If so what for and how you doing it?

Now I am not. But i am curious about castings, foundries, moulds and patterns.....

Klox

What would you like to know? I have over thirty years as a Patternmaker and for the last five years I have been directly involved in the foundry business.

Castguy2003

Ever heard of using pulverized glass for a cover for melting and casting tin bronze?

Bill C.

Castguy,
Do you perhaps can give me some pointers on how to make mini foundry for aluminium?

Klox

TO Bill C, I am assuming you are refering to the use of material that is put on the top of open risers to retain heat.
TO Klox, There are a lot of plans on the net and in books for small gas fired furnaces. You will need some advice on gating and risering your pattern.
Gas entrapment can be a problem when pouring aluminum.

Yes i know about the gas entrapment. I used to share my premises with a patternmaker and i must say that patternmaking require a lot of experience on gating and risering especially when doing sand castings as sand can get flushed into the mould as the molten metal gets poured....

See you....
Klox

I have started a small Aluminum permanent mold
foundry in my shop.I have 2 1200LB electric furnaces.Finding information on mold design has
been the bigest problem.Yuo can ask 5 differant people for plan and ideas and not one will be the same.Seems to be a bit of a "black art" simular to heat treating.(started doing this 20 yrs ago)
I think I now own every book that even thinks of
pouring aluminum but it still all boils down to the shop in particular to figure out what works for them.

Bill C,
I know someone who uses glass to seal malten alloy from the atmosphere, if I recall correctly it needs to be food grade clear glass, not dark glass as used in some beer bottles as this i think has too much iron in it which can contaminate the melt. The glass helps keep in some of the alloys and when the melt is ready to be poured, the glass is skimmed off and discarded, when this happens white smoke comes off the melt which is when some of the alloys are burning off. The glass doesn't need to be pulverised, just give it a hit or two with a hammer and it will all melt down and form a skin over the top of the melt. You might find more info here http://home.iprimus.com.au/cmckeown/index.htm
Cheers
Splint

9566317,
How are your perm molds constructed? Do you make them?

This may help, at least I've found lots of good info on this site.http://www.valleymetal.org (www.valleymetal.org) Check out casting demo with Tom and other usefull pages here also.

Thanks for the link, I will check it out when my crying baby goes to sleepy time! Not sure it has anything about permanent mold though.

Hi:
I am interested in casting my part as well.
I would like to cast Inconel 713 of which melting point is 1350 C.
Therefore I search the internet by google and found this 1500 C furnace :

http://www.furnace-concepts.com/html/furnaces/box_furn1500.htm

Is it capable to melt Inconel 713 well enough to be poured into mold??

Thanks in advance

Tom

This interests me as well. I've done the lightweight stuff using tin, antimony, lead and pewter in RTV Silicone.

Now onto Aluminum.....

This link came up on another thread here at CNCZone....very interesting indeed: http://www.buildyouridea.com/foundry.html

This gentleman sells inexpensive equipment to get started with and offers excellent how-to information: http://www.foundry101.com/

Another interesting site: http://home.iprimus.com.au/cmckeown/foundry.htm

I've had a propane-fired aluminum foundry up and running for about a year and a half now. I originally built the thing to make custom replicas of farm equipment, etc. Haven't done much of that yet, mostly due to laziness when it comes to patternmaking! I have cast a replacement part for a treadmill (replaced a plastic part) and some spoof golf trophies for a golf outing for work. So far, it's all been green sand/petrobond stuff. Tomorrow, I start lost foam experiments. If that pans out, it'll sure speed things up (and no more ramming sand for a half hour just to forget a vent or riser and have to do it all over!) The next casting project on the list is to start making more parts for my CNC router/dremel (which will be used to machine foam and/or MDF patterns for more castings....)

I have been casting aluminum for more then a year with a small propane fournace i built for less then 100 dollars Cdn. Works great and its an interesting hobby. The learning curve for pattern making is very interesting. One site you have to visit if your interested in building a fournace is Frank's site. He aslo has a really nice howto on building an inexpensive cnc foam cutter for making lost foam work.
www.theworkshop.ca look in his section under metalworking.
I've made alot of parts for cars and other hobbie things. Its deffinitly a good hobby to play with. If you haven't seen them you should look at Dave Gingery's books on making a lathe, miller and several other projects from casting at home. I have his lathe project about 35% done. Some nice hints on pattern making and green sand casting aswell. www.lindsaybks.com

Have a good one.

Yes!

Currently casting machine parts and wall plaques in Alum alloy(s) using Lost Foam method...

Also have a website with success, failures and tips...

I've been casting for about a year now, started volunteering at a local brass/aluminum sign Co.

Build my forge in the spring out of an old 30 pound propane tank lined it with grog, fireclay and silica sand.

Burner is based on the monster burner design floating around the web.

Crucible is a 10 long section of 3.5 inch schedule 40 pipe with a bottom wielded on.

This forge can easily melt cast iron with propane at 30 psi but the tank will freeze up fast at this pressure.

I've been working with aluminum and good old pot metal.