Has anyone here tried to mold their own parts out of melted metal?
You mean casting? I’ve done casting in both brass and aluminum, makes some nice parts, but they usually need to be squared/cleaned up with some milling/turning operations
Yes. Great!
That works too. I got the idea from YouTube as well on how to make a mini foundry. I just posted the link on this site.
I poured some beercanium ingots once.
I built the mini backyard Foundry in the video and it worked well.
The only thing I did differently was I brought some proper greensand as I couldn’t get the sand and clay stuff to work so well.
Mainly, I’d like to make my own plates & fasteners for my machine, if possible
I figure, I can play around with the design to see what works best
I just finished with the top. I bought a graphite crucible for the vessel. Both a friend (who does fire extinguisher checks) and later, on the next episode of that YouTube series say the fire extinguisher will blow out eventually.
I would guess that you can only mold either that which is symmetrical or face down easily, when sand casting. I don’t know.
From what I’ve seen I have to say it appears that Petrobond sand is worth it. Though I’ve heard that you can make your own with 2 stroke oil.
Take a look at myfordboy on YouTube for what’s possible in home casting, really impressive stuff
Hey Guys,
Don’t laugh TOO hard. It COULD work. I had a few issues when l was mixing the sand and plaster last week I thought that it would take the larger amount longer to begin hardening. WRONG! I tried to make some make-shift repairs today while making the cover (which turned out pretty good) albeit thicker than my hole saw could reach. We’ll fire this puppy up in a day or so. If you don’t hear back from me, you might want to send the paramedics to my house.missing/deleted image from Google+
@Barnaby_Relph It’s definitely an art as well as a science. I’ve got some research to do. I couldn’t figure out how the sand in the cope didn’t fall out when he removed it.
Regarding My Ford Boy’s video
Proper casting sand has lots of clay in it, that helps it hold in place. That said, I’ve had the sand fall out of the cope when I made it out of smooth MDF. I stuck small strips of wood on the inside the cope and drag and the sand forms around them and won’t go anywhere. Another option is make the flasks out of decking, as that has grooves
Cool. Like I said, it will be another learning curve. I hope not just “another learning experience.”
P. S. The Foundry looks great! My first sand and plaster pour went off too soon and looked terrible. Yours will definitely work!
We’ll see. Thanks for the encouragement!