Making the Strongest Manganese Bronze. Casting Manganese Bronze Ingots

by DuralM in Workshop > Molds & Casting

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Making the Strongest Manganese Bronze. Casting Manganese Bronze Ingots

Making the strongest Manganese Bronze. Casting Manganese Bronze ingots

Today I'm going to make Manganese Bronze. This bronze is one of the strongest and most wear resistant alloys. In addition to its excellent mechanical properties, manganese bronze is also corrosion resistant. To make this bronze I need to melt metals with very high melting point. These are iron and manganese.

Weighing Metals

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I need to weigh copper - 63%, zinc - 25%, aluminum - 6%, iron - 3% (in my case steel nails), Manganese - 4%

Melting and Casting

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I usually melt metals with high melting point first and after that add metals which have low melting point. So, first of all I melted steel, manganese and copper and only after this I added aluminum and zinc.

Brushing and Polishing

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When ingot is ready I've brushed and polished it to be sure that casting quality is good

Hardness Test

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Hardness test showed that this bronze is really hard. I've got 28.7 HRC, 25.2 HRC and 29.1 HRC. It's better than I had with aluminum bronze: DIY Aluminum Bronze. One of the Hardest Bronzes

Good luck in casting! :)