The foundry crew constructed a set of new furnaces by building a form and using a type of concrete that can handle an intense amount of heat. Here we see the new furnaces surrounded by an old metal plate platform.
For each 'Heat' the furnace heats up 80 to 90 lbs of bronze to about 2100 degrees Fahrenheit.
[photo & text: sa]
Welding master Brent Scott is working on a custom made new set of metal grids to replace the old furnace platform. We see bolts welded in place that will be used for leveling.
[photos & text: sa]
Foundry crew members Peter and Brendan Siegl carry one of the new grids to be installed around the furnaces.
[photos & text: sa]
Foundry manager Andy Chao, Brendan Siegl and Brent Scott.
[photo & text: sa]
Andy is leveling each grid by adjusting the leveling bolts. One of the new furnaces. The crew normally pours three heats per day with an average of 50 bells a heat. That works out to 39,000 bells a year with a 93% success rate of pouring.
The Arcosanti bronze Foundry supplies not only all the bells for the Arcosanti Gallery but also helps supply the Cosanti Gallery and wholesale orders.
[photos & text: sa]
Posted by sue on September 23, 2009 1:11:14 PM MST
We continue our report from 7/30/08 on work in the Bronze Foundry. After the melted bronze is poured into the snap-flask molds, it takes only minutes to cool back to its solid state. At this point, the bells are 'broken' out of their sand molds, given a quick hammer, and a flash of compressed air to clean off excess sand particles.
[Photo & text: Amber Klatt]
Then, these bells are tossed into metal cages to be taken down to the lower deck. Here, they are taken to the grinder where the edges are smoothed and sprus sawed off [to be melted again in subsequent pours].
[Photos & text: Amber Klatt]
Once the bells are 'cleaned up' a bit, a hole is drilled through the top of each bell. This makes it possible to attach the clapper and ft-links [which can comprise the hanging chain attachment off the tops of the bells]. This is otherwise known as the Assembly Process. Following this stage, the bells are given a patina - but, this can be explored next time ...
[Photos & text: Amber Klatt]
Posted by sue on August 1, 2008 11:32:59 AM MST
This continues our report from 7/28/08 on the foundry bell creations ... Once the stylus tools have been used to mark designs into the sand, the cope and drag sand blocks are put back together. Now, negative space exists where the aluminum pattern was. Removing the snap-flask reveals the cube of sand, with spru holes through the top. A metal sleeve providing extra support during the pour is fitted around the sand cube.
[Photos & text: Amber Klatt]
In the foreground, bronze ingots glint in the sun while the propane-fired furnace melts others inside a silicon-carbide crucible vessel. While bronze as a material (comprised primarily of copper alloys) melts at 1700F, this furnace heats the metal all the way to 2200F, enabling the bronze to maintain its liquid state long enough to do successive pours.
[Photos & text: Amber Klatt]
Thus, a series of sand blocks in sleeves are laid across the deck of the Foundry Apse, awaiting the pour. While two artists balance and pour the crucible of molten metal using foundry tongs, others stand ready to pitch sand onto any stray pools of bronze.
The melted metal enters the spru hole and follows a channel to the cavities formed by the aluminum patterns. In only a few minutes the metal cools back to solid state and soon enough the bells can be broken out of the sand molds.
This report continues on 8/1/08.
[Photos & text: Amber Klatt]
Posted by sue on July 30, 2008 11:00:17 AM MST
Crafting the bronze wind bells is a labor intensive process. Presently the Foundry Apse is workspace for about five artists who shape the sand molds and pour the molten liquid metal to cast Soleri Original bells.
Over the next few postings, we will present them at work on the stages of bell production.
While the bronze ingots (bars of metal) are melting at 2200F in the propane-heated furnace, the foundry artists get to work shaping the sand molds. Damp sand gets packed around aluminum bell patterns (there are about 38 different styles / shapes in the collection) inside a 2-piece wood and metal frame called a snapflask (the top half is called the cope and the bottom half the drag).
[Photo & text: Amber Klatt]
After agitation on the pneumatic press, the snapflask frame is opened and the aluminum pattern removed. The cope block of sand, which reads the outside of the aluminum pattern, has indentations in it, while the drag side has mounds of sand since it read the interior of the aluminum pattern.
[Photo & text: Amber Klatt]
At this point, the artists use stylus tools to impress the designs into the cope sand. These become the images that are seen on the outside of the cast bells. Each artist tends to have her / his own renditions of the classic Soleri standard motifs, so it is interesting to observe the unique creations being made. In the 7/30/08 posting we will continue to explore the foundry work and follow the bell production through to the next stage.
[Photo & text: Amber Klatt]
Posted by sue on July 28, 2008 2:27:07 PM MST
Foundry Manager, Jim Hornberger puts the finishing touches on a Special Assembly bronze chandelier. The piece, prepared for a client based in Los Angeles, originates from the foundry at Cosanti, where it was likely poured and assembled in the late 1960s. For the restoration, Hornberger gave the chandelier a modern twist by using bells created at Arcosanti, effectively including more recent foundry artists in the new version.
[Photos: sa & text: Amber Klatt]
The piece, when it arrived in August, with the majority of the chain links attached and the electrical components in ... sad disarray.
[Photos: sa & text: Amber Klatt]
Here it hangs. Amidst another day's work by two foundry staff, Gabriel Hendrix (l) and Nile Fahmy (r). At present the piece waits for departure from beneath the canopies of the Arcosanti Foundry.
[Photos: sa & text: Amber Klatt]
Posted by sue on January 16, 2008 11:38:34 AM MST