Really good story. ...been wanting to try something similar, thanke for
posting. Joe



----- Original Message -----
> From: Darrell & Kathy <larchmont@s...> To: Galoots <oldtools@r...edu>
> Cc: Sent: Friday, May 11, 2012 11:05:47 PM Subject: [OldTools] yet
>     another great time waster project
>
>G aloots,
>
> Well, it ain't woodworkin', but I used some old tools.
>
> I kind of collect random junk.=A0 Any of you who has visited my shop
> knows this. Last year I was at St Hilda's Church "Free Market".=A0
> It's like a rummage sale but everything is free.=A0 They do pass the
> hat around, and everyone drops a few bucks in.=A0 Good fundraiser.=A0
> And a good way for some people to rid themselves of a lot of random
> junk.=A0 Also good for *me* to acquire said junk. Like that handful of
> pewter mugs.=A0 You know the ones, they say "Bob" or "Dave" on them
> and have glass bottoms.
>
> Recently one of my wife's friends gave her a box of stuff, which would
> otherwise have gone to the dump..=A0 Mixed in with the stuff was some
> random junk.=A0 I took one look and said "Mine!".=A0 Now I had a nice
> hunk of soapstone.
>
> The wood for those new closet doors I'm supposedly building is sitting
> in the shop.=A0 Acclimating.=A0 Right.=A0 Better get to work on those
> doors, eh? Nope, not when I can play with molten metal!=A0 I recalled
> one of the stories Esther told us about her SCA friends casting
> pewter, and I decided that this was something that would waste a lot
> of time whilst I actually appear to be doing something useful.
>
> I sawed the soapstone in half, tossed one piece in the "interesting
> scrap" box, and cut the other piece in half again.=A0 This isn't your
> nice fine grained reasonably hard soapstone, nope, it's the really
> soft stuff. I barely spent 30 seconds cutting the stone with a dull
> hacksaw. Dragged out the plate glass with some old adhesive backed 220
> grit sandpaper on it and lapped the faces of the blocks so they were a
> good match.
>
> Off to the A.B. Jardine post drill with a big forstner bit to cut a
> neat circle in the face of one block.=A0 Then my ineptitude came to
> the fore. Carving a fleur-de-lis inside the circle.=A0 Awful.=A0
> Simply awful.=A0 But it beats jointing and thicknessing those door
> frames, so I figured it was good enough.=A0 I carved a roughly conical
> hole in both halves of the block, and it looked like a mold.
>
> I rummaged around the scrap metal bin and found some of that pewter
> and a coffee can to use as a crucible.=A0 Time to go out to the garage
> and haul out the casting furnace.=A0 OK, for pewter all you need is an
> old camp stove.=A0 This one I picked up off the curb about ten years
> ago I think.=A0 Or was it the one I bought at a yard sale for $5
> (which came with a gallon of fuel :^)=A0 Whatever, it still works.
>
> http://galootcentral.com/components/cpgalbums/userpics/10074/pewter_c-
> rucible.jpg
>
> Crank it up, melt the pewter.=A0 I used a hand screw clamp to hold the
> two halves of the mold together.=A0 Pour it in, wait a few seconds
> until the metal goes from shiny to dull, and then take it out of the
> clamp. I was not sure how the stone would react to all the heat, so I
> wore a full face shield, and had a bucket of water outside to cool off
> any overheated body parts.=A0 Nothing went awry so far.
>
> http://galootcentral.com/components/cpgalbums/userpics/10074/pewter_-
> mold.jpg
>
> The first batch were really thick, because of the depth I bored to
> with that forstner bit.=A0 Almost always a void at the tip of the
> fleur de lis. I lapped the mold back a bit on the sandpaper and tried
> another batch. This time they were so thin the metal cooled too
> quickly, and would not fill the mold.=A0 Once I got the rock hot
> enough it started to cast OK. Back to the shop to deepen the mold
> again, and mess with the shape of the design.=A0 Messed it up even
> worse.=A0 Pours better now, a medium thickness (1/8 inch I would
> guess).=A0 Always gets this stripe where the hot pewter enters the
> mold.=A0 I don't how to fix that yet.
>
> http://galootcentral.com/components/cpgalbums/userpics/10074/pewter_m-
> edallions.jpg
>
> I think I will cut the other piece of stone in half and bore them as
> blanks. We'll see if any of the Scouts in our troop want to try
> carving a design. I just need one backer block for any number of
> medallion designs. Betcha the kids will have fun at the badge-trading
> tent with a pocket full of commemorative medallions at the Fort George
> camp next fall (www.sbfg.ca).
>
> -- Darrell LaRue Oakville ON Wood Hoarder, Blade Sharpener, and
> Occasional Tool User
>
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