Comments for Digital Diary Detailing Datamancer's Deeds http://www.datamancer.net/blog Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:27:42 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8 hourly 1 Comment on SciFi Channel’s Warehouse 13 by 第十三号仓库、抗拒重力、星际之门宇宙、飞跃情海、危机边缘及其他消息 | 明星动态 | Stars | 美剧资讯门户 | 美剧 | 美国电影 | 好看的美剧 | 美剧伊甸园 | 美剧迷 | 美剧下载剧透 | 邪恶力量 | S http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=27&cpage=1#comment-71 第十三号仓库、抗拒重力、星际之门宇宙、飞跃情海、危机边缘及其他消息 | 明星动态 | Stars | 美剧资讯门户 | 美剧 | 美国电影 | 好看的美剧 | 美剧伊甸园 | 美剧迷 | 美剧下载剧透 | 邪恶力量 | S Mon, 06 Sep 2010 21:27:42 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=27#comment-71 [...] Datamancer [...] [...] Datamancer [...]

]]> Comment on Datamancer-inspired romance novel character by eyemind http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=116&cpage=1#comment-70 eyemind Mon, 30 Aug 2010 11:43:23 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=116#comment-70 I went back in time and bumped into you. You were almost as sexy then as I find you interesting and stupendously talented now. ;) I went back in time and bumped into you. You were almost as sexy then as I find you interesting and stupendously talented now. ;)

]]> Comment on SciFi Channel’s Warehouse 13 by kb6ojs http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=27&cpage=1#comment-68 kb6ojs Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:49:23 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=27#comment-68 If you ever decide that you want to try to market a set of hardware, I'm definitely interested in getting a set -- soon as finances permit, as I'm between jobs right now. But I so WANT one! //Steve// If you ever decide that you want to try to market a set of hardware, I’m definitely interested in getting a set — soon as finances permit, as I’m between jobs right now. But I so WANT one!

//Steve//

]]> Comment on New toy! Arisaka type 99 by Richard Nagy http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=80&cpage=1#comment-61 Richard Nagy Wed, 16 Jun 2010 23:27:49 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=80#comment-61 Yeah I heard somewhere that one of the large gun magazines ran an article where they destructively tested all the major military bolt-action rifles by loading heavier and heavier grain self-loads into them until failure. The Arisaka came out on top as the most rugged rifles (the T38, followed by the T99, if I recall correctly). You're right about the training rifles, plus I think the "last ditch" Arisakas give the rest of them a bad rap. My next purchase will probably be a K98 Mauser, then I'll definitely be getting an M1. I'm actually in the process of getting my C & R FFL so I can automatically qualify for the CMP and their excellent pricing. $500 Garand, here I come! -~D~- Yeah I heard somewhere that one of the large gun magazines ran an article where they destructively tested all the major military bolt-action rifles by loading heavier and heavier grain self-loads into them until failure. The Arisaka came out on top as the most rugged rifles (the T38, followed by the T99, if I recall correctly). You’re right about the training rifles, plus I think the “last ditch” Arisakas give the rest of them a bad rap. My next purchase will probably be a K98 Mauser, then I’ll definitely be getting an M1. I’m actually in the process of getting my C & R FFL so I can automatically qualify for the CMP and their excellent pricing.
$500 Garand, here I come!
-~D~-

]]> Comment on New toy! Arisaka type 99 by lockey http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=80&cpage=1#comment-60 lockey Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:54:39 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=80#comment-60 My father had one of these, back in the 1960's. I spent several days smoothing up the steel with crocus cloth, before he shortened the barrel and had it re-blued. He fitted a new stock, and reworked the bolt handle, to make a nice hunting rifle. The 'mum' was still intact. I fired it a few times, before the conversion. Japanese military rifles were not pretty, but they were rugged and reasonably accurate. They had to produce them quickly, so any machine work that wasn't essential was skipped. They did get a bad reputation, because there were also cast iron training rifles, which fired only blanks. A standard round would cause a training rifle to explode. The German Mauser rifles were nicely finished and had much closer tolerances. I think my all-time favorite WWII military rifle is still the M1 Garand, semi-automatic. My father had one of these, back in the 1960’s. I spent several days smoothing up the steel with crocus cloth, before he shortened the barrel and had it re-blued. He fitted a new stock, and reworked the bolt handle, to make a nice hunting rifle. The ‘mum’ was still intact. I fired it a few times, before the conversion. Japanese military rifles were not pretty, but they were rugged and reasonably accurate.
They had to produce them quickly, so any machine work that wasn’t essential was skipped.
They did get a bad reputation, because there were also cast iron training rifles, which fired only blanks. A standard round would cause a training rifle to explode.
The German Mauser rifles were nicely finished and had much closer tolerances. I think my all-time favorite WWII military rifle is still the M1 Garand, semi-automatic.

]]> Comment on More Fun with Aluminum Casting! Tube Mold by Richard Nagy http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=102&cpage=1#comment-59 Richard Nagy Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:50:37 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=102#comment-59 Thanks for the input, Matus. Yes that's exactly what I was thinking...something in a complex shape like those clamps of yours. You could make a long channel in that shape, then just slice off a perfect 1/2" piece for each clip. Oh well. Too bad it doesn't work. Should've known that was too easy, hah. Yeah I'd love to make the jump into lost-wax casting but it's a pretty significant financial investment by the time you add everything up (though I did find an "all-in-one" kit on Amazon for about $2400, pretty cheap, considering, but still hard to find that much just laying around). I got my Petrobond sand from an actual foundry supply house (they're around but are usually buried way back in an industrial park and they never advertise, so you kind of have to seek them out). I actually tried making some more of these rods today and failed miserably. The aluminum would get really stuck inside the steel and didn't want to come out. I must have had just the right amount of oil on the inside walls of the steel tubing the first time or something. Oh, BTW I found a "castable foam" like we discussed a while back. Smooth-on makes it in a few different densities. The lower-density foams are really fluffy and mostly used to backfill molds so you don't have to waste huge amounts of latex, but I bet the higher-density stuff would work well for your "lost foam" projects. I wonder if something like that might allow you to make complex clamp shapes because the aluminum would be cooling inside soft sand which would compress as the metal cooled. Anywho, here's the link: http://www.smooth-on.com/Rigid-and-Flexible/c10_1121/index.html -D Thanks for the input, Matus. Yes that’s exactly what I was thinking…something in a complex shape like those clamps of yours. You could make a long channel in that shape, then just slice off a perfect 1/2″ piece for each clip. Oh well. Too bad it doesn’t work. Should’ve known that was too easy, hah. Yeah I’d love to make the jump into lost-wax casting but it’s a pretty significant financial investment by the time you add everything up (though I did find an “all-in-one” kit on Amazon for about $2400, pretty cheap, considering, but still hard to find that much just laying around).
I got my Petrobond sand from an actual foundry supply house (they’re around but are usually buried way back in an industrial park and they never advertise, so you kind of have to seek them out).
I actually tried making some more of these rods today and failed miserably. The aluminum would get really stuck inside the steel and didn’t want to come out. I must have had just the right amount of oil on the inside walls of the steel tubing the first time or something.
Oh, BTW I found a “castable foam” like we discussed a while back. Smooth-on makes it in a few different densities. The lower-density foams are really fluffy and mostly used to backfill molds so you don’t have to waste huge amounts of latex, but I bet the higher-density stuff would work well for your “lost foam” projects. I wonder if something like that might allow you to make complex clamp shapes because the aluminum would be cooling inside soft sand which would compress as the metal cooled.
Anywho, here’s the link:
http://www.smooth-on.com/Rigid-and-Flexible/c10_1121/index.html
-D

]]> Comment on More Fun with Aluminum Casting! Tube Mold by Matus1976 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=102&cpage=1#comment-58 Matus1976 Mon, 14 Jun 2010 05:19:05 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=102#comment-58 Nice job and good idea too. I'm glad you posted this I was just about to cast a round AL bar and lathe it down to size! I think you'll find complex shapes won't come out as well though, the liquid aluminum contracts when it cools, so for a solid tube like this it will work great, and it doesn't bond well with steel at all (I routinely pour excess into angle iron ingot molds and they fall right out after cooling) I tried to make a steel mold for my ergoslope clamps, which were fancy C clamps, and the way the aluminum cooled and contracted made the mold never work. So for lessons learned, keep the cross sectional area of the aluminum pattern uniform, thin areas will cool faster and at the early stage of solidication the solid aluminum is extremely brittle, such that the rest of the cooling can pull that solid part apart, causing cracks. No sharp corners either, for the same reason. Keep corners to about 2 times the diameter of the cross section or so. If you need to change thickness of the part, make it a gradual change, 5 - 10 degrees I'd follow. Also the steel corrupts the purity of any aluminum liquid alloys that come in contact with it, but that probably won't matter on the kinds of parts your doing. I managed to get a tour of a local aluminum casting plant and was surprised by the preperation involved in the molds. They were doing wax molds, which they would dip in a special ceramic slurry about a hundred times, then melt the wax out. After that a special technician, more of an artist than anything, would grab small hand size chunks of cut fiberglass insulation, paint it with a generous coat of some muddy ceramic morter, then stick it to the critical areas of the mold which he thought needed to be insulated more to slow the cooling rate of that particular area. They then heated the mold to within a few hundred degrees of the melting temperature of the aluminum. Interesting stuff! btw, where did you get your nice compact green sand from? Nice job and good idea too. I’m glad you posted this I was just about to cast a round AL bar and lathe it down to size!

I think you’ll find complex shapes won’t come out as well though, the liquid aluminum contracts when it cools, so for a solid tube like this it will work great, and it doesn’t bond well with steel at all (I routinely pour excess into angle iron ingot molds and they fall right out after cooling)

I tried to make a steel mold for my ergoslope clamps, which were fancy C clamps, and the way the aluminum cooled and contracted made the mold never work. So for lessons learned, keep the cross sectional area of the aluminum pattern uniform, thin areas will cool faster and at the early stage of solidication the solid aluminum is extremely brittle, such that the rest of the cooling can pull that solid part apart, causing cracks. No sharp corners either, for the same reason. Keep corners to about 2 times the diameter of the cross section or so. If you need to change thickness of the part, make it a gradual change, 5 – 10 degrees I’d follow. Also the steel corrupts the purity of any aluminum liquid alloys that come in contact with it, but that probably won’t matter on the kinds of parts your doing.

I managed to get a tour of a local aluminum casting plant and was surprised by the preperation involved in the molds. They were doing wax molds, which they would dip in a special ceramic slurry about a hundred times, then melt the wax out. After that a special technician, more of an artist than anything, would grab small hand size chunks of cut fiberglass insulation, paint it with a generous coat of some muddy ceramic morter, then stick it to the critical areas of the mold which he thought needed to be insulated more to slow the cooling rate of that particular area. They then heated the mold to within a few hundred degrees of the melting temperature of the aluminum. Interesting stuff!

btw, where did you get your nice compact green sand from?

]]> Comment on More Fun with Aluminum Casting! Tube Mold by Richard Nagy http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=102&cpage=1#comment-55 Richard Nagy Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:43:36 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=102#comment-55 Thanks, Jeff! That's a good point. This method also makes it possible to build a master steel mold of a custom shape (like say you wanted a piece of aluminum channel in an odd shape or wanted to make clips or brackets that could be sliced from a long piece of material) and cast a bunch of them with minimal defects and almost no setup time. Thanks, Jeff! That’s a good point. This method also makes it possible to build a master steel mold of a custom shape (like say you wanted a piece of aluminum channel in an odd shape or wanted to make clips or brackets that could be sliced from a long piece of material) and cast a bunch of them with minimal defects and almost no setup time.

]]> Comment on More Fun with Aluminum Casting! Tube Mold by 3eff_jeff http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=102&cpage=1#comment-54 3eff_jeff Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:20:27 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=102#comment-54 This is probably a better solution than chucking some aluminum stock onto the lathe. The steel tube stock is probably ever so slightly out-of-round, so the two pieces will fit the tube they were molded in best with the right orientation (you may want to check them carefully and then mark the tubes and aluminum rods appropriately). Looks great. This is probably a better solution than chucking some aluminum stock onto the lathe.

The steel tube stock is probably ever so slightly out-of-round, so the two pieces will fit the tube they were molded in best with the right orientation (you may want to check them carefully and then mark the tubes and aluminum rods appropriately). Looks great.

]]> Comment on First Aluminum Casting…SUCCESS!! by Tweets that mention Digital Diary Detailing Datamancer's Deeds » Blog Archive » First Aluminum Casting…SUCCESS!! -- Topsy.com http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=86&cpage=1#comment-52 Tweets that mention Digital Diary Detailing Datamancer's Deeds » Blog Archive » First Aluminum Casting…SUCCESS!! -- Topsy.com Wed, 09 Jun 2010 04:38:48 +0000 http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=86#comment-52 [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Datamancer, Danielle Potts. Danielle Potts said: RT @Datamancer - First metal casting attempt...SUCCESS! http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=86 [...] [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Datamancer, Danielle Potts. Danielle Potts said: RT @Datamancer – First metal casting attempt…SUCCESS! http://www.datamancer.net/blog/?p=86 [...]

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