Shaping foam patterns by hand - casting a replacement part for a backhoe

[damae]

I recently needed to replace a missing part on my Case 580 backhoe - a simple hose bracket. In the spirit of DIY, I opted to save $50 (or whatever that part would have cost from the dealer) by spending 4 hours of my time. Lousy wage, I know.. but I enjoyed the result.

And I thought some here might enjoy seeing the process. I made the pattern from pink insulation foam, shaping by hand with a bandsaw and wood rasp. Ironic for a forum named CNCZONE that I didn't cut the pattern on CNC. Oh well, I suppose it is good to realize when things can be done faster by hand. In this case, eyeballing the shape was plenty close enough.

The foam pattern was rammed around with petrobond, although I see a number of people using ordinary play sand. But since Petrobond is what I had on hand, that's what I used.

Hope you enjoy watching the process and seeing my foundry setup.

Part 1:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UX0jXImrJbM"]YouTube - Foundry Making a Part for my Case 580 SE (Part 1)[/nomedia]

Part2:
[nomedia="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHIlj2Q5x00"]YouTube - Foundry Making a Part for my Case 580 SE (Part 2)[/nomedia]

[paprjam]

Very nice set-up. I've used loose sand and greensand for foam, I kind of prefer the greensand. It has a better finish. You could always coat with drywall mud but then you have to wait on it to dry.

Great job!!