Casting a bronze coffee tamper (Part 1)

[@WayneEarls]

Love it

[@JulianMakes]

Wayne Earls thanks mate! The tamper polishes up so well... :)

[@askquestionstrythings]

Looks good, glad to see you added the feeder/riser for the spherical end. If you add a piece of cardboard on top of the pith block and put your crucible on that it will help keep your crucible from sticking to the pith block. The cardboard burns away and leaves a carbon layer that keeps the crucible vitrification from sticking to the pith. (also not too much flux increases crucible vitrification from chemical attacks... one of many things that reduce crucible life).

[@JulianMakes]

Ask Questions, Try Things ahhh yes I did the feeder on the spherical head as you suggested thanks mate. And I forgot to do the cardboard on the plinth thing!

[@ralphmourik]

Watching this around midnight and I now feel like having coffee ☕👍😋

[@JulianMakes]

Omg me too, it’s that sound of the machine :)

[@stevejohn]

that will be nice my tamper is plastic they look good

[@JulianMakes]

Steve John thanks Steve, wait until you see part 2 omg so shiny!!!

[@mp180170]

Man I love your coffee machine!!!! I heard you had to plumb it in & I don’t care how long or how difficult it was you have an awesome machine there total respect ✊

[@JulianMakes]

yeah i plumbed it in! (yeah it was a nightmare but it was SO worth it :)

[@MeltandCast]

Super video as always and lovely looking tamper... I have a similar machine, you can't beat good coffee... If you don't already grind your own coffee the Mahlkonig Vario V3 is a great grinder suitable for espresso, french press and filter coffee. I've had one for 3 years and it's never let me down. I'm going to answer your email now, and tell you where to get the best coffee beans whilst I'm at it, keep and eye out on your email. Can't wait for part 2 when it's all shined up !!! Cheers mate... Andy 🥂🥂🥂

[@JulianMakes]

cheers mate! omg i love coffee so much! oooh i'll check that out thanks, and always great to find out where to get some good beans. I'm still very new to it all, as we only got the machine after christmas, i'm practicing those coffees... they are STILL terrible to look at but sooo tasty :)

[@MeltandCast]

@@JulianMakes Sent you an email.... Take care mate 🍺🍺🍺

[@jovanlazarevic382]

You are the only one that casted out a coffee tamper (on the internet) :) I was searching for it whole day... I want to cast one out of aluminium (so I can be a second one, heh) .. I dont have any experience with casting, I am broke, and in a week I am moving to different town for work.. So I have found one way that could work, cement and engine oil (would use 2 stroke) instead of sand.. I did my research, now waiting for a rain to stop, and hopefully I wont get any shrinkage... I will borow a tamper to make a mold, since i aint got 3d printer... If I could polish it half ways as yours it would be awsome

[@JulianMakes]

Thanks jovan! Good luck and be very careful! Be very VERY careful not to pour molten metal on to anything wet or with water on it (like an ingot mould with a few drops of water in it or similar) the resulting steam expansion can be like a mini explosion that will spray molten metal everywhere.

[@jovanlazarevic382]

@@JulianMakes Thanks for warrning, I am intermidate DIY guy, heh, and had a lot really dangerous situations. Dont want to put myself there... I have leather gloves, and old fireman helmet heh :) The leftover I will pour to open mold tamper base, or atleast try.. Following your attemps, I feel like I got some understanding how to make the mold, your videos are quite educational.. Until today I wasn't worring about ventilation, flow, and all the stuff.. For experimenting it may be fine, without, but I don't want any bubbles cracks and stuff, so I want to do it right.(and safe as possible)

[@jovanlazarevic382]

@@JulianMakes Just to let you know that I made it (ooohooo). Success was at third attempt, first I didnt succeed, no ventilation, second din't had enough aluminium, but it turned alright, and third is quite good, but I think I didn't make the mold right, cuz I have 2 small holes, just under where the ventilation were, a bit of shrinkage, maybe, 1,2%, but I put some tape around the base to make it right, maybe I will put video when I finnish everything... I recorded some stuff.. P. S. for others, Always wear gloves, and dont touch aluminium before you put it in water

[@tobhomott]

No shrink holes in your tampers, that's great! Looks like the castings should clean up really nice. I feel your pain about the too dry sand. Hot flask alert! Could it be the aluminum flask conducts the sand's heat a little better than wood does? I never thought of that.

[@JulianMakes]

Tobho Mott cheers Tobho! Yeah dry sand is so fragile I get it now! But at least it’s made me realise that I don’t need much water to correct it, for some reason I was adding too much water each casting and then suddenly had mud. lol yeah the aluminium flask is very hot straight after casting, I think here I was about 30 mins after.

[@blainebolze1626]

I look forward to your videos, great stuff! I've seen a suggestion to use a spray bottle to add back just little bits of water to sand that's too dry. Haven't tried it yet myself but it seems metered and the mist would get the water evenly mixed Keep up the good work!

[@JulianMakes]

I do use a spray bottle, but I’ve never done it on the mould itself, it’s that what you mean? Interesting idea. And thank you for your comment that’s made my day cheers :)

[@jagboy69]

lol... cardboard under any hot crucible before sitting it down. 😉

[@JulianMakes]

worldtraveler good plan mate, I sometime forget to do it!

[@jagboy69]

@@JulianMakes I forgot once and I almost had a permanent 3lb block of Mizzou stuck to my brand new #6. Doh!🍹

[@barthanes1]

When I was a kid we had "Sorry!" the board game. They look almost exactly like game pieces from "Sorry!".

[@JulianMakes]

YES! I remember those, very similar indeed!

[@garygenerous8982]

Really cool Julian! Since they look kind of like pawns a thought I had would be to do up a set that look like the various chess pieces on top. Have the base be the same as the one you currently have but have the “handle” portion be done up like the various chess pieces and then you can use which ever you want when making your coffee but have a nice display piece when not in use. I don’t know how practical it would be to do this but I thought I would throw the idea out anyways.

[@JulianMakes]

Gary Generous cheers Gary! That would take me forever :) great idea though!

[@askquestionstrythings]

Now that you called these "pawn pieces" you should consider making a bronze chess set at that scale.

[@JulianMakes]

Omg can you imagine how long that would take me! Cheers ask :)

[@nixie2462]

Why don't you make a cabinet with controlled humidity? (like, a closed cabinet with a humidifier and a humdity controller, so the sand sits always the sameish.)

[@JulianMakes]

Abraham thats a good plan :) what happened to my sand was... after a year or two or doing things right and adding a little water often, I thought I’d save time and dump a few pints in the barrel after a casting, well it never dried out since (especially as it’s winter here in the uk) I had to lay it all out over Xmas on the floor and blew air over it for 10 days while I had the flu, which then meant I over dried it!!! But I’m erring on the dry side until I get dialled in again, because wet sand is the worst!

[@nixie2462]

@@JulianMakes Ohhh. Well, I hope the sand gets better soon (XDDD) and see more castings ^^

[@WarGrade]

Don't expect coffie like that when you come to mine, your have to put up with nespresso!! PS how much coffee do you drink

[@JulianMakes]

WarGrade haha I love me a coffee! Nikki and I only just got that machine from an old coffee shop on eBay, it was a super bargain but I’ve had to proper plumb it in, what a pain in the a! Before that it was just a caffetiere thingy. Now I just need it learn how to use it!

[@MstClickz]

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