3D Printed Spinning Top Cast in Aluminium - Investment Casting
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- Hello everyone! This video is about my attempt to cast a spinning top of my own design using the lost PLA casting technique. I designed the top in fusion 360 and 3D printed it on my Prusa mini in PLA. I then used my casting set up to produce a mold and pour aluminum into it. The first attempt of this cast was a complete failure presumably from a poor seal on the vacuum chamber during the pour as well as a poorly designed wax tree around the spinning top. The second attempt was more successful after I improved the design of the spur, added a vent, and pulled a better vacuum. Still, the quality of the top is far from what I am aiming for and there is tremendous room for improvement.
If you have any casting experience and understand why my cast turned out the way it did I would really appreciate it if you would leave some suggestions in the comments. Thanks!
Update: I have since solved the issue of porosity in my cast. If you would like to see the top property casted please check out this video: • My First Successful Ca...
Disclaimer:
This is not a tutorial. I am not a professional and am attempting this dangerous activity at my own risk. I have taken extensive precautions for my personal safety. If you attempt anything you see in this video you are doing so at your own risk and I advise you to do it as safely as possible. - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
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Hey Levi
I’m the dental guy. I’ve finally have been having successful gold crown castings using the same set up. After my first failed one, I made sure to follow the directions to the T. Hate having to do it all over after so many steps. Anyway, I noticed 2 things on your videos. The first time, you did not use the gasket and the vacuum didn’t pull. The second time, you did not allow for the vacuum to fully pull prior to pouring the metal. Place the flask in the vacuum chamber and allow it to get to full vacuum (30 bar) prior to poring the metal.
Also, make sure you are using the correct investment, water/powder ratios, investment setting time, correct burnout cycle and temps. All play important roles.
Hey Tino, congrats on your success! It does suck when you work all day to produce nothing. I have since had much better success. If you are interested checkout some of my newer videos if you haven’t yet. I have written myself a procedure which ensures that I am doing what I should be doing when I am supposed to do it. This has helped me eliminate procedural errors. Thanks for watching and sharing you thoughts!
Hey Tino! How are your cast going?
thank you for this video. it gives us a realistic look at what we may expect when we first try casting our own. We learn and get better from your mistakes. thanks again for sharing.
Thank you for the compliment. I want to share all of my experiences, even the failures because that’s when we learn the most. Thanks for watching! Best, Levi Sheridan.
I do a lot of lost wax/pla/resin casting. The results your getting there are normal. Aluminium is a horrible material to use in lost casting - its fluidity in moving through the sprues is dreadful and honestly I gave up on Al, however Al is great when used in sand casting when you can afford to have massive sprues that add weight on the pouring point helping to drive the fluid into the mold. Its more than likely if you used brass you would have superior filling of the mold in comparison to Al. The next thing is Pla, when Pla burns it produces a lot of ash - one of my recent experiments gave 0.6g of ash per m of pla filament used and burned at 800c. That ash and the expansion of the pla in the mold causes internal damage and results in the horrific surface quality that was on the project. To mitigate that - you would have to make a mold using RTV silicone rubber or alternative process and fill that with wax or switch to a wax filament which is much more difficult to print. I would however thank you so much for actually showing the reality of this process a lot of other channels dont show the errors and reality of the process.
Hey Liam , thank you for sharing your experience with me. The aluminium I’m working with is aluminum 4032 and has about 9% silicon content which is meant to help with its fluidity. I haven’t worked with other aluminium alloys but if I had to guess this is probably one of the best for what I am doing. I intended to use some cooper and silver in the future so I’ll see how that experience compares to working with aluminium. I am almost certain that the poor quality of the second cast was because I quenched the part while it was still partly molten.
I have since achieved better results and have moved on to other materials than PLA for the mold making process. Check out my other videos if you are interested.
I am not in the business of making people think something is not what it is. I’m here to document and share my work wether it works as intended or not. Thank you for watching my video!
@@Levi_Sheridan I have been going through the videos with great interest and have subscribed to keep up with your future videos. I have noticed a number of similarities in my previous experiments and experiences so it is good to see replicatable results.
For me, I absolutely love the fact you show the true reality of the process, a lot of people dont get to see that and its of vital importance that they do to truly understand how the process works. I am really looking forward to more videos! keep up the excellent work!
Hey Liam thank you for your kind words. I’m glad you enjoy my content! I try to keep my videos as honest as possible when it comes to my success. I’m here to document my work as it is. I’m not trying to make myself or my work seem like anything other than what it really is. Thanks for watching!
My Good man,
1. That is probably not castable filament. If it is, then you did not complete the burnout properly.
2. Aluminium is not the best metal for small castings. It doesn’t flow well in tiny sprue and gate diameters.
3. you should turn the knob on the vacuum machine to the casting side.
4. I noticed that you had a gate which opened to the outside (in blue wax). This completely destroys the process of vacuum casting as the vacuum pump will suck in more air from this gate and doesn’t really work on completely sucking in the metal.
5. Either use thicker sprues, or use a metal that can flow better. I’m also thinking your aluminium isn’t hot enough and hence it is coming sooner and not flowing well.
All in all, you’re getting there. The process is lovely. I’m sure you enjoy it as well as I do. Appreciation from India.
The filament I used is PLA which is castable but I have not had success with it so far. The aluminium I am using is aluminum 4032 which has 9% silicon content which contributes to high characteristic fluidity properties. In fact it’s used widely in the automotive industry to make wheels and pistons. I can assure you that the vacuum knob is set correctly, it’s a bit counter intuitive. As for the vent I added in this cast, I do not believe it was counter productive to the vacuum casting process as when the metal fills it the higher pressure will still have the same effect. I have since had success with the same sprue size, metal, and metal temperature as well so I think the failures were just do to these being my first cast ever. Thanks for watching and sharing your insights. Much appreciation!
Hi. You are right about that You put this flask too early in water. You need to wait 10-15 minutes to give metal time to cool off. Your casting could be succesfull if You would wait. This deffect that occur is caused by Steem that is relised during contact with water. This steem is under so big pressure that its piercing unfrozen completly casting. This is what i think. In first helmet attempt error IT also looked for me like steem caused this deffect. Try to find information how long You should wait after pour. Aluminun melt in low temperature so IT will remain liquid really long. Especially when your flask is 400 -600C. Be Safe and wear safety gear.
Hello, thank for for the very nice comment. I will be testing this cooling theory within the next few days. The more I think about it and rewatch my film the more I believe that is the issue. After waiting 9 hours for the burnout I was so excited to see what I’ve made that I couldn’t wait an extra ten minutes for the metal to cool. I guess I need to be more patient! The reaction of the flask in the water has been extremely violent, in fact, it shakes the floor for a few seconds like an earthquake. I hope that you and I are correct and that my next cast will yield better results. Thanks again!
Interesting video. As others have said, waiting longer for your mold to cool before submerging it in water should help. Did you notice the jet of molten metal at 7:48? Keep up the good work. I have found that Overture black PLA burns out very cleanly.
I love your videos so it’s pretty awesome to see you watching one of mine! Since this video I have had much better results. If you are interested, checkout one of my newer videos.
Thank you for suggesting overture pla, I’ve tried polycast which works well but I’ll try that as well.
Thanks for the support!
@@Levi_Sheridan Thank you! I'm glad you like them. I've been enjoying watching your videos as well. Id like to get set up to do this type of casting and your channel has been very helpful.
@@robinson-foundry I’m glad you’ve found my channel helpful as well! If you ever have any questions please reach out! Keep up the great work!
Is there maybe too many vents for the piece? Is the ally maybe cooling too quickly during the pour going through the small vents? Ive no real experience but its something im looking to get into. The flexibility of lost pla in terms of what you can achieve when its done right is amazing. Great video thanks for sharing your experiences!
There were a number of issues with the cast but the main contributor to the poor end result was early quenching of the mold. The alloy did not fully solidify before I quenched it so there was a violent reaction between the liquid metal and the water cooling it which destroyed the part.
Investment casting is an amazing manufacturing process and has one of the lowest tool cost to part complexity out of any other manufacturing techniques. Some of the parts I have made would require tens of thousands of dollars in traditional machinery to produce. It’s widely used throughout many industries and it’s a great skill to have! Definitely would recommend getting into it.
one thing that bothered me, the last video(Mandalorian helmet) plus these 2 castings, you never turn the vacuum leaver to the casting chamber side
Hello, I in fact do have the vacuum machine selector turned to the correct setting. The casting chamber activates the vacuum inside of the acrylic bell jar and the investment table activates the vacuum inside of the metal chamber in which the flaks is placed. If you look at the gauge the vacuum does pull which would not be possible if I had the selector on the wrong setting. Hope that clarifies your confusion!
I think your Burnout cycle is what made it looks messy you should Check your metal Melting point and match the temperature of Burnout cycle for the metal you work with
For Silver casting your last Temperature should be around 640*c before you cast make sure the flask temp similar to Melting point of the metal So it won't Solidify before it filled the cavity
Hey Jinaq, thank you for the suggestion. I am working with aluminum 4032, not silver. I have already solved the problem causing porosity. Turns out I hadn’t been giving the cast enough time to cool. Since then I have achieved much better results. Otherwise my flask temperature and metal pouring temps seem to be acceptable.
That really sucks. I'm talking about the vacuum chamber.
The vacuum chamber did what it was supposed to do, the part failed because I failed to ensure a proper seal. Unfortunate but part of the learning process. Thanks for watching!
I noticed on the second casting looks like it was not cooled enough and you had hot metal oozing out when you dipped in the water. Just a noob observation. Good luck.
Yep, exactly. This is a pretty old video of mine from when I was just learning the basics.
i think have to heat more the metal,, more time melting the metal. .made more liquid.
Hey Fernando! I have done a lot of testing with the temperature of the metal and believe that with the current setup I have the metal is being completely melted. If you look at the film during the second time I lowered the mold into the water you’ll see liquid metal coming out of the vent hole. This leads me to believe that I have not been giving enough time for the metal to completely harden before cooling it which is probably why my results are the way they are. Thanks for watching and for the suggestion!
@@Levi_Sheridan hello have experience working with gold ,when this happen its because the metal its no liquid enough to be poured, ,and don't run good on the mold. .check other jewelry videos , follow you now,, good..
@@MrDANCEANDMUSIC hello again Fernando. Thank you for your continued interest! I have done test for the aluminum 4032 I’m working with ranging from 1250-1400F. I’ve also varied the amount of time I have left the metal inside of the furnace. I did this experimentation because I was worried about the temperature initially but it seems like the metal flows well given the current parameters I’ve dialed in. Any hotter and I would start to worry about gasses in the molten metal. The aluminum also has about 9% silicon content which should help with its flow characteristics tremendously. Thanks again for the suggestions! I appreciate you sharing your personal experience with me.
No wonder the walls collapse
regards
Roman castle Turkey
Thanks for watching
Don’t think that pla or resin is Castable
Hey Johnny, you can make molds with PLA successfully, just search lost PLA casting on TH-cam and you will see many examples. You can not cast normal 3D printer resin however there exist products that have been developed to work for casting and I intend on getting some soon. Thanks for watching.
@@Levi_Sheridan yes but pla burnout tend to not be clean the best thing is to make a mold of the pla then use injection wax because wax burnouts are much cleaner and get more consistent results or a castable resin but that’s expensive
Oh and before you do all that try adding borax to the metal if you didn’t try that before
@@johnnysnaps7882 I understand that but the only means I have to create the molds are with my 3D printer so it's just what I am working with. Thanks for watching!
@@johnnysnaps7882 I started to use borax after this video, it works well. Thanks again!
You have to do a burnout for 8 hours not for 3 hours
Hi Joseph, not sure where you came up with those amounts of time... my burnout is longer than 8 hours. Thanks for watching!
Also by the way I really love your show
@@josephstevens2123 Thank you, Joseph!
@@josephstevens2123unfortunately, I do not understand Tagalog but thank you for watching my video!
@@Levi_Sheridan sorry wrong message