The Finished Product

Piccies

The cannon is coming on nicely, just waiting the wheels.  Lots of flash as can be seen in the first pics, but that cleaned off ok, and after a trip to the industrial sand blaster we have, it looks nicely uniform all round.

Week 2

I know I was reporting daily, but its been a busy week, and I have not had the time!  Long story short, 2 days of rather boring lectures detailing more procedures, safety and sand, followed by 3 days of cast making in the foundry.  We haven't smelted yet, that begins on Monday, but we are making a rather natty looking cannon, so watch this space for another update.

Day 5

And so closes the first week, and whilst the traveling had been hard, not to mention the language barriers, it has been great fun. We got to finish out first casting today, and being a 1/2 day every Friday, theres not too much to wright about, so here are some pictures instead.

Classroom

Well equipped computer areas

Ovens in the background

Aluminum oven

Fresh from the cast

And finally cleaned up the flash

Pour hot molten metal in here!

Day 4

Had trouble staying awake this morning, the strains of travelling and 6am starts are getting to me...

Still, this mornings subject was interesting nevertheless. The basic foundations of chemistry used to bind sand together when making molds. Ok, not the most exciting but as I said, interesting, and luckily a lot of the names of things are, if not idetentical, at least recognisable!

Our flasks from yesterday afternoon are still out in the hot area waiting for us to pour the aluminium in, but I don't think that its going to happen today :(

Day 3

Introduction to the machinery we will be expected to use, and let me tell you there is some scary shit in here! Anything than melts iron to 1500 degrees celsius is worthy of careful consideration.

But the first topic of the day was safety equipment. We were given new boots (heat resistant of course) ear protectors, gloves, glasses and of course flameproof clothes.

As part of the walk around of the machines we had the safety chat as to what can go wrong, and how badly it can screw you up if it happens.

The afternoon was a lot more exiting. Got to play with molding for the first time, have made a cast in 2 halves and they are waiting in the morning for some hot aluminum love !

Day 2

First aid training today. It was a mix of the usual CPR and bandaging excersises, mixed in with a slightly more disturbing aspect. Desensitisation to horrific injuries. This involved looking at real life images on the big screen of burns victims of all ages. Clean burns, dirty burns, explosion burns. I cannot go into too much detail, but at one point I really thought I was going to hurl chunks...

That survived, we did get to leave early for the day, and the great accomplishment of course is that I am now a First Aider in a foreign country having learnt what I needed to know in their language.