Well it was a mixed up session today with the dustpan completed (including some nice artistic paint runs - done on purpose.....honest....) with a turned tapered aluminium handle.  Then for some silly reason I thought I would melt some pistons that came my way into a bar I can turn to make the 8 pistons needed for the pair of Seal engines I am building.

I have written my guidance notes for the melting of metal and at the top, in bold is the reminder to only melt aluminium at the beginning of a session when I am at my freshest. So what did I do today? Ignored it!! Fortunately it went reasonably well but it did takes its toll. When making the mould I searched the memory banks for how to set the mould for a round bar. It has to have a parting line at the half way level. I then remembered one of myfordboy's video's where one half of the mould is set the sand removed to allow the bar to settle to its half way mark. Then I covered the bar and sand in baby talc and filled the top box.

Once the second box was completed this was then turned over and used as the base. The first box sand was removed and sifted  and with the bar and sand covered in talk the top box including the feed and exit pipes added. Once this box was completed the boxes were split and cut outs between the feed and bar mould were cut for both tubes. the boxes then put back together and the feeder and exhaust tubs added.

After adding some weight to the boxes the pour went well enough and when the mould split I have a bar to turn! So I suppose in the end it was a success. Whether the sophisticated alloy used will be of any benefit to the small engines or whether it will machine well has yet to be answered.

I managed to scrounge an aluminium piston from a local marine engineer (he repaired our boat engine......) and intend to see if I can produce the pistons for the Seal engines from it. I am working on the premise that if its good enough for full sized engines then it will be good enough for the smaller scale Seal.

I am hoping to get all 8 pistons from it but until I cut it up and see how much 'meat' there is in each segment I won't know. Still nothing ventured as they say........come back and see how I get on..