My old foreman in Cleveland swore by adding a half-percent more copper to the 356 mix for better fluidity.

I thought he was just being stubborn, but after a bad run of porosity last week, I tried it and the castings came out clean. Who else has a piece of old-school advice that actually holds up?

4 comments

4 Comments

mark_green2mo ago

So what's the actual science behind that copper trick... does it change the surface tension or something?

ward.anna2mo agoMost Upvoted

I mean it could just be superstition lol. People get weirdly attached to random steps in a process.

jason_stone594d ago

Wait the "skin" thing is real? That sounds wild but also kind of makes sense in a weird way. I mean copper is supposed to react with something in the air or water right? Surface tension could be part of it but idk maybe it's more about oxidation or something.

richard_young802mo ago

That "old-school advice that actually holds up" thing is real. My buddy in a machine shop had an old timer tell him to always hand-scrape the first bit of a new bar stock before putting it in the lathe, said it took off the "skin". He thought it was nonsense until he skipped it once and had a terrible finish. Never argued again.