Clancey Iron Foundry, last week of production

[dweeb]

Some of you may remember when myself and Raddog explored the large Clancey iron foundry some time in the summer. I recieved a PM from 'Black Country Mick' inviting me to see the company's other foundry on it's last weeks of production. Some faffing on my part but luckly managed to get there on Clancey's last week of iron founding after over 80 years. Now foundrys are fantastic when they are derelict, but seeing the moulton iron was an amazing experience! The heat and the smell all added to the experience too. I was shown the 'pig' iron being melted, and poured into smaller pots, which were then moved via a track in the roof to a conveyer, where the iron is poured into the moulds. Fantastic to watch as the mould bursts into flames and moulton iron pours from the bottom! Back to the large pot of iron, to watch it pouring again. Sot so close to photograph my hair was singing from the sparks:eek: well worth it tho!
I was also given a tour of the machine shops, and shown machined made by Clancey, which will soon have to leave their ancestral home. Very sad but fantastic to see before it all goes
Big thank you to Mick for organising it! I found the whole thing very difficult to photograph. In a derelict site you have all the time in the world, but here you have a few crutial seconds to capture a process and then it's over! Still, here is a few of the good ones!

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(5).JPG
Slag is scraped from the iron, and thrown into a stillage

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(11).JPG

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(10).JPG

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(9).JPG

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(8).JPG

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry.JPG

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(7).JPG
The iron is poured

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(3).JPG

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(2).JPG

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(1).JPG
The iron is poured into the moulds, and the mould bursts into flames:eek:

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(14).JPG
The freshly cast tappets shoot past on a conveyer, where they are cooling, before the mould is broken off.

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(15).JPG
The smell in here was ace!

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(12).JPG

http://lightingthedarkness.co.uk/pictures/28%20days%202/foundry%20(13).JPG
Blocks of pig iron melting

More pics to follow on Lightingthedarkness this week...

[snoopholly]

just a few photos to start with.
Unlike Clnceys,which seems to use wot is known as a Boxless process, we have to make the larger moulds in boxs,these vary from 3ft sq (ID) to 15ft sq.
The ones in the photos are some new 15fts we have just had made and deliverd from Doncaster, these are used in the making of the largest tailings pump in the world, used in the largest copper mine in the world in Chilie.
These thing had to come through a small town in the pennines called Hebden Bridge, which if any one knows the place will relise wot a nightmare that must have been.
If any has any questions feel free to post em.
ps i say a lge foundry,the heavyst job we make is 17t cast weight,Forgemasters in Sheffield do up to 500t, but this is an unusual case, theres prob only handful of foundrys in world that do these size catings so allthough we dont make em tht big we are still classed as a lge foundry.