Build a Foundry Sand Muller
by Steve Chastain

Pouring metal is hot dirty work, but it's fun. When you shake the casting out of the hot, baked sand, it's Christmas morning. That's what Dave Gingery always said, and he was right.

But! If you plan to pour a lot of metal, getting the sand properly tempered is more work than everything else put together. And that's where a sand muller will save your back, your hernia, and your sanity. Let it do the hard work, so you can spend your time molding and casting.

Here you get the usual Chastain quality info: design details, formulas for designing your own, photos, drawings, and all the miscellaneous info that makes it all happen.

Chapters include: drive design, shafts & keys, power transmission by belted drives, properties of chains and sprockets, chain drive horsepower, center distance for chain drives, determining sprocket and pulley combinations, and building the miller which contains details on the pulley, spindle, spindle head, muller wheel, plows, gearbox, muller body, and more.

The main muller body is 24" in diameter and 10" high, adequate for most small foundry installations. Obviously you can run multiple batches, but knowing you, you'll want to scale it up so it can handle all the sand in Hawaii using a nuclear power plant! But once you regain your sanity, you'll find this is more than adequate.

He'll show you how to make pulley patterns, machine the castings, pick motors, etc. Geez... the info on belt and chain drives is worth the price of the book alone.

If foundry is your thing (and if not, why not?), this is certainly worth having like all Chastain books. Get one! 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 softcover 96 pages

No. 1608 ... $19.95

The muller, built as described in this book, has a huge amount of torque. When setting up wheel and plows, I left a 6 inch section of 3/8 inch x 2 inch flat bar in the muller by mistake. Upon starting the muller, it bent the flat bar in half and didn't even grunt. The muller can easily plow through any sand mixture that I put in it and has plenty of power left over. Upon seeing how well the drive works, I wish that I had waited to find a larger 30-inch tank. The drive system can easily handle the load.

Using a home made 3-phase converter, the 2 hp 3-phase motor starts smoothly without kicking or a jolt. I see no need for a soft starter. I did not include a switch on my muller, however I will eventually add a drum switch...

The angle or length of the second plow might be adjusted somewhat to throw the larger chunks more directly under the wheel, however the muller works fine as it is.

A smaller version of the muller would be great for preparing core sand.

The muller is a complete success and should provide years of good service. It quickly prepares a wheelbarrow of molding sand, and I expect it will be around for my children to use and probably longer.

Stephen Chastain