MY HOME FOUNDRY & PATTERN SHOP

A WORD OF WARNING
This is about my home foundry/pattern shop. The techniques shown here are what I have learned over a long time, for me it is natural and by no means should be taken as an instructional media. As a word warning, this is not a safe hobby for the uneducated, it takes time and a willingness to learn. I'm not here to instruct anyone on the "only and proper way" as that does not exist. And I'll take no responsilbity for any injury or death by trying to imitate anything that is shown here. Now is when I should talk about safety. This will be the only time I will talk about it. Darwin is a great teacher, don't be one of his failing students. Just remember, it's your life, your fingers, eyes that you could lose. Molten metal and machinery have no respect for human life. Pay attention to what is around you and leave a way out if there's trouble.

SO HERE WE GO
So all that being said, lets take a look at who I am and what I'm doing. First I'm a Journeyman Patternmaker, served a 5 year apprenticeship starting in 1973. Changed careers in 1997, I became a CMM programmer and cad designer, I'm still doing that. I did have a short stint as a cnc programmer. Maybe I will have time to include some of my other hobbies too. But right now I'll stick to the foundry, patternmaking and cnc programming.

This whole web page and project thing started when I read an article about a Sterling engine. I had always wanted to build a steam engine but, it seems, so does everyone else. I wanted something different. An engine that runs on hot air, that sounds like me. This one was all machined, but I wanted to do it with castings. Having all the wood and metal working tools, I just needed a way to cast the parts I needed. So the foundry was born. But one thing leads to another and a single project has turned into several. This web page for one, as things progress I'll try to maintain this site and keep up with the progress of the Stirling engine or steam engine, seems like I may have to build both.

· PATTERN SHOP · FOUNDRY · CNC PROGRAMMING · PROJECTS · LINKS ·

Benjamin Franklin:
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Any comments feel free to contact: Dave Patterson

All content on this web site is copywrite.
2006-2008