Investment casting process - field trip
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- We take you through RLM Industries to show this outrageously complex process. Often times there are shapes that are impractical to machine economically and this is the only sensible option. Follow us as we show you why.
Excellent video thank you Don and RLM too for being such gracious and friendly hosts.
That was really awesome of RLM to go through the entire process with YOUR part, rather than just showing random ones. Made watching this soo easy to following along. Class act
Thanks Don. What a great way to educate your audience in the investment casting process. I'm an experienced machinist and tool maker and still learning new stuff every day, especially from your videos. WOW...I can't get over the man picking up the 1800 degree casting with his insulated gloved hands. There's got to be a good reason a robot isn't used for that.
Amazing Don . Really enjoyable tour . What really struck me was the amount of power and energy required to produce such a small item that one wouldn't normally give a second thought to .
Big thanks to Mr Murphy and staff for the look around .
+raymond sinnott They were all great and very well organized when we shot it. We thought Jim was going to either melt or drown in his own sweat when those ovens opened. Thanks for watching.
This was awesome!!! Thanks for taking the time to put this together, and thanks to the folks at RLM for giving us an up close and personal look at this process.
Thanks for sharing. Fascinating process. Loved the tour.
GREAT VIDEO....!!!!
This is one rare time where the whole process is shown from A to Z very clearly...
Thanks again, if you got more like this just go ahead and I'll be there to enjoy.... Pierre
+pierre beaudry We will have more for sure.
Well that was just facinating, so facinating. The process was all revealed, every step. Don Bailey is going to become famous, no just for Suburban Tool but for doing videos of how some of his product are made and who actually makes it. Some of the worlds most skilled people will learn something from this. Quality certainly went into this part. Did I say this was facinating, no, incredibly facinating. One of your best videos!
Thank you very much for your comments were going to work hard to make sure to keep our videos to the level of your expectations. Thank you again.
Brilliant video on a subject I've always wanted to know more about. Keep up the great work. Really appreciate your efforts.
An incredibly interesting video! Please keep your "Field Trips" coming!
+William Garrett Thanks for watching. We will have more coming.
Fabulous field trip, Don. Extremely interesting. Many thanks.
wonderful video, educational in the extreme. thank you for the time you and the crew spend in doing these. very much appreciated!
Excellent documentary, very well made and narrated. I enjoyed it very much. Thanks for taking the time and trouble to bring this videos to us.
Amazing walkthrough video. Its great to see a product from start to finish. Keep up the great work!
Great tour, Don. That's the cleanest foundry I've ever seen.
Tom
Fascinating! I've been retired from manufacturing for 15 years and enjoyed the refresher course. Thanks
Hi...you were working in investment casting?
I've a doubt in this process..could you pls answer it ?
Great video. I love any type of metal casting and this video is one of the best I have seen. RLM have some wonderful people working for them. Thank you Don, Jim and RLM for taking the time to make this video.Looking forward to your next field trip.
CheersWilly
Thank you for posting this video, a very interesting one !
This process is very similar to metal prosthetic teeth fabrication. The dental technician makes models out of wax. They are arranged in a tree-like fashion. Then the tree is embedded in plaster Paris. Then this mold is placed in a oven upside down to drain the wax, then it is placed in a centrifugal machine and molten metal is poured.
Great video! Thanks for making and sharing!
Thanks to all the hard working American folks at the foundry!
I really enjoyed that, thanks. I actually learned the lost wax process at school in the 70s, for gold and silver using plaster instead of ceramics. This of course is on a grand scale. The shot peening is a great way to prevent stress fractures as well.
Another incredible video Don. I look forward to your weekly instalments. Thanks
Excellent video. Thanks so much for putting it together. I really enjoy videos that take you step by step through a production process.
+Don Foster This video will really give you a good sense of what is involved in this process and the high level of quality that can be produced.
Don,
Excellent video with all the details! Many years ago while in college, I took a class in hands-on casting from the Mechanical Engineering Dept. at the University of Washington and the best part was our field trips to foundries. Casting is a fascinating process with lot of quality control at every step. I am looking forward to seeing more of your field trip episodes.
Thank you, Paul
This was the best investment casting video I ever saw! Thank you!
Don,
You weren't wrong! a very interesting video on how investment casting is done. I did a couple of years in a conventional foundry in the early 80's machining some of the castings they made, but I knew nothing about this method which the company I work with now uses. We make mine dewatering pumps & our impellers & volutes are done now this way.
Thanks for the lesson !!!
Love the videos. I have immense respect for a man like yourself getting out into the shop and spending time with operators! I hope to see this kind of positive outlook spread across all the shops who view your work!
Great show! I took jewelry making courses in high school in 1951 and 1952, and we did lost wax casting (of silver) on a far, far smaller scale, but it was fun.
I was also impressed by the folks that worked at RLM - clearly, they take enormous pride in their work.
+carver3419 They do and they were all great. Thanks for watching.
+carver3419 Lots of jewelry (and other stuff) is made by investment casting using the lost wax process. Just not so dramatically...
Thanks Don and Jim for the great video.
Wow, that was very interesting, amazing, the actual simplicity and at the same time complex process. Isn't that also called the lost wax process? Keep up the interesting work and videos. Us Ole Fogies can use all the education we can get!!!! Never too old to learn some tid bit!! Thank You!!!!
+roger hunt yes, you are correct.
This is the best day I have ever spent on TH-cam now.
Awesome video. Don you are a genuine person with excellent social skills.
all of your videos are the very best on the Internet. .. all of you should be extremely happy about it... !!!! :)
Great video, great info, Chris Basham the Army vet, thank you for your service.
Thank you for watching!
Love the enthusiasm from the presenter, all very Inspiring thanks.
That was a treat to watch. It looks like the RLM guys n gals are all very professional and proud of their work. Looks like a family from this side of the screen. Thanks for sharing and educating us on the effort that goes into this process.
Wow! Just amazing the level of attention and detail that goes into a simple part. Great video Don! Keep 'em coming!
It's pretty crazy what goes into it! Thanks again for watching.
Blown away by the finish, we do regular greensand casting, but this is phenomenal! And thanks for the great tour, great facility and thanks Don for talking over the steps involved. Casting is one hell of a complicated process, from liquid metal chemistry to parts dimensional stability, it takes focus and great effort!
Great Video of the process- Very impressed Great team making great parts.
Totally Agree....Just Awesome video of Investment Casting. Impressive company.
Great information. AND Awesome show of respect for a Veteran at the 36 minute mark....Thanks for this.
Very interesting, so glad to see you are able to use an American company to produce your parts. If we all didnt mind paying a few cents more it would have such a positive impact on our indervidual home countrys economics. Dont be fooled by price everyone if you want consistent quality look at your home countrys capabilities before giving your hard earned away. If we all get on board we can rejuvenate our countrys manufacturing sector. Your helping the guy next door. Cheers
Tom Kelly same goes for all of the countries in the world, us brits love decent quality and exceptional service life, if it has “made in the USA 🇺🇸 “ or made in England 🏴 or later ones made in Britain .. I have tooling that 30 years and a couple of them are over 50yrs old. Still would perform today than cheap imported version from other countries with cheap labour like China etc.
More than a manual a real life manufacturing process.
A real tour in an amazing manufacturing shop.
Congratulations and many thanks for your effort and the final product.
You did a very, very good job.
Don, thank you very much for your effort to show us a lot of interesting information you have provided to us. I´m one of your fans and want to thank you for your endeavor of keeping us up to date. Greetings from Costa Rica, Central America. Alberto A. Corrales/General Manager at Eagle Services International / Attending the Medical Industry.
Thanks for watching, and I appreciate the kind comment.
Great video, thanks for sharing. I've been making investment molds since the mid 70's. Spent about 13 years in an investment foundry as a mold maker just as CNC's were introduced. Great experience. Still make the molds today in my own shop using some of Suburban tools BTW. Most foundries today are struggling finding tool makers and process engineers because of the challenges. The Lost Wax casting process is an art combined with science. It's been around for thousands of years but only in the past 60 years has it been taken to the levels we see today. The parts they can cast are simply amazing. From gun frames to jet engine blades to compressor housings with some weighing 100's of pounds to as little as a few ounces.
How can yu not love this, Don? I thank you so much for sharing that with us. Thank you! :)
+aryesegal1988 We loved shooting this. It was an eye opener for sure.
Sweet tour !!! Thanks Don
Fascinating. Thanks for the video!
Wow, excellent video!
Five years later, I enjoyed it now I have a clear understanding of the whole process of investment casting.
Thank you for watching.
Excellent field trip! Very educational, and great people!
Outstanding video!! Thank you sir.
that is such a beautiful and complex job. the parts come out reallly beautiful. congratulation to all the people working there
Dam Good Video! Need More of them!!
Most informative investment video I have found on TH-cam, thankyou👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
I like the way he encourage the workers/employees...
Great work! Here in California, most all schools sold off the metal and wood shops and installed computer "labs". As a manufacturer that has hired many hundreds of younger workers, I have to be the school teacher for the mechanically inept. Look at the German, Polish, Czech and Slovak education system - they have a strict guild sort of education process, and the graduates or apprentices make their metal working industry some of the best on earth. Perhaps 1 in ten of the people I hire have a natural skill set and passion for metal or woodworking. The other nine will walk into a telephone pole holding their "smart" phones.
Thankfully many areas still have vocational programs, my work there got me my first job with Uncle Sam before even graduating high school.
great video, reminds me of my days in the westinghouse air brake foundry
Great tour, I've done lost wax for jewelry, and I'm currently in the process of bringing lost wax to sixth grade tech ed, just a wee bit smaller scale ; )
Great video Don!
Good old fashioned sense of humor. Great stuff!
Fantastic video! thank you for all of the effort you put into it.
Awesome video. It is always a pleasure to learn new things from you guys.
Thank's a lot for the trip. I love it. Very interesting to see the whole prosess 😍🇧🇻
Glad you enjoyed it!
Man, that friction saw is lovely.
Really appreciate your efforts showing us the E2E Process of Investment Castings. My Dad had a foundry which we do grey Castings seeing this gives me goosebumps as it makes massive production easy and I'm really fired up to starting an IC system in Nigeria
Very informative, thanks for this vid.
Watching from 🇿🇦 South Africa
Thank you for watching!
the wax and coating was really a interesting process that made a lot of sense for cost reduction while keeping quality up. smart company thanks for sharing.
What a production. Lots of good stuff in there.
Awesome video.Huge Thanks for all people involved.
Thanks for watching!
Thx so much Don, Jim and of course Marty & team at RLM.
Very informative. An eye opener! Coming from a high pressure diecasting co, i find that investment casting is much more tedious & complex. Im sure many people confused by the name investment itself.
I wonder....
1- Marty will find it a major risk if his skilled man fall sick or even leave the co. How will he mitigate that?
2- Looks like many dangerous processes. Can he still reduce human involvement?
3- Marty, how do u determine the distance between each waxed part to be "glued" to the tree/sprue. What is the max qty per tree?
So sorry Jim, looks like more questions for Marty than to u. Anyway, really appreciate ur video. By the way, im from Malaysia, running a diecasting & machining co here and did spent 6 yrs studied in Detroit & Chicago in the 80s. USA is a great country.
Tqsm.
hey, I just found your channel and i really love these field trips you do, very persional touch and I defenetly had plenty of good laughts with you, keep it up.
Wonderful video, thank you so much for sharing, I really appreciate it.
great field trip don,, as a truckdriver i get to look in the back door from the loading docks and always wonder the procces a part taks,,, thanks again great vidio
Excellent video, I like how he asks about almost every detail.
Glad you liked it!
A lovely video on metal investment casting. Obviously a great plant where this was shot. This video summarizes the basics of the investment casting process which is one of the best and oldest techniques in manufacturing intrinsic, detailed & complex precision metal parts and components as well as finished products in reasonably large quantity, fast and near-net-shape. With near-net-shape we mean initial production of the item is very close to the final (net) shape, reducing the need for surface finishing. Some parts that are complex are hard to machine and investment casting is a good fit for making them. No big mold fees nor weeks of mold machining times are involved as in die casting. Therefore under some circumstances, investment casting is preferred to metal die casting, because you can have your parts sooner and in lower quantities which is prohibitively expensive if die casting is used for low quantity. The technique is called investment casting, because the ceramic mold is "sacrificed" or "invested" during the casting process. Another name for investment casting is "lost wax casting", because the wax is heated and removed from inside the shell prior to pouring in the metal. Thank you to all those for producing and posting such a valuable resource. You may visit our TH-cam channel by clicking our logo on the left above for other manufacturing related videos and our subscriptions which contain similar manufacturing and technology related material.
Once again another great video.I really think your channel is underrated as far as machine work goes.I dont quite get it because you guys are extremely informative and passionate about what you do.I guess some folks just want to stare at a lathe making chips vs actually learning...........Who knows lol.But please keep up the great work.
One thing thing I need to add though is PLEASE relax and have a little more faith in your cameraman.He produces some of the most professional videos that I've seen on TH-cam and the quality of his work is in the realm of a studio production.As a business owner myself I know it can be hard to let go at times.But believe me when I say you have the right man doing the job.There's no need to try and manage him while you are on camera.I realize you're excited and would hate for him to miss a shot of a important step.But every time you direct him to get a shot ,he's already seamlessly panned and zoomed in to get it ;)
You can help us become more popular! Share our videos with your friends. Again, thanks for the support and for watching.
Had some inkling of the process but never imagined it was so involved. Ruger firearms has been heavy in investment castings for many decades and it helped them price there product more competitively.
Excellent......
Awesome video
It's very detailed videos hats of u man
Outstanding!!
Thanks for sharing this. An awesome video!
Your welcome
Amazing video you got a new subscriber. who else is here for a school project?😀
This was an awesome video. Seeing the process from start to finish is always fun. I am surprised they do the foundry work by hand though. That furnace better be doing some work, looks like by the label just to run one shift it would cost about $5000/month in electric alone.
The staged sincerity is overwhelming, the high fives, it makes me wretch!
Yes Came across extremely awkward, informative but awkward.
Best field trip yet!
Great job, Mr Don- we appreciated your drive to manufacturing...
Thanks for your comment.
Great Video... very informative
It was a great tour. Top notch outfit and good video.
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for watching.
Better than PBS! Thanks, Won. Already anxious for the next video.
what a delightful tour
Very informative and well done.
That was great very interesting
Amazing process thank you for sharing like the channel keep up the good work.
Thank you for watching
Hello Mr Baley love your videos. could you make one for the hobbyist what you need to have in order to make your own tools. That would be really great
Loved the video, great tour but I am always curious of what the part is used for or in and to see the part doing its job and any other processes it must go through to get to that point.
+1NRG24Seven That part belongs to our TAFT-PEIRCE V-Blocks. See link www.subtool.com/tp/9132_solid_body_cast_iron_vee_blocks.html
sir this amazing ...you just full fill my wish to learn about this amazing trade..
I'm glad to have been able to teach you something! Thanks again for watching.
I didn't expect something like this at all. Thanks, everyone at Suburban Tool!
Thank you for these videos
Ol' Don's a little on the touchy-feely side. You can't do that stuff these days Don.