First decent casting

[Commander_Chaos]

Getting started with casting has been harder than I had anticipated, but I think I'm to the point where I can make things that are useful.

[SLK001]

I take it you're still using your old sand. A lot of coarse surface pits from large sand particles. That said, it does look like your part will function quite nicely as designed.

Did you cast with a core? If so, it really turned out great!

[Commander_Chaos]

No I threw that stuff out and bought petrobond. I didn't use facing sand though. I just put the petrobond through a screen.

for the core I split a piece of PVC pipe, held the halves together with hose clamps and packed it with petrobond and some nails. Next time I'll use hardening sand with a vent because I can see where bubbles came out of the core.

I just looked at the picture and I swear it looks better than that in person. I did notice that the top is rougher than the bottom. Not sure what that's about.

[plunger]

Looks pretty good to a layman like myself. Pity you didn't take pics of the process.?

[Paul Alciatore]

Looks great to me, but I have never cast anything. Keep at it and you will certainly get better.

[RSG]

Looks great! I've made a few molds, but never cast them myself as they were far too big for a home foundry. But it's satisfying doing it yourself!

[Commander_Chaos]

Thanks. Right now I have a little furnace kit that I bought off of eBay and the part shown used every drop of metal from my crucible. We're moving some time this summer by and I'm looking forward to building a much bigger furnace, as well as not working in the basement of a Philadelphia row home. 😐

[wierdscience]

Looks good to me, carb adapter???

[Dan Dubeau]

Looks great!. I still have not done anything with cores yet, but have a few projects on the list that will need them. I want to try epoxy cured cores, and also sodium silicate. Will use 3d printed core boxes, and patterns.

Did you degass with anything before pouring?

[Commander_Chaos]

Looks good to me, carb adapter???

Sort of. I posted a carb adapter on here that I had made a while ago that was machined out of solid stock. I started wondering about casting then. This was a proof of concept that I could make something similar. It has all the same features, flanges, core, etc. I know I can make something on that level now. There's also a car I want that I'd like to change from two to three carbs.

Looks great!. I still have not done anything with cores yet, but have a few projects on the list that will need them. I want to try epoxy cured cores, and also sodium silicate. Will use 3d printed core boxes, and patterns.
Did you degass with anything before pouring?

I didn't bother with degassing because it was a test piece but I'll have to when I make a real part. I intend to use washing soda.

The first mold I made was with sodium silicate. Pretty easy to work with but I was using my crappy, homemade sand so there was a lot of sand in the metal afterward. I made a thing to cure the sand with bicycle CO2 tire cartridges but I ended up letting it sit for a couple of days and it was hard as a rock.

[lugnut]

I admire your work, I have always wanted to try casting metals, I simply don't have the room for it. May be in my next life 😎

[no704]

Try block casting, I have had good luck with it on smaller parts, < 4”

[Commander_Chaos]

I admire your work, I have always wanted to try casting metals, I simply don't have the room for it. May be in my next life 😎

Thanks. What I have doesn't take up a huge amount of space. The furnace and the propane tank are both roughly the size of beer kegs, my 20lbs of petrobond fits in a 5 gallon bucket and I have a couple of homemade flasks and a couple of pairs of tongs. The downside is that you're pretty limited in size. I'd like to cast an oil tank for my half-built chopper but there's no way I could do it with this setup.

[old mart]

If your casting needs to be oiltight, then you should think about coating the inside with some type of sealer. I remember that Royal Enfield twins had a yellow chrome paint inside the crankcases to help with porosity.

[darryl]

Now that you're getting a handle on it, try some lost foam casting.