Featured Article about Steel Workshop Building

Building A Moulding Bench For The Hobby Foundry
Colin Croucher 

If you're going to spend a good part of your spare time working in your hobby foundry, then you'll need to have the best possible equipment & gear that you can afford. And there is no need to go out and spend a small fortune, if you are resourceful you can do a lot your self.

If you have the ability to fabricate & weld steel, then the best way is toself-build, you can custom design & build a moulding bench exactly theway you want it.

And if you don't know how to fabricate and weld then building a mouldingbench will provide a learning experience in basic fabrication and arcwelding skills. It's not hard; and it's a lot of fun, & quite rewarding when you can complete worthwhile projects your self.

In the 3-Vol-foundry ebook, we illustrate a moulding bench constructed from second-hand steel tube, 3/4 thick MDF board for bench top, it is mounted on casters for mobility around the shed. When not being used for making moulds it can be used for other purposes in the workshop. To protect the bench top, it is wise to clad the MDF with 16g sheet metal, preferably with a zinc or galvanised coating to prevent rust occurring, which will happen if you use green sand for moulding, because it holds quite a bit moisture, and will corrode plain sheet metal.

Moulding Bench Dimensions - What is the right size for you?

Most tables & benches are made to standard heights, these heightsare determined from the average human being size... but what if you'renot AVERAGE, you might be quite tall or very short, nothing is moreuncomfortable than working at a bench that's not tuned to your height.

So think carefully when you construct your own moulding bench. You don't want to have to bend over the bench too far as this will give a back ache, make it too high, and you wont be able to carry out your moulding work properly. Measure the heights of various tables and benchesaround your house which are generally made to recommended table or bench heights, try these out in an imaginary way, and then adjust slightly up or down to suit your height and no one else, simply because you will be the one working on the bench.

A good way to see what bench height is best for you is to place yourmould boxes on a normal table; imagine you are about to start workin your foundry. Make an assessment to see if the table is to high, or to low, or perhaps it's just right, make an informed decision and then build your new moulding bench to suit you.

You will be spending a lot of time ramming and making sand moulds, somake sure the bench height is the most comfortable possible. You should also think about storage areas underneath your moulding bench, design your bench to store your sand bins, moulding boxes, bottom boards, tins of parting powder, and other hand tools used in your hobby foundry.
Col Croucher.