birmingham, “pittsburgh of the south,” - Society for Industrial ...

BIRMINGHAM (continued from page 3)
For our next stop, one bus went to Steward Machine Co., the
other to Hardie-Tynes Manufacturing Co. (recently acquired by
Steward). Steward, a large job shop, manufactures and supplies
mining machinery, movable bridge machinery, gates for dams and
spillways, gates for locks, large-diameter sheaves, and many other
specialized machine elements. Unfortunately, it was not a workday,
although management was there to escort us through and
answer questions. Some of the projects on the floor were indeed
impressive, including huge vertical-lift pumps with stainless-steel
impellers, bound for the city of New Orleans (which sits below sea
level and relies on the pumps to raise stormwater) and Boca
Raton, Florida, where they will assist with restoration of the
Everglades. Hardie-Tynes, like Steward, was not in production
that day. Nevertheless, management gave us a thorough tour of
the plant, which, since World War I, has produced steam turbines,
valves, and air compressors for civilian and military maritime mar-
With its open sides and physical orientation, Casting
Shed No. 2 at Birmingham’s Sloss Furnaces was
designed to take advantage of any available breeze.
On a hot Alabama day, every bit of air was welcome. But with
temperatures in the 40s and a brisk wind, the 28 participants in
the Sloss Metal Arts Foundry Workshop, held Nov. 2-3 in
advance of the fall tour, got an even more invigorating experience
than they were expecting.
The workshop, led by metal artists Eric Johnson and Allen
Peterson, began on Tuesday with a slide lecture on the history
and development of casting. Participants were encouraged to
bring items to use as patterns, although the foundry had hundreds
from which to choose. We were introduced to parted molds, lostwax
casting, and scratch molds. After a quick lunch, we moved
to the casting shed. It was too cold to hand-make wax patterns
from wax blocks and sheets, so participants huddled around the
melting pots waiting their turn to pour melted wax into
plaster molds. The parted-mold crowd worked on building
their boxes and packing sand. Bunsen burners
became impromptu hand-warmers, putting long sleeves
at risk. No amount of cold, however, could dampen our
enthusiasm—or quell our laughter—as we attempted to
apply gates (through which the hot iron would be
poured) and vents (to expel air) to the patterns, which
sometimes blew off in the wind or snapped off when
Robert Stewart photo
Fred Warner puts the finishing touches on his mold.
kets. The company is currently building Tomahawk missile-firing
plenums for U.S. Navy destroyers. Hardie-Tynes also has a long
tradition of machining and fabricating trunnions and sprockets for
movable bridges. When we visited, several such pieces were nearing
completion.
The day ended at SMI Steel, a modern mini-mill opened in
1984. Confined to just 33 acres in a residential neighborhood of
east Birmingham, the 450-employee plant, according to a company
spokesman, makes the most steel per acre of any plant in the
world. SMI is a 100-percent recycling plant, fabricating angles,
flats, channels, and beams wholly from scrap. The scrap is melted
in a DC electric-arc furnace. We watched from the pulpit, mesmerized,
as a single 28-inch-diameter solid-carbon electrode was
slowly lowered into the scrap-charged furnace, sparking immense
fireworks. From the melt shop, the molten steel is taken to the
ladle metallurgical station, equipped with three 14-inch diameter
electrodes. There, a technician analyzes a temperature/chemistry
Foundry Workshop Consensus: Cool
dropped. Cooperation became the watchword.
Wednesday was spent re-applying vents and gates which had
seemingly self-destructed overnight and mixing the resin-bonded
sand. It sets up quickly, so cooperation in packing is vital. Each
lost-wax pattern is packed tightly in the sand inside a frame, the
tops are smoothed down, and all gates and vents exposed. The
lost-wax crowd tended to concentrate on animals, including bunnies
(Bill McNiece), frogs (Fred Warner), owls (Sandy Norman),
and ducks (Greg Galer). The group producing parted molds was
more ambitious. Some, like Bill Hachtel, brought an architectural
artifact to duplicate. Ken McIver brought a lovely Venus de
Milo, and Joe Macasek brought an old wooden gear pattern.
Their work involved building wooden flasks to hold the sand
around their patterns, ramming one half at a time so that the flask
could be opened, the pattern removed, and gates and vents cut
into the rammed sand. When not working on their patterns, participants
were expected to don
protective gear and man the
mauls to break up scrap castiron
radiators for use in the furnace.
Others measured out
coke.
During Thursday night’s
opening reception at Casting
Shed No. 1, a small cupola
furnace was set up and all of
the molds were poured. We
had been warned that there
was usually a 15-25 percent
failure rate, but only two castings
did not come out as
planned when the molds were
later attacked with hammers
and mauls.
Everyone agreed that this
Foundry workshop participants
pour iron at Thursday night’s
opening reception at the Sloss
Furnaces.
was a great experience. Sloss
Metal Arts hopes to offer a
longer, more in-depth course
that will include blacksmithing.
S.L.N.
4 Society for Industrial Archeology Newsletter, Vol.28, No. 4, Winter 1999
Carol Poh Miller photo
(continued on page 5)