Continuing from the post made on November 30th……I know you have all been waiting!
Once the wax copies had been completed at the Mariners’ Museum, they were packed up and transported to the foundry at Buffalo state College.
Over the last month, work has continued on the Worthington pump replication project with the focus having briefly turned to the reproduction of many of the bronze components from the pump, which includes the steam exhaust flange, tappets, lock nut, spindle valves, and several other pieces. Similar to the mold making method used to copy the steam chest cover and dampening piston cylinder head cast last April (see April blog posts), rubber molds were taken of the components through a several stage process. However, instead of using the technique of piece mold pattern casting, the “lost wax” casting method was employed to replicate the parts along with a different type of furnace used to melt the metal.
I’ll use the steam exhaust flange to describe the overall process.
This week, I completed treatment on what is mostly like a swing check valve that I began conserving back in March (see blog post from March 15th).
After many months of work, treatment has been completed on a grouping of four rimfire cartridges recovered from the interior of the turret in 2006 (see blog post from February 18, 2010).
