Thanks, ya there are two more non ferrous foundries in the muncie area and a few CNC shops left but the manufacturing has definitely die a lot here.
day 7, more photos up, cutting 1 of 2 core boxes, machining pockets for the 1" aluminum plate that will be the pattern board. gluing on the coreprints to the board now and will be machining it tomorrow, then locating and mounting the blower to the board, then pattern will be done. Then just need to finish the coreboxes and we are ready to start casting. The CNC is running the finishing cut right now and will be done tomorrow, then just need to cut the last corebox.
day 7 photos up. machines are running the finishing cuts on the second layer of the first corebox and should be done today, aluminum plate will be done machining today then just need to locate and mount the blower to it and the pattern will be ready to go. After all that the second corebox needs to be machined and then we will be making castings
we will be experimenting on different types and thicknesses of rotors, different shape intakes and discharges
day 8: More pictures up. (had to move some photos to one of my comments because im only allowed 20 photos per post) Mounted the blower to the aluminum plate, setting it up on the CNC to machine the rest of the pockets, starting on the second corerbox now and hopefully be all ready to go by Monday. Was told that we might be waiting to cast though be cause we need to buy a new 20x30" flask, i don't know if we will be or not yet.
Ok, I must be dumb. I can't see any pictures. How about a HARD link to your pictures?????? What are you using to bond the sand for your cores? EDIT: Ok, I found them. You should post new pictures and updates on the last page of the thread (ie post #70 on this last batch of pics).
We have two types of cores we use at our foundry, air set and shell core. This one will be airset where we take a 55 grain silicon sand and its mixed with an resin and activator and we fill the corebox, strike it off then just wait for it to harden then flip and dumb it. ------------------------------------------------------------------ Day 9: Pattern is done, ready to start cutting and mounting the gating and risers to it, second corebox has started to be machined and should be done by tomorrow. Still waiting the hear if we are buying a new flask or not to mold this. Also took a quick video walk around of the shop. ---------------------------------------------------- machining the pockets out of the blower ----------------------------------------------------- Machining Pockets ----------------------------------------------------- Pockets done
looking good, so i have been around a foundry when i was young casting aluminum, and a few years ago i helped work on aluminum match plates used for casting cast iron wood stove doors, so i know a little about allowing for shrinkage, so my question is what are you allowing for shrinkage, i have been told 1/8" per foot but that seems a little general, also are you going to use your foam pattern to cast an aluminum pattern that will be used to cast the blowers in the end, if you follow me.
Im using .012 shrink per inch but 1/8" per foot is kinda standard for aluminum, but there are a lot of factors that go into determining shrink, like how the part is shaped, what type of cores you're using, how long it is, how thick it is, what temp you pour at, green sand, air set, permanent mold or die-cast. This pattern will be used to make green sand molds, we don't do any lost-foam or wax castings, we might get into that in the future, i know a lot of automotive parts are made by foam rather than standard pattern. If we start selling a lot of blowers our next step would to make a cast iron permanent mold and a shell core box.
Super nice stuff. Thanks for getting it done. You are 100% correct. American stuff like this can not compete for the bottom of the barrel. But stick to the top and this is the kind of stuff that can do it. Excellent. The V belts option is awsome! Chain drive set would be 100 times awsome!! Do a chain drive setup to work on a 392 hemi 471 motor and I'll be first in line for one. Good stuff. Keep it up!
Yep, I'm familiar with the process. I've done a bit of it myself. What I was asking is what product are you using? The stuff I've been using just doesn't hold together that well. Maybe what you are using is a trade secret...?
Couldn't tell you exactly what it is, its a reused sand that we purchase from another local foundry that mainly cast in air set. I can tell you that humidity and temperature has a huge effect on the setup of the sand, we usually keep ours at 70°F in an enclosed metal room and it will set in about 3 min and its hard as a rock, we then let it set for about 6-8hrs depending on the size before we pour. Might mess around with different temp or use a dehumidifier in the room to see how it changes.
Day 12: Second corebox is done, cutting the loose piece then the tooling will be ready to take over to our foundry, but i found out over the weekend it will be 1-2 weeks before we get our flask in to start molding . ill still make the gating and risers though. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Unloading the pattern ------------------------------------------------------------------ Rough cut of the first layer, second corebox --------------------------------------------------------------------- Finishing cut on the first layer ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Second Corebox Done ------------------------------------------------------------------- Starting on the loose pieces
Day 13: Got a lot done today, finished the loose pieces for the corebox, fitted and painted them, started the basic layout of the gating and riser system of the pattern, took the coreboxes over to the foundry and made a few to get the weight of sand we will be using to calculate how much it will cost. Will be cutting and fitting the gating and riser system for the next few days. also i added a photo of the intake to supercharger adapter plate we will be making. ---------------------------------------------------------------- a photo of a few patterns we've cast in the past , some of these patterns are 50+ years old, some even hand made. -------------------------------------------------------------------- 3D printed pattern of our supercharger to intake adapter we will be casting, going to be making the gating system on it for the next few days. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Loose piece rough cut --------------------------------------------------------------------- loose piece finishing cut -------------------------------------------------------------------- Loose piece sitting on the corebox ------------------------------------------------------------------ Loose piece in the corebox ------------------------------------------------------------------- Air set station ------------------------------------------------------------------ Sand hopper -------------------------------------------------------------------- Sand striked off and setting in the corebox ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Core dumbed out and loose piece attached --------------------------------------------------------------------- Cores, will be glued together before they are placed in the mold. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Hard to tell, didn't get the camera straight, but this wall has negative draft of 3° from the corebox parting line, thats why we needed loose pieces --------------------------------------------------------------------- Risers roughly marked out for placement, will be cutting and mounting them soon ------------------------------------------------------------ Gating system of the pattern, drag side, will be the same on the other side, 2 man pour.
i'll have a video up of the entire process by the end of it, ill get some more tomorrow of our green sand line running
This is one of my favorite threads. Thanks for posting this. I've spent a lot of time in foundries, but that was doing refractory work. In and out too fast to see the entire process. Most of the time we had the furnaces shut down so nothing was being cast if that was the case. Majority of it was HPDC but a few of my faves were the smaller outfits doing hand pours. My gosh the pattern shop and pattern storage rooms are amazing. They were all made by hand
We actually just had one of our 600 ton die cast 6000lb furnace relined this summer, waiting to see if a job from the military is going to come in before we fire it up. Ya i only know 3 people who have ever hand made a pattern, no mills or lathes, my dad, my uncle who is guiding me on this build right now, and my grandfather who started our pattern shop in 47', he passed away in 08 when i was 18, been working in the foundry since i was 15, so he didn't get to mentor me that much . It is amaze to see some of the stuff they made by hand, it would be ridiculous to try and figure out how much a hand made pattern would cost to make today.
When you get around to making those 4-71 adapters, drop me a line. Can't find a 4-71 SBC intake to save my soul.
If i played Rugby, id be casting and pattern making. First job interview straight outer school was at local foundry, but the boss was a big Rugby head, and i failed the interview when asked if i played. I was warned before i went. Anyway, this may be totally stupid, but ive been thinking it would be cool to make a finned blower, (think SCoT) which would look great on traditional style cars. It could work in with all the other finned goodies that have been around for years. Horizontal fins might look ok, as opposed to vertical like the SCoT.
5 yrs ago, (last time I was there) the one place still had a fully staffed pattern makers shop. Not one CNC machine at that time. I'm going to have to look that guy up and see if he has any old speed equipment patterns. They've been doing this for ever. I remember seeing Offehauser and Mr. Gasket ID tags on some of them patterns but that was on a very quick "keep your hands in your pockets" tour. They still did some limited magnesium casting too at that time.
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