Why Cast Iron?

Tony Wells said:
All of them are not. Some are steel forgings.
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More new information. Is there a way to tell what the material is when I rummage through the machine shop scrap bin?

Also, you mentioned HH is a member here. What is his forum name?
 
Get me a rough size you need for the cast iron bushings and I'll see if I have the material here on hand. If not not, I'll check with my source and see if he has something available. Cost will be very minimum. Ken
 
Hi,
The best way to rough check what a material is is a spark test. You can download color charts and with very little practice can get surprisingly accurate.
For the record auto brake drums are cast SG Iron, rotors are cast steel. Big differance. Flywheels can be either or for certain classes of silly Aluminium.
Hardened steel on steel,(case or through), does not gall or impregnate with grit. Have a look at bucket pins & bushes on a digger for an example.
Mr Hall proberly specified Cast Iron as in the U.K. it is readily available & cheap, certainly cheaper than Bronze which makes me think why not just use anything for the block & fit an off the shelf thin wall bronze bush? Cheap, replaceable & readily available.
Sometimes using standard parts is cheaper than redesigning the wheel aye?
 
So I was banging around in the shop and needed more light. As I was opening the roll-up I happen to look over and see this temporary fire hydrant standpipe that has a 12"-13" cap on one end with a 3" threaded bushing in the center. It's used for water on the jobsite in the early stages of site work (irrelevant here) and my customer never came back to pick it up and it's doubtful he will because it's been 2-3 years. It would be good for 3-4 pieces of cast iron that range in the 3.5" X 3.5" X .125" thick dimensions. What's the freight ($$$) rate to get it 50-60 klicks past Kamloops? It's yours if you're interested.

Edit: 3.5" X 4.0" X 1.188" blanks. I think due to its thickness it's probably gray cast iron. I began thinking it may be white cast iron but those are usually thinner sections.
 
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Tony Wells said:
All of them are not. Some are steel forgings
Click to expand...

In what I've seen in crankshafts the parting line tells the story. The cast iron has a narrow parting line (casting flash) and the steel cranks have a wide line.
Pic is a close up of the parting line of a cast crankshaft. The little line above the hole is the parting line.
A steel crank has a parting line about 1/4 inch wide.
This was true in the 60's and 70's for automotive cranks. Not sure if it holds true today.
20170401_162817.jpg
 
rgray said:
This was true in the 60's and 70's for automotive cranks. Not sure if it holds true today.
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When the excess metal is clipped in the forging process you get the wider line that resembles a parting line. There is no parting line in a forged product. As was stated, the crankshaft is made from a cast or forged blank and today more are forged due to automation.
 
4gsr said:
Get me a rough size you need for the cast iron bushings and I'll see if I have the material here on hand. If not not, I'll check with my source and see if he has something available. Cost will be very minimum. Ken
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Rustrp said:
So I was banging around in the shop and needed more light. As I was opening the roll-up I happen to look over and see this temporary fire hydrant standpipe that has a 12"-13" cap on one end with a 3" threaded bushing in the center. It's used for water on the jobsite in the early stages of site work (irrelevant here) and my customer never came back to pick it up and it's doubtful he will because it's been 2-3 years. It would be good for 3-4 pieces of cast iron that range in the 3.5" X 3.5" X .125" thick dimensions. What's the freight ($$$) rate to get it 50-60 klicks past Kamloops? It's yours if you're interested.

Edit: 3.5" X 4.0" X 1.188" blanks. I think due to its thickness it's probably gray cast iron. I began thinking it may be white cast iron but those are usually thinner sections.
Click to expand...

Thank you both for the very generous offers but I think I need to find a local source, since I doubt this will be a one off kind of thing. I will also look at getting some bronze bushings for this project. If I get to it I will post pics of the build. Not sure I will for a while though as cabin fever has hit the wife & I and we need to go camping as soon as the weather improves a little. We bought a new travel trailer in October 2016 and have not been able to use it yet.
 
I have sourced cast iron from small barbells at Wally World and Canadian Tire. Sometimes I find them and the cast disc types at the local thrift store. I have heard horror stories about sand inclusion etc but have never found them myself. I have used several of the barbells but have not yet found a use for the discs. I did see a You Tube video of a guy who made a precision drill press using a disc as the base.
 
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