How to copy existing part to make a mold?

[cadcam]

Yes you can do one at a time.on smaller part a tree of parts is better for prodution.

[onthemarc]

Hi DBASSETT74


Why are you trying to make this part. Cant you buy this as a replacement part. are you trying to modify from the original? How many do you need to make? Usually this kind of effort is reserved for orignal design or modification.
Buying is usually cheaper and easier then casting from scratch?

onthemarc

[BT1]

You could digitize the original part, re-sketch and machine these parts out of solid etc.

BT1

[723]

If want to go the investment casting route, then make the molds yourself and have a commercial place do the rest. This is not a simple casting project. Like stated before, you would need two seperate molds to do this job. One for the core and the second for the rest of the part. The mold is the mirror image of the part plus shrinkage. We only make mold from 7075 aluminum. To make the mold for this part, you need some serious machinery and tooling. For only a few parts, I would purchase billet aluminum and start making chips.

[Kmed]

Or you could have a die set made, to stamp the center section in 2 parts, and then weld and weld on 2 machined ends. I did a similar part for my car to convert to the lighting trhottle body, then transition to 4 intake runners. I used renshap urethane tooling board for the die, and got about 20 pieces out of the die from .125 aluminum. I over pressured the die, and blew it up. (500 ton press)... The flashing was removed on a cnc fixture and then 5 axis cut / welded. The dies took about 30 minutes to cut on a cnc router, then were hand polished, and started stamping.

[caitolly]

BTW, 2 molds would do the trick. A realitvly simple resin mold for the outer features and a more complex mold for the core.
The core would then be made of a water soluble wax.
Once the outer mold is made you would mold the inner core out of the water soluble wax, position it as required within the outer mold, pour your wax, once things have cooled down, you disolve the water soluble wax, leaving a cavity for the investment, once the investment has stabilized, remove the remaining wax, pour your metal.
One more thing, a rule of thumb for aluminum shrink factor,
multiply your finished dimension by 1.014 to get your mold dimension,
Ex. finished dim. 2.5 x 1.014 = 2.535 , it's not science, it's art!

[henryj1951]

this part is probably a sand casting. it seems to have a seam line at the mid section, sand cast finish and the inside passage is not pullable. to make this casting it will require these tools:drag (bottom mold), cope with pour cup (top mold) & core mold. a model and development will be req'd to produce tooling with proper shrink factor. a reverse engineering scan will be needed to get a model. unless you are going into production it is cheaper to machine it in 2 halves, assemble & machine the critical features if you have the dimensions for programming. the passage will be be easier to polish for better performance. corners could be cut by purchasing multiple copies and producing an undersized part - add stock - machine them to the seam line or larger for shrink and use them to hand ram sand molds for limited production. investment casting is just like the name - expensive tooling & process. good luck