A few nice bronze foundries images I found:

bronze and cast iron balloons


Image by derek.w.russell
one of the iron and 2 bronze balloons, waiting for more sanding and polishing….looking good, but a LONG way to go before they’re done.

Bronze Balloon


Image by derek.w.russell
A bronze balloon fresh out of the ceramic shell, waiting to have it’s window welded on. I had to cut these holes in the balloons in order to make them hollow…as they are they weigh about 50 lbs each…I can only imagine hoe heavy they would be if they were cast solid.

Cast Iron Welding


Image by derek.w.russell
Pretty pretty welds on cast iron….for reference, I used 55NiFeCl stick welding rods and they didn’t crack a bit. When ground down they are almost unnoticeable, also.