Thanks all for your kind comments, much appreciated.
LarryC, a] The lovely Missus B [ I can’t tell you how pleased she was to read that, thankyou ] was out all day Sunday helping run a stall raising money for the ‘old and unwanted doggies’ Home at an exhibition. Cat's away, mice.....b] She has a new kitchen nearly ready at the other end of the house - this one is due for the dumpster next spring- so she only went half-ape. & c] I cleaned up most of the mess, but you never quite get rid of all the evidence, do you? As long as you don’t spill tin alloy on anything porous or organic, this is a very clean operation and the temperature is not much more than for toffee or caramelised sugar. I’m told [www.] that some of the lower m.p. alloys containing bismuth stink awfully, and of course lead-alloys are a no-no in the kitchen.
I have an old compressor somewhere in the queue for renovation- I might turn it into a vac pump.
Mark; It’s a quartz-halogen hob. The top is black glass of some sort, with 4 ‘lamps’ under and it just wipes clean, even after 6 years of spills of everything- burned milk, meat juices, sugar, etc.. It has thermostatic controls, [ lovely for melting metals! ] but a slow response. Gets ruddy hot though, over 600°F. BTW my stainless ladle was $1.50 in the supermart.
Togol, Other users on the www state 25-40 castings from a mould before imperfections begin to occur, this is after all rubber.
The life depends a lot on how hot the metal is, and how detailed the casting needs to be to be acceptable. I spin-cast six plaques and they all look identical. Once a charge has all melted in the pot, [ and thus the braking action of the latent heat of fusion of the un-melted portion is lost], the temperature rockets up fast! If you guess, you’re in trouble IMO - many users complain of ‘gassing’, a sure sign of burning the RTV; my IR thermometer only cost $30, and is a boon to an old fuss-pot like me, wandering round the supermarket checking out the temperatures of the chiller cabinets & checkout staff; [ "This one's still alive, dear!" ]
Rhodia’s technical department reckon it will take a few shots of pure lead at over 620°F
The dusting of the mold in talc or graphite prolongs life too, by reducing scouring and direct contact.
I also bought a little electronic balance [ increments 0.03 oz ] to measure the catalyst, as getting the right RTV mix is also vital, and I wanted quite a few batches.
Big B. It's a direct-injection diesel engine, naturally aspirated, 6 speed box + 1 reverse.
Renault fitted the unbreakable [British!] water-cooled Perkins 3-cylinder engine, the type P3 TA/4924 in this model, 2.365 liter, 30hp at 1700rpm. There was also a choice of 16hp gasoline [ mainly for vinyards ], plus 22hp or 35hp models with air-cooled MWM 3-cylinder diesels.
They built around 13,500 of the 30hp variant between 1956-60. Very few got exported.
Alan
[This message has been edited by Alan Belson (edited 11-11-2006).]
