Old timer told me to use less water in my green sand mix and it got me thinking

Was talking to a retired guy named Pete at the shop last Tuesday who said most guys drown their sand these days. He claims a drier mix gives better mold strength and way less gas defects, but I was always taught to keep it wet enough to clump. Now I'm second guessing my whole approach after he showed me a cast he pulled from a batch he made with just 2.5% moisture. Anyone else get conflicting advice about water ratios and which way do you lean?

2 comments

2 Comments

davidshah9d ago

Hesitate to jump in here but 2.5% is WAY too low for most greensands, you'll get terrible molding properties and sand that just crumbles. Pete might be a great guy but that sounds like old timer bravado more than actual foundry practice.

wadejenkins8d ago

Doesn't that remind you of how people always round down on all kinds of things though? Like when someone says their homemade fence is "good enough" but it falls over in the first wind... we've all seen that. Pete's probably been doing this since before we had calculators and just figures his way is the only way. I've noticed the same pattern with old car guys insisting you can run an engine on half the oil it needs because "that's how we did it in the 60s." It's like some folks would rather half-ass something than admit the numbers have changed on them. You're right about the 2.5 percent being a joke though... that sand would be like baking a cake with a spoonful of flour.