Cogsy
Well-Known Member
Lately my machining time has been scarce and I'm in the middle of building Brian's Rupnow Hit and Miss engine, but - you guys have corrupted me!!
Seeing all your wonderful casting projects got me thinking about trying to melt my scrap bits of ali into usable ingots, so I started doing a bit of research. That research led me into thinking about sand casting and after some more research, I gathered the raw ingredients for some greensand and mixed it up, then whipped up some (just) usable wooden frames (or whatever you call them). The sand is still a bit damp, and I don't have any sort of furnace yet, but I saw a video by Myfordboy and I just had to try it out. Without further ado, here's how my experimental diversion went :
Step 1 - steal a toy off the kids and a cuttlefish bone off the budgie and combine the two.
Step 2 - both halves of the 'mold' finished, alignment holes drilled and Lego dude extracted.
Step 3 - glue the mold together with PVA glue, making sure alignment pins are in place, clamp and let dry.
Step 4 - Melt some ali in a hastily built fire pit on the ground and attempt to pour it in the hole in the top of the mold. The ali had a bit of a 'skin' on it (although I did scrape the gunk off) and it didn't seem any metal actually went into the hole, but the 'mold' did get a little warm.
Step 5 - bust open the cuttlefish bone to see what we have.
He's not perfect and certainly needs a little fettling, but here is my first ever piece of casting ever! Next time I need to make a riser as his head shrunk quite a bit, but I think he turned out well considering I have no idea what I'm doing.
That's definitely it for casting for me, for now. Once I get my Rupnow engine finished though, I'll move on to making myself a furnace and see what I can do. This casting stuff is fun!
Seeing all your wonderful casting projects got me thinking about trying to melt my scrap bits of ali into usable ingots, so I started doing a bit of research. That research led me into thinking about sand casting and after some more research, I gathered the raw ingredients for some greensand and mixed it up, then whipped up some (just) usable wooden frames (or whatever you call them). The sand is still a bit damp, and I don't have any sort of furnace yet, but I saw a video by Myfordboy and I just had to try it out. Without further ado, here's how my experimental diversion went :
Step 1 - steal a toy off the kids and a cuttlefish bone off the budgie and combine the two.
Step 2 - both halves of the 'mold' finished, alignment holes drilled and Lego dude extracted.
Step 3 - glue the mold together with PVA glue, making sure alignment pins are in place, clamp and let dry.
Step 4 - Melt some ali in a hastily built fire pit on the ground and attempt to pour it in the hole in the top of the mold. The ali had a bit of a 'skin' on it (although I did scrape the gunk off) and it didn't seem any metal actually went into the hole, but the 'mold' did get a little warm.
Step 5 - bust open the cuttlefish bone to see what we have.
He's not perfect and certainly needs a little fettling, but here is my first ever piece of casting ever! Next time I need to make a riser as his head shrunk quite a bit, but I think he turned out well considering I have no idea what I'm doing.
That's definitely it for casting for me, for now. Once I get my Rupnow engine finished though, I'll move on to making myself a furnace and see what I can do. This casting stuff is fun!
