The Encyclopedia of Founding

Twelve hundred entries from the golden age of cast metal — how bells are founded, why brass is not bronze, what a cupola melts and a core withstands — by Simpson Bolland, the trade's great teacher.

F

39 entries in this part of The Encyclopedia of Founding.

Facing

Foundry facing, employed for intimately mixing with the facing-sand, or spreading upon the surface of moulds, to prevent the molten metal…

Faint-run

The opposite of sharp and clearly-defined impressions on the casting. When fine carving, tracing, and other outlines on a casting are…

Falling-doors

Hinged doors attached to the underside of a cupola, which, when the metal has all run out, may be suddenly dropped, permitting the slag and…

False-core

A technical term used chiefly by moulders of fine art work, statuary, etc., meaning loose pieces of mould, or drawbacks, that must be…

Fan

A rotative blowing-machine, consisting of vanes turning upon an axis, to force a current of air into a furnace or for the purpose of…

Feeding

The process of supplying hot fluid metal to the interior of a casting, to compensate for the gradual shrinkage as it passes from a fluid to…

Feeding-head

In some localities this is called shrink-head and sinking-head. It is a continuation of the rising-head to some distance higher than the…

Feeding-rod

A wrought-iron rod, from 1/4 to 3/4 inch diameter and of a suitable length, for use in keeping open the communication betwixt riser and…

Feldspar

Feldspar is a principal constituent of many rocks. Clays seem, very generally, to have resulted, at least in great part, from its…

Fenton's Anti-friction Metal

Grain-tin 8, purified zinc 7, antimony 1. Another: copper 10, tin 10, zinc 10. See ANTI-FRICTION METAL. Fern-leaf Impressions in Cast…

Ferro-manganese

Pig-iron containing from 25 to 75 per cent of manganese, employed extensively in the manufacture of mild steel by the Siemens, Bessemer…

Fettling

A puddler's term for preparing the puddling-furnace hearth with a mixture composed chiefly of old furnace-bottoms, crushed and mixed with…

File-cleaner

A piece of wire card, 6 by 4 inches, nailed to a piece of wood is a good file-cleaner. Such a contrivance is also a much better rasp for…

Fillet

A rounded corner on a mould. There is less danger of shrinkage flaws when corners are filleted. Flexible metallic filleting, any size…

Fin

Metal that flows past the casting in a thin ridge at the joining edges of a mould. In some cases the edges are purposely pared down to…

Fine-art Moulding

This branch includes moulding of statuary, groups, figures, busts, etc., in bronze by the cire perdue and other processes common to the…

Finger-piece

A tongue or narrow strip attached to the sweep-board by the loam-moulder, when he forms a perfectly true loam-bed on the brickwork, on…

Finishing

This term refers generally to all the processes connected with preparing a mould for casting after the pattern has been withdrawn; but…

Fire-brick

A brick made of fire-clay, and other refractory materials for use in cupolas and other furnaces, and for that reason must be capable of…

Fire-bridge

A hollow cast frame, encased in fire-brick, which is built between the hearth and the grate of a reverberatory furnace. See REVERBERATORY…

Flasks

The iron or wooden moulding-boxes in which sand matrices or moulds are formed for the production of castings. When a mould is formed in the…

Flat-head Nails

Nails of malleable cast iron with extra-large heads, and from 1 1/2 to 6 inches long, suitable for chaplets. They are also useful in a…

Flint

Flint is a compact homogeneous substance of a steel-gray color, sometimes brown or black. In composition it consists of almost pure silica…

Flour

A name given in a general way to all the finer descriptions of pulverized grain or peas, which when unfit for food finds its way into the…

Fluid

A body whose parts yield to the slightest force when impressed, and by yielding are easily moved against each other. Fluids may be divided…

Fluid Alloy

If sodium 4, potassium 2 1/2, be mixed together, an alloy having the appearance and consistency of mercury will result, which remains…

Fluor-spar Flux

Fluor-spar or calcium fluoride is a brittle, transparent to sub-translucent mineral with a perfect octahedral cleavage, a vitreous…

Follow-board

A turn-over board on which to ram the nowel. When the pattern has a flat face a plain, true board suffices; but should there be any…

Fontainemoreau's Bronzes

Zinc predominates in these bronzes, with copper, cast iron, and lead in varying proportions, according to the quality desired. It is an…

Former

A strickle or templet, sometimes termed a sweep and a strike, with which to form a mould or core by drawing it laterally, along a guideway…

Foundation-plate

The bottom or base plate which carries the whole mould, and to which all other parts of the mould are made secure; for which reason it is…

Foundry

Foundries are distinguished by either the metals employed or the class of castings made, as iron, steel, brass, statue, type, bell…

Freezing

A technical term for the particular state of molten metal when it is losing its fluidity, or changing from the liquid to the solid state…

Front-plate

A cast-iron plate to which chest, port, and exhaust cores are secured sometimes, when a cylinder on which the steam-chest is to be cast is…

Fuel

Fuel is a term of general application to all combustibles employed for producing heat. The two elementary bodies which produce the heating…

Furnace

A suitably provided chamber where fire is produced by the use of fuel, as for melting metals, smelting ores, etc., the former being a…

Fusibility

Except in a few instances, all solids which can bear a high temperature without suffering a chemical change may be melted. Even carbon has…

Fusible Alloys

Fusible alloys are composed principally of bismuth, tin, and lead, and the proportions in which they are alloyed determine the temperature…

Facets – Fork

The flat surfaces which bound the angles of crystals. See CRYSTALLIZATION. A broad, flat, projecting part of a building, as the bands of an…

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