We had a foundry section in our High School metal shop. Mind you that was in the early 80's. I enjoyed casting things out of aluminum. The shop teacher to a liking to me because I was one of the few students that would use the foundry.
Mate thanks for posting.......I'm leveraging off your posts to tackle some of my own casting. A lot of people show only successes which you can't learn from, so thanks for showing and analysing your failures so we all can benefit.
Awsome !!! Look up kelly cofeild up on YT as well he does some realy cool hot rod stuff amd in my opinion he is the current bench mark for the craft on YT .
If you keep the sand depth on each side of your patterns the same, the sand pressure on each side will be equal and not distort your patterns. If you add the sand by hand, say a quart ata time you can do the same. Then vibrate continuously or in stages as you fill, this helps too because there is less mass for your vibrator to excite a partially full flask. Keep the concrete vibrator out of the sand, attach it to the outside of your flask and build a spring or rubber isolated platform to sit the flask on as you vibrate. The freedom of motion will help increase the intensity of your vibration, especially if you a under powered. There is no need to use binder if you have adequate vibe/packing. The sand you emptied out of the bag looked moist as did some shots of it in the flask. Moist sand is the enemy and will not flow/pack under vibration nearly as well as dry sand. Suprised you dont have more runnouts without burrying your pouring cups to full depth. -Happy casting. Best, Kelly
There is a channel called Nobox7 he makes all kinds of burners that use diesel and oil without propane preheat ,he also sells them .Check his channel maybe its time to remake your burner :)
That is a great suggestion. I'm looking it up right after this. I have 2 old oil furnace burners I am looking at in spring to make into a forge burner. That way I can just flick a couple of switches and I'm off to the races 🏃. The only draw back is I have to run straight diesel and can't use old oil and what not that I find.
I like that idea. I don't have any at the moment but will look into it. I have a 24"x24" sign I want to cast and need some kind of support in there to get a win :)
@@Wrighmachining Or coat it in plaster so it wont collapse at all .Then you can use any sand .There is a book by C,W Ammen complete handbook of sandcasting -it has many usefull informations . In one of them he describes proper moisture for sand and how it should look like under hand .On one other book i found out information that you can make almost any sand into casting sand by adding dextrin (pyro component used in fireworks -super easy to make by baking corn starch untill it turns yellow in oven.)wich acts as binding agent.I guess clay could also work. Havent tried those yet ,soon i hope.I also wanted to try making styrofoam parts and then use sodium silicate and sand to coat them and then pour acetone to make a hollow casting,i know people burn the styrofoam out but that makes lot of smoke and it can crack the shell so i wonder how chemical approach will work.
Sodium silicate, I like that idea. I have some of that. I guess I would have to do a couple of layers and put sand on each time to bind the layers and add depth to the structure. . just then venting could be a concern as I think the sodium silicate would then block some of the gasses escaping from the cavity
We had a foundry section in our High School metal shop. Mind you that was in the early 80's. I enjoyed casting things out of aluminum. The shop teacher to a liking to me because I was one of the few students that would use the foundry.
I know it's such an under used skill.
Like you said wins stoke the ego and loses are tough. I like the way you think. Keep on keeping on.
So true, thanks for your encouragement :)
Mate thanks for posting.......I'm leveraging off your posts to tackle some of my own casting. A lot of people show only successes which you can't learn from, so thanks for showing and analysing your failures so we all can benefit.
Glad it helps man !! What are you building ?
@@Wrighmachining Motorcycle Head for a vintage race bike and I'll do a barrel as well if I get it sorted.
Awsome !!! Look up kelly cofeild up on YT as well he does some realy cool hot rod stuff amd in my opinion he is the current bench mark for the craft on YT .
@@Wrighmachining I've watched every video he has.......more than once........Like everyone else!😄
If you keep the sand depth on each side of your patterns the same, the sand pressure on each side will be equal and not distort your patterns. If you add the sand by hand, say a quart ata time you can do the same. Then vibrate continuously or in stages as you fill, this helps too because there is less mass for your vibrator to excite a partially full flask. Keep the concrete vibrator out of the sand, attach it to the outside of your flask and build a spring or rubber isolated platform to sit the flask on as you vibrate. The freedom of motion will help increase the intensity of your vibration, especially if you a under powered. There is no need to use binder if you have adequate vibe/packing. The sand you emptied out of the bag looked moist as did some shots of it in the flask. Moist sand is the enemy and will not flow/pack under vibration nearly as well as dry sand. Suprised you dont have more runnouts without burrying your pouring cups to full depth. -Happy casting. Best, Kelly
As always thank you for sharing your experience I will make some changes. the vibrator and pail mods will be made for sure, great advice.
try filling from the bottom up, with vents on top.
Im not sure if that woyld work . The heat may get ahead of the aluminium and cave in . Have ypu tryed this ?
@@Wrighmachining I have not, but most more professional folks seem to fill bottom up. Myfordboy?
There is a channel called Nobox7 he makes all kinds of burners that use diesel and oil without propane preheat ,he also sells them .Check his channel maybe its time to remake your burner :)
That is a great suggestion. I'm looking it up right after this.
I have 2 old oil furnace burners I am looking at in spring to make into a forge burner. That way I can just flick a couple of switches and I'm off to the races 🏃. The only draw back is I have to run straight diesel and can't use old oil and what not that I find.
Use bentonite green sand and sand should stop collapsing.
I like that idea. I don't have any at the moment but will look into it. I have a 24"x24" sign I want to cast and need some kind of support in there to get a win :)
Hey kursor, cool casting youtubeshort by the way !! Just checked out your work
@@Wrighmachining Or coat it in plaster so it wont collapse at all .Then you can use any sand .There is a book by C,W Ammen complete handbook of sandcasting -it has many usefull informations .
In one of them he describes proper moisture for sand and how it should look like under hand .On one other book i found out information that you can make almost any sand into casting sand by adding dextrin (pyro component used in fireworks -super easy to make by baking corn starch untill it turns yellow in oven.)wich acts as binding agent.I guess clay could also work.
Havent tried those yet ,soon i hope.I also wanted to try making styrofoam parts and then use sodium silicate and sand to coat them and then pour acetone to make a hollow casting,i know people burn the styrofoam out but that makes lot of smoke and it can crack the shell so i wonder how chemical approach will work.
Sodium silicate, I like that idea. I have some of that. I guess I would have to do a couple of layers and put sand on each time to bind the layers and add depth to the structure. . just then venting could be a concern as I think the sodium silicate would then block some of the gasses escaping from the cavity