Winter Activity

After doing some research on my own and getting feedback from some fellow Gingery builders on the "gingery machines" yahoo forum, folks who have quite a bit of experience casting. I have discovered that I can in fact cast and pour metal in the winter and not expect some sort of major disaster or meltdown. So, especially with the weather being so mild in Montana this winter, mid 20's and 30's instead of our average low teens, I will begin casting after getting back from my next work tour. That is so cool! I thought I was done until next spring!
My worry was two fold, one of which is still a concern, but not a dangerous situation. That concern is getting the pour completed without losing so much temperature in the melt that it does not flow well. I am willing to work around that as best as I can. My primary concern was that with the green sand being to cold I ran the risk of some sort of explosive event when the metal met the green sand. Everything I have heard indicates that this is not an issue. In fact one of the forum members is in Alaska and thinks that the frozen green sand may add strength during the casting process. Now, he is using a home made green sand and I will be using Petro Bond, which is uses an oil based binder, while his mixture used water as a binder.
Hopefully in a month or so I will be back with details of my first castings, which should be lathe parts!