Does anyone know of somebody that will do aluminum castings in small runs? I have an original piece to copy from, but no one to send it to. Thanks,Don
whatcha need, man? i do lost wax casting, so it's ideal for high detail, low production numbers, and complex forms. there's a ****on at the bottom of each window of text on these posts that says "send PM" that will let you talk to folks off the board. if you want to, drop me a line.
chromedRat: When someone send you wax patterns, how do you price the job ? I'm guessing Bronze is more expensive than Aluminum. What type of wax do you prefer ?
my pricing is usually based on other projects i have done. i know that wax is about 1/10 the weight of bronze, and bronze is 3 times heavier than aluminum, so i use that to figre metal, and i crunched some numbers to know exactly how much each dip of ceramic the molds use for my pieces, so it's pretty accurate. then also, the finish work comes into play as well. my fingerprints are almost gone from sanding castings for polishing. yeah, bronze is about 2-3$ more per lb. and has went up something like 500% in the last 4 or so years. i'm just happy they don't put aluminum in bullets, or aluminum would be sky high too. copper is through the roof and a large % of bronze alloys. for smaller pieces, the victory brown sculpting wax is ok. it's a soft wax, so it is prone to warpage in large pieces due to temperature. when i do duplicates, i use red microcrystalline wax, and the LARGE (we do alot of 8' figures) piece that he bronze foundry casts are made from the red wax as well. i practically live in the shop. kinda overextended myself last fall, and there's a few fellas still waiting on their knobs, but i'm finally getting caught up and ready for the next big deadline. i have to contend with the day job 9 months out of the year, so it's been rough! hell, all last summer i worked mostly 13 hr days because i had so much to do, and well, i like my work. cruising suffered, i didn't put as many miles on the impala all year as i did in the first month i had it on the road in 04, but it's a completely awesome feeling to have my work in 5 or 6 other countries and 31 states.
can't say for sure, as i haven't worked beeswax, though i have handled it. i would say that the brown is more resistant to heat. once body heat or a flame is added, it's easily workable...
I lucked into a pound of Beeswax dirt cheap,so I grabbed it, not knowing if I could use it for casting patterns or not.
Hey chromedRAT, I checked your page, just gotta say; Great work! How big parts can be done with that lost wax technique? How about hollow components?
the beeswax will work, i know the ancients used the hell out of it for their own castings. some purists still swaer by it i'm sure... my crucible will hold 20 lbs of aluminum and the bronze crucible holds 300 lbs. what kind of hollow pieces do ya mean? intakes would be pretty hard to do, with lost wax... just depends on the form...
i had this crazy idea to turn my single carb aluminum flat head intake into a 3 carb unit, i`d make castings of the carb flange and riser and then weld it to my intake infront and behind where the carb sites now, i`d make the carb flange large enough so i could machnie it to make all the carbs face forward, know what i mean?
SamIyam did basicly the same thing on a SBC, only he used billet aluminum.Machined the top off the manifold,weld on his "new" top piece, then lots of filing and polishing.Someone might have saved a pic of the Sam-O-Ram.
i could probably do the carb flange/riser if i am picturing it correctly... it's things like the tunnels in the intake body that would be REALLY rough to do...
i dont think there would be a need for holes they could just be drilled out, i have my intake in the house now and i`ll take a could pics and post them. you dont do any sand casting?
You read my thoughts... Intake is hollow component I meant. Log-manifold would be most easy; Like this but for other carburetor-flange and maybe less of 'em. Would it be possible with this technique? This intake is for nailhead, so same part fits for both sides cylinder heads.
The Jalopy Journal
