Somewhere in America you can find it with enough searching. A vendor of custom steel rings.
Friday, October 28, 2022
Weight Plates
Do any come with 1/2" holes? Finding small pieces of hot rolled steel or cast iron is turning out to be helpless. The last time I cast a telescope counterweight with my father it was lead. In retrospect they may have not been wise. We cast it in a coffee can and we had to peel the can off the lead. The tin finish melted into the leaf.
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You can buy carbon based "Mold Release" compound for use when pouring lead.
ReplyDeleteOr you can use an acetylene torch to deposit soot on your mold.
Either way, it keeps the lead from sticking.
I don't know if this is even possible, but I looked at the design of a telescope counterweight, from a Google search, and depending on how much weight you need, I was wondering if you might be able to use cast iron from automobile scrap yards.
ReplyDeleteWater pumps used to be made from cast Fe, as were brake drums. I don't know if something like that might be a possible substitute for virgin material to turn into the part you need.
And by the way, while many will tell you that cast Fe can't be welded, they are mistaken. The thing that you have to do to successfully weld cast is to heat it with a torch, to a dull red, then weld it, and then you bury it in sand, and allow it to cool overnight, slowly, so it cools very slowly. That will prevent it from cracking.
I learned how to do this in a welding class, taken while I was working at my 35 plus years as a steel making factory, where we made steel for the investment cast industry.
Wishing you good luck in your search.
I have picked up many barbell weights at the scrap yard for cheap. The holes are generally a bit over 1" diameter, but it'd be easy to bush them down. Weights are 10# and 25#, at least the ones I buy. I think there have been both smaller and larger sizes/weights. My usage was to make weight attachments for my garden tractor and my little Diesel tractor with a grader box.
ReplyDeleteI found a company that laser cuts custom steel rings up to 1/2" thick. I ordered 6. I will tap three of them, and epoxy them together into 1" thick assemblies that each weigh about 1 kg. The bushing approach would be a good solution if I had not found this vendor.
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