SSW001 ProShot Cats.indd 19 20/07/2018 16:22 S S 1 6 : 2 2 SS 16:22 PROSHOT CATAPULTS 019 Super-accurate resin-reinforced sand casting mould Tony precison-pours liquid aluminium QUALITY FIRST - QUALITY COUNTS Tony DID smile but it broke the autofocus before my very eyes! It was awesome and great fun and oh my word did I learn stuff. Aluminium comes in grades and kinds. Is it to make things for the Oil Industry? Is it for food- use products? And the science of melted metals is deep. It is way more than carbon in steel. There are all sorts of different compounds and elements you add to change the way the melted metal flows. The day I was there, it was fixed so that a top chap named Tony was making PPMG frames. I was able to make a video and the whole atmosphere was amazing. The dragons are of course, the five gas fired metal furnaces used at Hogan & Sons and today, one was working on ProShot Catapults making precision sand castings of the PPMG. The smoke of the foundry gets in your clothes and nose and its smell is very distinctive. Hot melted metal… First, massive ingots of pure new graded aluminium are fed to the dragon. I mean, placed into the mouth of the furnace. The re-gasifier technology means that these dragons are breathing their own fire! Really, it is about super-efficient use of energy and costs. You can stand within mere feet of the molten aluminium (in this case) and not feel the radiant heat. I do add that I was always at a distance to avoid being in the way, and great care was taken of me. I watched as the moulds were made and learned about phenolic resin and acid and how it was mixed with moulding sand by a machine that calculated how much to add, depending upon the ambient temperature. It was deep. But the sheer skill I saw, as Tony made moulds and removed their wooden formers, was like something you see in a video. Still not as awesome as seeing him get a big old ladle and pour molten aluminium into the assembled PPMG moulds. The liquid silvery flow of melted swirling metal was entrancing. But the most wonderful thing I learned that day, was that Mr. Peter Hogan (he who deserves a knighthood of the catapult community, I think) was every bit as entranced as me. He may be fourth generation. He may be in the top job at an outfit that makes castings for massive companies and royalty of both football and actual countries. But the Guv’Nor has “The liquid silvery flow of melted swirling metal was entrancing.” SSW001 ProShot Cats.indd 19 20/07/2018 16:22