Brass/Bronze Castings Needed

You might consider casting them of ZA-12. It's a zinc-aluminum alloy, a variant of white metal or Zamac.

It is heavy enough for the purpose, and it's inexpensive. Best of all it melts at a relatively low temperature, so you could even do the casting yourself, if not with student participation in the casting, then as a demo from a safe distance.

An old style hotplate with a stove element, some firebricks and a stainless steel pot from the Salvation Army store (St. Vincent de Paul, Goodwill, whatever), and you're in the melting game.

Green sand is cheap, petrobond less so but also less hassle to keep properly tempered.

The going rate at the supplier last time I checked was near $6 a pound for B Bronze ingots. ZA 12 is much cheaper.

Food for thought, anyway. Maybe.

Cheers Trevor Jones

And lots of automobile parts like carb bodies and lamp assemblies used to be made out of Zamac. A field trip to an automobile "recycler" might prove enlightening.

Jeff

So are all of the important components on the Atlas-Craftsman lathes. You know, the parts that aren't supposed to break when you are taking a heavy cut... Maybe someone has some old gears that they want to melt down.

ww88 (Who is on the Atlas-Craftsman yahoo group and has heard of a dozen different ways to fix broken Zamac parts)

They are pretty dirty sources though, in respect to the amount of crud you have to deal with to get a pound of clean metal.

Easier to scrounge or buy some big zinc anodes from a corrossion control outfit, and dissolve your own aluminim into it.

ZA-12 is 12 percent aluminum, ZA-25, a common die casting alloy, is 25 percent.

Cheers Trevor Jones

The easiest way is to just suck it up and buy a set of steel gears.

$$$$$

Cheers Trevor Jones

That's why I'm saving the gear train on the Sears/Atlas I scrapped out. Now I just need something fun to cast. Karl

woodworker88 wrote:

Karl, If any of those gears have any life left in them at all, they are worth way more if sold on ebay, than they are as melt stock.

Zinc is pretty cheap to buy, Atlas gears are not!

Worth looking at.

Cheers Trevor Jones

No,no,no. I just parted out a 10" Atlas. The change gears brought about $180 on eBay (15 gears, sold individually). A 44 tooth one sold for $34. Those gears aren't Zamac, they're gold.

Unless yours are busted.

Bob