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I was not going to post this, but then I thought it might be of interest to someone wanting to make an easy mold. I have not been making many wood things lately and this was wood so it qualifies. It is a walnut mold with 2 aluminum core pins for counterweights for my new solar panel system. I made it to mold lead counterweights for the top horizontal bar so that the frame is balanced for turning with ease at different angles. Doug Scott was over last night and we thought it might just burn up when I poured the molten lead into it but it just blackened and made perfect weights with screw holes down the center. These will fit into the 13/16" high Unistrut channel that I used for the frame.

I did not take any before use pictures so I pulled it apart afterwards to show how it was built. I cut out the inside on the table saw tilted at 2 degrees and then the ends were cut at 5 degrees and the pins turned at 2 degrees. This gave enough draft angle for the pieces to fall out of the mold when cooled. I broke two of them when I took them out too soon,but they easily melted down for the next shot.

Doug, thanks for the bucket of wheel weights you brought over today for future molding!!!!!!!

The 4th shot is a piece of Unistrut and they fit great. The last shot is the assembly and the weights will go across that top horizontal frame member. They weighed in at 2# 6 oz each.

Cheers, Jim

Gallery

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I've poured lead (wheel weights from tire shop) for weights on my sailboat center board.

I found that if you get the lead just hot enough to pour and not TOO hot, there will be minimal scorching. You might already know this.
 

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Jim,

How much did the Solar array / system cost?

How much does it handle? Power tools, etc.? :)

How many batteries do you have collecting the juice?

Looks nice!
 

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Nice to see you putting a lot of effort to get that panel moving easily. I'm surprised. I would not of thought that the wood would burn that much. As long as it works. What are the panels going to be used for?
 

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That scorching is normal & expected. Just ask an ol' timer who is about 80 yrs old. My grandfather used to melt a lot of lead and all his molds were made from wood.
 

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Always something different Jim.
Well thought out and a great job.

Bob
 

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Looks like that walnut did the job for you Jim. Nice project you have going there! Those panels look good too!
 

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Very clever Jim-thanks for posting.

Bill in MI
 

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Looks nice Jim.
 

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I'm glad you decided to post this Jim.
It looks really interesting, and I think your mold came out just about perfect for the desired design.
I too, like some of the other commenters am interested in your solar system array.
Can you post some information on it? Like what you are using it for, and how many batteries you charge with it and so on?
Somebody commented how you show different things.
I agree and I think that's really cool.
Some guys just keep posting the same thing over and over, like a jewelry box or something but with a tiny change.
I like seeing guys post totally different things like you do.
It shows your ingeniuty.
Thanks and I hope to see some information on your solar power stuff.
I don't think the Lumber jock editors will mind if a lot of the members find it interesting.
Thanks again
Eric
 

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Another handy tool in your kit, good job Jim.
 

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Thank you all for the nice comments. It looks like it was worth posting. I'm glad to see that others have used wood for molds, too. I have a big bucket of wheel weights and I'm going to make a wood mold to mold them into ingots for future projects.

I see there is a lot of interest in the solar project. I was not going to post anything on it because there is so little wood in it ( just some treated wood in the rectangular aluminum tubing to keep it from compressing).

Hi Joe, I have $4k in the system. I bought 6 Suniva 325W panels and 6 Enphase IQ6+ microinverters and made all the rest.. Those are the largest panels out (77 1/2" x 39") and the newest microinverters. They are 72 cell panels and they are mono crystalline ( high efficiency) panels. It is a grid tied system- it is wired right into the breaker box in the barn with a 20A 220 V breaker. Therefore it has no batteries, no charge controller and no expensive DC disconnect switch. I only wanted a system to keep us from every going over the threshold of 600 KWH where the electric rate increases. I did not plan to power the whole house. It has produced 7-12 KWH per day so far. Our usage is from 7-43 KWH per day for the year, so some months I'll not be able to produce enough to stay under the 600 that month. I figure a 9.3 yr paybackl

The beauty of the microinverters is that it inverts the DC to AC right at the panel. And it will not put out anything until is sees 60 cycle on the line. So if we have a power outage, it will not electrify the lines that a lineman might be working on. If I pull the main and start the generator, the panels will turn on as normal.

Cheers, Jim
some shots of the system:












 

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Thanks, John. I have steel molds that I use to make weights for my scale, too. That old lead melting pot and ladle is one that my dad used to pour lead to seal cast iron soil pipes back when I was a kid.

cheers, Jim
 

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Cool Idea!

Years ago I had a Scuba business. A friend got me a bunch of lead ingots used to transport radioactive isotopes. I melted them down to make diving weights. I wonder if they glowed in the dark!!
 

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very handy tool,Jim
we all need green energy for the future,for our grandchilds…
 

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Jim, thats a cool looking solution for your counterweight dilemma. the System you have sure looks productive too… now you are ready to survive the zombie apocalypse (a la the Walking Dead). I sure would like to put one on my place, but I live in Pittsburgh where the skies are mainly gray and we are lucky to get an hour of sunlight per day.
 

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Thanks Lew, Bambi, David and Mike!!

Hi Mike. I have always wanted to do this and I'm getting too old to wait much longer. The charts say we get an average of 4 hour of good sun all year and that is a bit discouraging, but I did it any way! Sept is the best month of the 42 degree angle and I'll drop them down to 60 degrees in the winter for the southern sun and reflection off the snow. There is a guy north of me that adjusts his array every 2 weeks to get maximum output, but I did not make this one infinitely adjustable nor do I want to spend that much time at it.

Cheers, Jim
 

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Very interesting project, We are interested in wood projects and things what we do also, Infact so interesting I am going to come and see it in person the last week in September, if that is OK with you.
 

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Interesting post Jim. I haven't cast anything that small but a few thoughts came to mind from my experience casting lead keels.
- we used to soak wood moulds (molds) with waterglass to help protect them. They charred anyway but presumably not as badly.
- you shouldn't need to put draught in a mould for lead (technically) as it shrinks when it cools. We made keel moulds oversize by 1/8" in a foot to get accurate finished size.
- concrete works much better especially for "shaped" castings.
- you can cast copper pipes in place in way of fastenings rather than cores.

I'm not sure if any of this applies to small castings but just thought I'd add my thoughts in case you might find something useable in them. :)
 

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Bullet casters would love to trade you pure lead for the wheel weights.
 
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