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Scraping Student 30% Discount Plan Offered on Featherweight Straight Edges

dgfoster

Diamond
Joined
Jun 14, 2008
Location
Bellingham, WA
I would like to promote folks learning to scrape. So, I am offering my straight at a 30% discount to any student who purchases a straight edge and then completes a scraping class. So, for anyone who takes a formal scraping class and presents a letter indicating they completed the course, I will refund 30% of the purchase price of one of my straight edges. This is not retroactive ;-). This is intended to encourage people entering the scraping world. I provide castings made from start to finish by me. I do not farm out casting and so control quality at the highest possible level.

36StraighEdgePour.jpg

I realize that the cost of a class plus straight edge purchase is a pretty good chunk to bite off. Perhaps this discount will ease that pain a little bit.

Current Undiscounted Prices on my straight edges is as follows:
A) 18" Prism/Parallel/Straight Edge/Precision Machinists Level as a raw stress relieved casting:
$250 shipped in the US.
Machining is 150 extra.
Local pickup saves 60
Shipping to Canada is not too painful. Shipping to Australia, Europe, and Japan costs about 100 dollars.

Here is a link that give a lot of information on that tool: Denis Foster 18" Straight Edge / Prism

18SE (3).jpg

B) 36" Featherweight Straight Edge that weighs approximately 19 to 25 pounds depending in user preferences:

36Straightedge (3).jpg

Raw stress-relieved casting 490.
Shipping is about 30 dollars with the new UPS shipping plan within the US. I have not tried it to Canada yet.
Machining is 195.

Searching Featherweight Straight Edge on eBay will provide more details.

C)48" Featherweight. It weighs 51 pounds as cast and would machine down to about 35 to 40 pounds.

IMG_6007 (2).jpg

Detail48 (2) - Copy.jpg

Raw casting 595.
I would guess shipping in the US would be on the order of 150 dollars unless I can fit them into UPS's new flat rate system. I will look into that. Here are a couple representative photos.

BTW, here is a link to a 2.5 minute video my son made (unbeknownst to me at the time) of a 48" pour. All the equipment seen here was made in my shop (much of it is of original design) for pouring iron at 2550F.
YouTube

Anyway, we'll give this idea a try. If anyone has questions, ask away.

Denis
 
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Great Idea Dennis,

I will also offer discounts my on straight-edge castings, my 3 part scraping instructional DVD and to any of my scraping tools, The Connelly book "Machine Tool Reconditioning" not only to my students but to Practical Machinist members. I was always told by Charles not to advertise prices on Practical Machinist unless it was in the For Sale forum. So if you want my prices, send me a private message. Also if you have a hardship and can't afford the costs of my classes I will give you the training for free. I have friends and customers who can machine them for you as you can see from my thread about Adam Booth and Keith Rucker. I also know other reputable firms all around the country who can machine them too. Private message me for more info or email me at [email protected] Happy New Year
 
That’s a nice thing to do. Thanks... both of you.

Im hoping my job situation changes next week, which will free up tons of time. I hope to take the next VT class.

Pm sent on the book price.

Keith


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That’s a nice thing to do. Thanks... both of you.

Im hoping my job situation changes next week, which will free up tons of time. I hope to take the next VT class.

Pm sent on the book price.

Keith


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Keith, It looks like we will be doing the next VT class in Sept 2020. Don the host said after that hotels will be a premium because of the fall colors. I will put up a new post when we here for sure. The NY class has 3 signed up as of today. 5 more to go :-)
 
I can probably make early September even with my current work situation.
I’ll keep an eye out for the signup


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Thanks, L7. I’ll fix them when I get home. Presently traveling til late morning. I assume you are talking about the photo links? Or are they all dead? They work fine for me, of course. But I know that is only half battle.

Denis
 
Denis-I’m probably missing the obvious, but do you have a site? Where do I buy a 18” , machined with level? I found the raw casting on eBay?
Thanks man, great work!



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First, you are not missing a thing. I neglected to “relist” my fully machined 18” SE when it sold on eBay not so long ago. So, my error for not listing it. I will have to recreate that listing in the next day or so.

But as a PM member and soon-to-be student you and I can conduct business without the extra layer of fiddling involved in eBay sales. I am PMing my contact info to you and we can complete the transaction off-line if you feel comfortable with that.

AND, I do appreciate your business and will be sure to treat you right. PM on the way...

Denis
 
Hi Denis,

Watched your cast iron pouring youtube. Interesting methods for single person operation. I realize this is a hard ask for someone who lives where you do: can you pour in an area that's bone dry?

Best,
Stan.
 
Stan,

I think you are asking if I can pour Iron in an area that is very dry without excessive risk of fire. Yes, absolutely. Though I live in the PNW where rain is nearly a daily occurrence in Winter, in Summer we may have zero rain for July, August, and September. So, it is mighty dry then. I pour year around. You might notice there is a garden hose very near the mold in the video linked above. That is something I always pull out, charge with a good head of pressure, and have at the ready. In Winter it is sort of overkill as the grass is green and wet and all vegetation is wet. In Summer it seems more essential. I routinely use it to wet down the brown, crispy grass for a radius of 50 feet around the furnace several times during the course of a melt.. And I often use it post pour if I am using wood flasks as the off-gassing sea coal mixed into the sand causes all the seams in the mold to have blue flames (seen best at night) licking around them for a few minutes. So I mist the flask after pouring to prevent excessive burning of the flasks. In the video shown I am using steel flasks I welded up. So, they are not affected by a little fire. Night pours are beautiful as the crucible really is brilliant and the blue flames are gorgeous.

I hope I answered your question.

Denis
 
Interesting, no that's not what I was concerned about, but maybe I should have been. My main worry was your safety: an iron spill onto a wet area may result in a molten spray in unpredictable directions. Have seen the after effects too many times. I was actually hoping you had bone dry conditions for pouring but assumed unlikly in the Pacific NW?

Still very impressed with your accomplishments!

L7
 
Thanks, for your concern, Stan.

The explosions I have heard stories about occurred on damp concrete where the heat of the iron vaporized the water contained in the concrete and caused pressure to build up and then be released explosively as the concrete burst. Not good. To avoid that old time foundries had a thick layer of sand on top of the concrete floor.

The area I pour on is not concrete but rather gravel. I have had a good number of spills onto it and no explosions so far and don't expect any. The key is that the gravel layer (quite thick) allows steam to escape benignly. Interesting the two local commercial foundries (making casting weighing in some cases tons) that I have visited have ordinary concrete floor and NO sand overlying it. They have had a good many spills of bronze, steel, iron and aluminum, but no explosions.

I do worry more about causing a fire should a fuel line rupture say and allow diesel to spray near the hot furnace or should hot sparks from the furnace ignite grass. That would be more "interesting." That is the reason for keeping the area wet.

The only time I am near the iron is when it is stationary as I skim it as you saw in the video. But when it is being lifted and poured I designed my equipment to allow me to maintain 7 feet of distance between me and the pot of iron. Most small-time guys like me almost straddle a crucible to lift it with a tongs and then are very close when using their pouring shank to fill a mold. I do not like that idea. So, I spent a lot of time daydreaming and drawing to design what I think is a safer system.

Denis
 
Denis, I have had all sorts of questions in my mind about your home foundry setup, and that video your son took answered a lot of them. Really excellent gear you made! There is a huge difference in heat between pouring aluminum and pouring iron, and the gear and techniques usable with aluminum are really risky with iron. I like the long arms and leverage you put on your crucible handling gear.
 
There has been something of a run on my 18" straight edges. One sold to a potential student. The rest were either here or eBay. I'll be casting some more in the next couple weeks. Let me know if you would like one held.

I have several 36's left and a 48.

Denis
 
Hoping I’m the potential student :)
Not sure if you saw my email on the total for the 18 and 36?? No hurry on my end :)


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Hoping I’m the potential student :)
Not sure if you saw my email on the total for the 18 and 36?? No hurry on my end :)


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Yup, you are the offending party ;-). All good on the email. Will write update tomorrow. Working on your 18 tomorrow.

Denis
 








 
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