TECH: Make a Bellhousing out of an old Intake Manifold!!

So does the petrobond store better? And do you need to add more fluid(oil?) to the mix after it has been used to rejuvinate it?

I bought a small foundry from lost and foundry, I have built a mold but had trouble pulling it cleanly and redesigned it. I havent tried it again but wonder if I may have better luck pulling a clean mold with the petrobond vs the green sand I have been using.

 

When I started I purchased a Large kit from lost and foundry I still have and use my furnace from them from time to time. He does do a great job with the hobby type furnace and brick mix probably one of the best in that area, the sand I just thew out..

The mold or Pattern you have is actually the most important part of what you are doing over sand, you need to make sure your pattern has good draft for a clean mold

Good draft

 

I have had 300 lbs of Petrobond since 2006. I haven't had to add oil yet. It still works great. If you are going to get serious, an oil bonded sand is a must.

 

VERY cool!!!! I better bookmark this one!

 

So the original poster as well as you and I can continue to post on it.

 

O.k. Here is another one for you while I'm pumping you for free info. One of the projects I'm working on will require tig welding sheet aluminum to the completed casting. Any thoughts on this? My welder thought that the greensand may give better results with the welding vs. the petrobond as his thought is that the oil may cause issues with the welding process, Have you had any experience with this?

 

Subscribe!!

 

No problem welding with either.

 

If you want post a pic of the pattern your trying to make I can tell you if I see any issues, also you will not have problems with welding with oil base sand. One thing I found is alot of people try and melt scrap stay away from it, I had a hell of a problem at first and I was melting used material, I found I can get certified 356 casting alloy here for 1.37-1.75 a lb depending what the current rate is at, what a difference in product and time using the correct material casting alloy has silicon in it to help with flow alot of my parts are thin and without it makes just a bunch of incomplete pours..

 

Bravo! What an amazing tech post!

I would love to give this a shot.

 

There is NOTHING wrong with CAST ALUMINUM scrap. The key is melting it into ingots first. After the second melt, add flux before the pour ...I know, I've done it. You should stay away from extruded aluminum because it shrinks big time.

You won't have any problem with welding if you are using the common prep proceedures for aluminum.

 

fantastic-great job of bothshow,tell and do!!

 

WOW, now we all know how to cast our own HAMB License plaques and tag toppers,since they are either not available or never enough made. Just my 2 cents, and look close, they are period correct. Being serious, what a great thread. A big THANKS!!

 

I hope I did not offend you when I said I do not like melting with scrap.. If I did im sorry, It was not directed to you or what you do.. your work is verry nice. I should have explained it better I make alot of parts that are only .050 thick and the lack of silicon from burnout and remelt will not allow it to flow. I found I can get 1.00 a lb for my scrap and I purchased 200lbs last week from larsens for 1.38 a lb for certified 356 I just do not see for me adding degassing agents and silicon metal to the melt to get flow with having to remelt it, now not for all but me its cheaper to just use new material currently im making 150 parts a month and I do not have the time to recycle I should have said that. I do throw my cut off back in the melt but I do not use various mixes of scrap in a melt you could have 6061 with 5050 and 356 all melted togeather and so on.. this is what I choose to use most of the time

 

That math adds up pretty well. Is larsens just your local steel house or are they an online supplier? I did a quick google search and didn't find them. Although depending on where they are I may need to find a supplier that is a little closer so shipping doesn't kill me.

 

What I'm up to is merely prototyping, Once I have a workable design I want to pass off production to a short run foundry like this one http://lapansfoundry.com/ The designwork is interesting to me but I don't really have a want to just crank out castings all day.

 

This is a cool thread. Thanks for sharing your skills.

 

No you didn't ...I just didn't want people to read this and think that they HAD to use new aluminum.

 

I havent been able to cast the last week with the holiday my wife has had to work leaving me with no free time... they did a shift change yesterday and I had 3 free hours so off to the sand box I ran, cast 30 parts here are a few, flathead fuel pump block off and stand block off plates and some west bend stuff..

 

Nice work! Merry Christmas!

 

Gosh, too bad that casting is no longer taught in high schools.

 

Had the pleasure of meeting Chris & his Dad at B'vill this year. Got to see all the parts up close.. WOW what cool stuff. Well the 1st thing I did when I got home was to pull up this thread. My furnace is almost ready, all the tools are at hand, and I'm scounging aluminum where ever I can. Can,t wait to start.

 

Don't bet the family fortune on that.
I teach a course on manufacturing, and we start casting next month.
After that, we get into machining and CNC programming...in high school.

 

Stevie, That's amazing. Your school system is the exception. Florida is closing up their programs quicker than you can blink.

 

http://www.gobuildgeorgia.com/

GA and AL both decided to bring traditional skills back into the classroom. My students love that they can design and build practically anything they can imagine. There is an initiative with several of the local Chamber of Commerce to bring back manufacturing to the area. We've already scored a new Caterpillar plant, and there are a few more surprises on the horizon.

Threads like this show that people want to learn these skills. Somewhere along the way someone got the idea that all of our children should train for jobs sitting behind a desk at a computer...WHY I don't know. If we expect things to change, we need to do it at the local level, and these programs are only the beginning. We can turn this place around, one local economy at a time.

So, who wants to go melt some metal?

Oh, to the GA crowd, we are discussing night/weekend classes.

 

I think its a great idea to bring it to the schools again, are you going to use a K-bond type sand?? I would say its a good idea for students versus petrobond or water base, I use Petrobond but can be quite smokey versus the k-bond stuff.

 

Going for the K-bond.

 

You guys are great! This is just too cool! One of the best tech articles I've read. Like to try it myself someday.
Thanks for posting!!

 

Boy, does this hit home!

ANH Refractories!

I worked for A. P. Green refractories, Mexico, MO for 18.5 years and the last 12.5 was in Product Installation - Gunning Castable and Plastics plus pumping both ultra-low cement and self-flowing/self-leveling vibrationless castables!

I'm probably one of the handful of guys that can gunite high alumina phosphate bonded plastic refractories since I showed Green's how to do it along with their refractory research engineer.

To the OP, get a 55 gallon drum and make a short cast-iron producing cupola!

Same principal except charge it with scrap iron, coke and some limestone gravel.

pdq67

 

The argument for bringing back trade skills into the school system is well made in the book, "Shop Class as Soul Craft". Well worth the read.

Saw a re-run of a talk show the other day where John Ratzenberger (Cliffy from Cheers) was making exactly that argument too.

Even when I went to HS (early '80s), the shop classes were being cut back in FL. They still existed, but I'm not certain what skills were being passed on...