Quote Originally Posted by Kip View Post
Looks like a partial fill Irving :(
Thanks Keith for that deep insight :D...

Ok, so the story continues...

Here's some pics of the heating arrangements...hot air gun and some rockwool...





Note the cute funnel (made out of ally) to try and avoid spillage. Oh and did I show you my VFD install on the wall behind (RH side pic 2)

So... heat it all for 30min (till it all too hot to touch) while melting the metal in the ladle and pour slowly using both hands this time...

and leave to cool....



Well it clearly filled to the top on both sides and in the centre... and a probe with a scriber in the smaller vents shows there's metal in the bottom of the upper vent... but nothing in the lower :( ... oh well nothing to do but remove the dams and have a look...



this side looks OK, note the slot caused by a shim in the bearing housing slot... that worked well and made it much easier to get the spindle out... nice clean bearing surface from this side...

but OMG once again a failure from the other....



it can't have been an airlock so I can only assume it wasnt hot enough and the metal solidified too soon - you can see there is a nice curved flow edge. Also note the nice clean edge to what would have been the 'slot'.

Clearly I need to find a way to get the lower half of the cavity hotter, but I'm getting closer and I can see this will work eventually...

just takes a good hour to chop it all out again and another 2 or 3 to line it all up and prepare it and then 24h to leave it to dry (even with a 10min blast from the heat gun)... so next attempt will be next weekend as I wont have time during the week.... :(