Facebook

Jun 25, 2020

The End from P.G. Models

I’ve just got back from the post office and have sent off the last of the orders that I’ve had for kits in my former P G Models range.  I set myself a target of trying to send out all orders with in one month of receiving them, and I’m pleased to say that I have achieved that.  In just one week I received 40 orders for over 320 models, which is what would normally have been about four months work, all done within one month, although I am now completely knackered.


When you do metal casting you find that, especially with the first mould, some bits will cast up okay, and others do not.  So I cut off and kept all of the good parts, and used then for other castings where one of those parts has not come out.  You end up with quite an assortment of odd bits of metal.


The beauty of casting in metal is that any scrap, or odd bits, can be put back into the melting pot and melted down again for re-use.


You will get some surface oxidisation that forms a thin layer of dross that can be skimmed off, as I’m doing here in this photo.


I’ve been using an old ladle that holds around 300g of the metal.  It’s on the side of the meting pot, with the larger ladle inside the molten metal, running at around 290C.


The molten metal is poured into the smaller ladle.


And is then allowed to cool slightly,


I then moved it carefully onto a metal rule that acts as a heat sink, to cool down the metal.


Once set, the metal can be tapped out of the ladle.


By doing this, I am reducing a pile of bits into some compact lumps of metal that will be a lot easier to store so that I can cast up any other models as I want them.

I still have two orders for assembled models of the Mexeflote powered raft to make.  Once those are done I will finally have a chance to sit back and make some models just for me again, which is back to how this all started.

P.G. Models

No comments:

Post a Comment