November 25, 2012

metal lathe facing beer can ingot

MINDLESS BORING:Metal lathe facing beer can ingot poured from aluminum cans. I face turn the ingot in the big dog 7x14 lathe to see the quality of the recycled metal. The metal cutting lathe in this video is a big dog 7x14 mini lathe with about .75 hp, I am using a #0 Armstrong tool holder with a round nose high speed steel tool bit for the facing operation. The mould for the ingot, was a 10oz soup can, which when cooled the steel can was cut away revealing a cast aluminum ingot, that had a bottom and sides @90 degrees, great for the lathe chuck. Shrinkage of the top of the ingot will be "faced off" in the lathe, and the diameter turned to debark the casting. Then we will reverse the work in the lathe to finish a home made cast aluminum cylinder for a lather project. The mini lathe made this facing operation easy, and this metal casting experiment proved successful as there were no decernable inclusions in the home melted aluminum. for me any way, enjoy LATHE O.D. turn aluminum backyard cast ingot (turning the diameter)
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