The scrapper and his/her home foundry
First picture the patterns are laid out in the box then dusted with chalk, sand is tamped in around the patterns using the tamper in picture 3.
The tapered table leg standing upright in the sand is for my sprue hole, this is where the molten aluminum gets poured into the mold.
Picture 5 is an old hunting knife, a cut down spoon and a drink straw, these tools are used to cut in gates, the straw is used to gently blow away any loose sand that may have fallen into the cavities.
Picture 6 is the open core box with all patterns removed, this is ready for a pour, number 7 is just after the pour.
Picture 8 is the pour after it has cooled and removed from the sand, each item has to be cut free from the sprue. The long piece of aluminum that everything is attached to is so that when the patterns are cooling down inside the mold they shrink. As they shrink they will draw in aluminum from that large piece to replace the loss.
Picture 9 is to show how much detail can be picked up using sand casting. The imperfections in the pattern came from years of use as a logo on the fuel tank of an old chainsaw. I could have used some auto body filler the fill them in. Just as you would filling holes in drywall, then sand everything smooth.
On the bottom of the Scuba mold you can see evidence of auto body filler at work. also filler work on the fishing weight mold.
The pieces I cast cast in this round, the thing with the handle is for making 5 lb scuba weight molds that the divers use on their belts. The other is a fishing weight mold, last there was a bit of room left in the core box so I made Pat another Rosette.
The upper box is drilled the lower has a pin to mate up keeping the patterns registered for mating, my core box's are home made.
Picture 10 is a finished Scuba mold as it would appear on auction.
Learning how to cast and building a home foundry can be very rewarding, you can turn your scrap $0.70 a pound aluminum into $10.00 a pound profit very easily by casting something that is in demand.
There is a forum dedicated to the home foundry, this is not the place to teach the art. I'm only throwing out some ideas then to give some incentive to try something new..
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