RE:re:Re: cast iron

I started to post this to terry directly, then thought of the LIST
life cycle I just posted...

Terry,

Thank you for your reply. It confirmed many things I knew/ felt
already. Do you ever ask a question you "know" the answer to, just to
check on what you "know that you know"? That's what part of this
thread is for me.

One thing I hadn't heard of, is this "shake it out" idea. From your
reply I gather that you feel the shake that would be "enough", might
also be enough to damage the casting?

What about the 'accelerated' aging? I didn't mean to imply that the
box (refrigerator/icebox) would get very hot. It seems that
if 'natural aging', which as you said, relies on the weather, will
work well; then a faster Day/ night cycle might be created. Something
based on the time for the casting(s) to reach the high, then the low
temp. (which would save time as long as the castings weren't so large
as to take a "days' worth" of time to cycle)

This could speed up the process where the money spent to do so would
be worth the time saved.

I used to work extensively with wood, and the equivalent there
is 'air dried' vs. 'kiln dried'. The Kiln group always said, "There's
NO difference, IF the kiln process is done correctly!" But using
hand tools, I could ALWAYS tell the difference. For SOME things the
difference 'mattered'; for many things it did not.

So maybe the BEST procedure is Shake, Bake, AND age! But what about
the "good enough" that many of us will be looking for?

Ballendo

P.S. As I was 'formatting' your snip'd orig msg, I realised you were
probably talking about the "hit it with a mallet" methods, NOT
the 'shake it out' or 'sing to it' (send tones through) methods.

>James Owens (Terry) wrote:
> I have had some experience with machining cast iron that has been
> aged properly. On the whole heat treating has produced a casting
>that machine very easily but I have found that they warp to a
>greater degree than one that has been aged. As to the violent
>methods of ageing, I have seen it done, but the effort involved and
>the possibility of scrapping the casting because it didn't work or
>ended in a pile of metal fragments would put me off trying.

<snip>