks in them they are cuts made by a cutting wheel. the bushing are not cast either

Link to Yitai

Nick do you have any experience sand casting?  If so, anything hotter than aluminum?  Forgive me if this is below your level; I'm assuming no casting experience.

If no casting experience (or even if only lead bullets), I suggest you begin with aluminum.  Brass and bronze are a fairly big step up from aluminum because the heat is much greater, and the equipment is more critical (for safety and quality of castings).

Since you already have the material, it probably doesn't matter, but silicon bronze is going to be more forgiving for a beginner in casting.  Unknown brasses such as what you have, when heated uncontrolled (which is what you would likely have at home unless you are a professional), can release vaporized lead and zinc (for example).  They can also be unforgiving in casting.  Not all alloys are suitable for casting.

You have a LOT of brass.  It is going to take a long time to cut it all down to a size which you can melt down safely.  You can't realistically build a cupola furnace (like for iron), and expect to get usable brass castings from that.  You need fairly expensive silicon carbide crucibles, custom-fitted crucible tongs (you're a blacksmith, no problem), and a temperature-controlled furnace that can reach F in a reasonable time (compare that to F for pouring Al.)  When you pull out the crucible filled with molten brass, it is blazing hot, glowing like you pulled it from a forge, only now if you drop that thing, you are in a world of hurt.  If you've made your own cope and drag from wood, they will scorch when you get too close with the crucible, and they can even scorch from the heat passing from the casting, through the sand.  Larger crucibles are heavy; not a one-man job.  Physically, hammer heads would be relatively simple to cast, other than dealing with the issues above, because the pattern is uniform and has a nice parting line.  But the quality of the casting is important, too, and the alloy and process is going to influence that.

I have a little experience in aluminum and bronze sand casting.  Not much.  Built my own electric furnaces.  I don't recommend an electric furnace for anything hotter than aluminum--it is just too stressful on the element.  (My bronze furnace finally did a little Chernobyl number on me, and it used a Kanthal A1 element.)

Good luck!

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You could machine loads of hammer head inserts out of those if you want a brass hammer. They are sizable chunks and many items could be made from them without going to all the trouble of casting, Cut a section and try forging it, if you can manage it then your options open further.

As stated above it could easily be put to good use by a bladesmith for guards and pommels. And the longer you have it in stock the more tasks you'll find for it, and it's good trade stock too!

Myself, I'd save that as is to be machined into bushes! Possibly casting the turnings and off cuts at a later date into small blanks for.....more bushings!

Continuous casting is a process used in the manufacturing industry to cast a continuous length of uninterrupted metal. Molten metal is poured through a mold and while the casting takes the two-dimensional shape of the mold, its length is indeterminate. New metal is constantly supplied to the mold by the tundish at the rate needed to maintain the solidifying casting. The metal is cooled by a water bath jacket surrounding the mold. The long strands of metal can be cut and machined to the length needed for downstream production needs.

Copper alloy chips and solids are charged into the melting furnaces where required chemistry adjustments are made prior to casting. When the casting temperature is reached, logs are cast using direct chill, vertical semi-continuous casting and horizontal continuous casting methods. These logs are cut into billets and inspected prior to the hot extrusion operation. Brass has a high melting point and is best melted in an electric furnace. Brass cools quickly and the molten metal moves swiftly through the mold, all the while it does not completely solidify in the mold. The semi-finished slab is later extruded in the extrusion press.

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