Molasses-Bonded Sand Part 3 - Improved Recipe

I have improved the recipe for molasses-bonded sand by adding calcium bentonite, a type of clay. This new recipe is stronger, and performs better in conditions of higher humidity. The ingredients are readily available and the sand is easily prepared. This sand is ideal for the backyard amateur foundryman or the do-it-yourselfer. It is ideally suited for aluminum sand casting but can be used for the casting of other metals.

[@this_my_name9773]

i don't cast myself but i've seen a bunch of videos of it in the past, youtube giving me good recommendations for once! i will remember this for later in my life

[@davidwimberley3267]

Thanks.

[@jacknissen6040]

Excellent info and video
thank you for sharing.
look forward to more…

[@davidwimberley3267]

Thanks. When I get my ACT together, I expect to make a whole series.

[@dans.98]

Very informative and straight forward . I will be watching your work more in the future. Thanks for the video.

[@davidwimberley3267]

Thanks.

[@upsidedown1986]

Very useful thank you

[@davidwimberley3267]

Thanks.

[@SiliconeSword]

When researching oil sand I kept hearing about how you can only use Bentone clay, which seems to be something you can only get a truckload of if you have an oil field. I ended up using regular bentonite from a hardware store when I saw a bag that said "oil absorbing" on it. Mixed with synthetic 2 stroke oil I ended up with pretty good sand, although I do prefer Petrobond, aside from the price plus high shipping.
For parting compound, I have had no problems with corn starch, and it's very cheap

[@curtisballer688]

Thank you

[@JKTCGMV13]

That sand really does look alive

[@davidwimberley3267]

Yep.

[@stewartwoerle6351]

Nice. Have you tried, or do you think this sand recipe will work for pouring brass? I think it would work, may just loose/cook more sand due to higher heat?

[@headstocktailstock]

Interesting, I've had my amateur foundry for over 50 yrs [& burnt a few out along the way] no YT to make you an expert then] it runs on coke, with forced air nice & quiet & cheap never bothered to change to [expensive] propane although I built a small propane one for small stuff I usually use greensand or if it's a plaque fine coat of petrobond [expensive but good for fine letters] then back up with greensand, I made some of your sand from the last video & found it good thanks, I have plenty of bentonite [hybond 100,] it's processed locally so I'll give this a try, as I was given a load of dry foundry sand from a local foundry recently thanks.
Graham.

[@davidwimberley3267]

Thanks.

[@notyouraveragegoldenpotato]

How well does the petrobond mix into your greensand? I've been thinking of doing this exact thing because even though I have hundreds of lbs of greensand.. I've basically done it all for DIRT CHEAP. Didn't want to spend money on expensive petrobond but I think I have to to get the dimensional accuracy and finish I want

[@grouchosgarage6477]

I will be interested to see what your results are.

[@headstocktailstock]

@@notyouraveragegoldenpotato Hi I don't mix, yes petro is boody expensive!!what I do is sieve a fine layer of petrobond onto my plaques [they have fine lettering] petrobond is strong & fine for fine detailed patterns then fill up with sieved greensand, ram up as usual greensand in the cope, after pouring I split the boxes & carefully scrape the burnt petrobond off so it doesn't mix/spoil the greensand & usually discard the burnt petrobond thus not using too much [expensive] petro but keeping the greensand ok been doing this for 50 odd yrs hope this helps.

[@SiliconeSword]

Have you seen the Olfoundryman casting boxes? they seem like a worthwhile thing to make, that I hope to be making soon

[@davidwimberley3267]

Yeah, but lots of work. Thanks.

[@rudycandu1633]

Could you tell me the advantage of the molasses-bentonite sand as opposed to just bentonite based sand? From your video it seems to be more fluid, and I'm having a hard time to see that as a major benefit. I have little experience with metal casting and that makes it harder to evaluate this method.

[@davidwimberley3267]

If you are using bentonite as the main finding agent, certainly in a commercial foundry, there would be quite a few other ingredients. In general, unless you add an excessive amount of clay, rendering the sand rather impermeable, you have to do a very intense, energy-consuming form of mixing called mulling. The molasses and bentonite together can just be mixed and used without this arduous step, and the sand is also flexible, and generally easier to work with.

[@deshazo_henry]

I find myself wondering would the production value be decreased less or more by redoing the audio to align with the narration?