I always thought the old green sand mix was fine, but trying a new binder changed my mind.

For years at our shop in Toledo, we used the same sodium silicate binder for our cores. A supplier gave us a sample of a newer phenolic resin binder to test. We ran a batch of 50 identical gearbox housings, and the phenolic cores knocked out clean every single time, with way less veining. The sodium silicate ones needed extra grinding on almost a third of the castings. Has anyone else made a switch like that and seen a big drop in finishing time?

3 comments

3 Comments

parker_campbell1mo ago

We had a similar thing with our facing sand. Boss insisted on the old coal dust mix for years, said it gave a better finish. Finally tried a cellulose substitute and the shakeout was so much cleaner, less smoke too. He still grumbles about it being "newfangled" every time he orders a pallet.

troyjackson1mo ago

Maybe the grumbling is just his way of admitting you were right.

grant_palmer26d ago

Huh, I don't know if I'd read that much into it. Some people just grumble about everything. My uncle Mark still mutters about the time his neighbor planted a Bradford pear tree in 1987 and it rained two days later. It was a tree, it rained, not exactly a deep admission of anything. @troyjackson I think you're giving the guy too much credit for having some hidden meaning behind a bad mood.