Vermont Castings Plant Tour
Bob shows off the beautiful red Victorian inspired wood-burning stove to be installed in our project. To give further details he visits the Vermont Casting plant. For additional information see our article written in season twelve during the Elmwood project. At the plant Bob visits with the plant manager and they discuss how the mold is crafted then cast to make future stove panels. They then head over to the hoppers where the cast iron ingredients, including recycled material, scrap and pig iron ingots are mixed to provide consistent material for the stoves. The molten cast iron is added to a sand mold then cooled and sand blasted to smooth it out. Enamel paint is then applied and baked on in a kiln for two hours. The initial color sprayed on does not look like what comes out of the kiln. One of the last steps in the process of building the stove is adding a catalytic converter, which makes it more efficient and pollute less. The stove we are using in our project has 26 individually cast, iron pieces.
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