interesting photo from the battleship u.s.s. arkansas

[Paul Pless]

showing its on board foundry

72FF1840-D86E-4187-9B77-F5500C4D70AE.jpeg

[JayInOz]

Pouring shot for the cannons

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

eye protection would be good.

[LeeG]

It’s good to have a foundry on board.

[Jim Mahan]

According to Wiki, she had coal fired steam turbines originally, and between the WWs she was converted to oil fired. Would the foundry have been fired from the main power?

[hawkeye54]

eye protection would be good.

Our 'OSHA' was not even a glimmer in someone's mind at that point , I'm sure

[Landrith]

I am guessing it is metal for a machinery part. Sleeve bearings? Lead?

[Canoeyawl]

Babbitt metal perhaps
Routine to cast in situ

[Nicholas Scheuer]

What I was thinking, too. I believe the metal was heated in the pot they're pouring from.

Babbitt metal perhaps
Routine to cast in situ

[bamamick]

Having just taken a class in smithing, I am amazed at the amount of heat that must have produced. When you consider one mote of dust from that thing getting in your eye? Geez.

Mickey Lake

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

Babbitt metal perhaps
Routine to cast in situ

I think you are right.

No very high temperatures needed. Most Babbitt metals melt around 460F.

[goodbasil]

Casting lead sinkers for some heavy duty fishing tackle.

[Jim Mahan]

If that photo was in color, the crucible would be glowing a bright orange. The second guy holding the long handle to steady the crucible is as far away and behind the first guy as he can get, probably because of the heat and for the possibility of being tagged if something spills or splashes. And that crucible and the big pot are both obviously heavily built and the molten metal is also heavy. Judging from the pour going into the small pot, that's going to be something like a half gallon of molten metal. It would be ineresting to know just what they're casting. There would've been babbit bearings for a lot of different things on board a ship that size, I'm guessing. And that stuff is a lot hotter than four hundred sixty degrees. I'm guessing.

My one experience with observing a foundry in action was when I had my two little sculptures cast in bronze at a place here in Sacramento. They do a lot of art business and they had an open house on the day they did my stuff. There was a small crowd of gallery goers along as it was on the monthly art walk night. The setup, and the size of the containers looks very similar to the bronze casting I watched.

Oooh. That jogs my memory. When I get done with the damn paver project, I get to do my projects, and among other things, I've been waiting for the cooler and wetter weather to fire up the little assay kiln I use for forging. I've got a piece of an old mattock that I've cut down and intend to turn into a carving adze. The kiln runs on propane from a barbecue tank and air from my compressor. I've been wanting to do this forging for a decade, and it's one thing I've been wanting to make progress on my Big Chunk project.

I wouldn't have even considered doing such things if I hadn't been lurking upstairs, reading about boat builders casting bronze, back when I first found the Woodenboat forum.

[Tom from Rubicon]

Could have been a crucible induction furnace. I worked at Signicast in Hartford WI, all their furnaces were induction. Me and my Pacemaker stayed well away.

[Jim Mahan]

Can you explain induction furnace?

[Canoeyawl]

Babbitt metal would not make the crucible red hot, in fact if your wife is not home you can melt Babbitt metal on the kitchen stove.

I have cast a bit of bronze and the picture is a bit odd, Typically the crucible in the foreground is in the furnace. I would hesitate before pouring molten metal into a graphite crucible, maybe not Babbitt but Bronze, I just wouldn't do it.
Which, that looks like a 90 lb crucible, which is what we poured "in the back yard"
Casting Babbitt bearings in situ is interesting, I used to well "blacken" the shaft with an acetylene torch (no oxygen), close the shells, add shims and plug the ends with machined plugs, "Moist-Bestos" or both and pour right through the oil hole. A perfect fit every time... I have redone a drill press, spindle shaper, planer, jointer heads and engines that were Babbitt equipped. The brass shims .001" could be later removed one at a time to take up for wear. An interesting phenomenon is that wear would typically be in the shaft and not so much in the soft Babbitt.
(The local boat yard used to call me to come and repour older boats that were built before Cutless bearings. I could do that as a "mobile" service and still have about 30 pounds of Babbitt. If anyone is contemplating this, ping me!)