g'day can someone give me the info on how to cast club plates I wanted to do a run of about five for a trial. Has anyone done aliminum casting at home, what sort of alloy do you need- is 50 pounds of beer cans usable? I also wanted to know the mesurments of the the average alloy club plate? Cheers Tyler
yes, we do care...but maybe the right guy hasn't seen this yet a friend on mine casts a lot of aluminum parts at home . he uses old aluminum transmissions cases...cuts them up and melts them in a homemade furnace you may want to google for more info, i know that there are websites dedicated to this
Making the pattern is probably the hard part. There is a lot of info on casting at home on the web but not much on making the pattern.
ok, you can make a blast furnace with a big flower pot, cut a hole in the bottom, run a metal pipe into it(about 2 feet long). then run an air line into that(2 feet away) put some charcoal in it. get it nice and hot then turn on the air. get a crucible and then set it ontop of the coals and a set of metal tongs. what you need is called "green sand" i believe. also you will need a master to make the molds from. so carve it out of wood or wax. they sell the stuff online for cheap in the bags. ive never done this myself but i always wanted to do it. only thing ive ever done is make molds of parts(adding material to any machined surface) then cast them in wax. then sent the wax to the foundry and have parts cast. then i machined the parts when we got the parts from the foundry. also, the more wax casts you sent the foundry the cheaper it was, i think because they can pour all of them at once compaired to just one at a time. i believe that when they pour then they keep the wax castings in the sand and the metal pushes the wax out of the way. to make a wax casting, lets say for a club plaque for instance. get yourself a set of mold making plastic. comes in two cans, and when you mix it together it pours out liquid and then solidifys around your part, but isnt totally rock hard. and also mold lubricant spray. spray the table with the lubricant. put your master on the table(after spraying that too) with about 1/2" pieces(tall not round, only about an 8th inch round) of wax underneath it, MUST BE EVEN PIECES.(about 3 in a triangle pattern). the wax will hold the part off the table, then get some wood or s**** metal and make a box around the edge of the plaque about 1 inch or so away from the edge. spray the edges of the box you made too. (make sure the box goes about 1 inch over the top of the master) now mix your plastic, and pour to HALF way up the part. let it dry. now find yourself a round end mill or drill and drill 2 dips in the plastic(not on your part) about 1/4 inch deep. this wil help locate the other part of the mold. spray this half of the mold and master with the lubericant. now pour the other half of the mold at least 1/2" past the part. let that dry and take the box apart. make sure its dry and cool, maybe put it in the fridge. now after its ready crack the mold and take the part out. and now you have a master mold for your wax castings! clean both sides of the mold and then clamp it together. then drill a few tiny vent holes right on the edge of the casting(where both sides of the mold meet) this will help air escape, as well as the ones that held the master up off the table like i mentioned before. so now drill a hole just as thick as the part itself directly over the top of the EDGE of the two halfs the same width as the part you are casting. now go to the thrift store and buy a $5 doller crock pot, and melt some candles, crayons, and whatever wax you can find.(if you dont get the actual casting wax) now after its super hot get a junk cup and funnel and pour it into the hole you made in the master mold(with the master clamped together lightly) tap it lightly let it cool! sometimes it takes a long time. now you are ready to take your wax casting out of the mold! make as many as you want! then send them to the foundry. if you are getting air in the castings you might need to drill more air vents, OR make yourself a metal syringe like i did out of 1 1/4 inch tubbing make a spout with the lathe, and braze it or weld it on the end, then make a plunger out of a washer and a bolt or another smaller piece of pipe. if you use the metal syringe, this will be ingection type molding. you need to heat it up to keep the wax from hardening inside the metal syringe. now with gloves on, **** up some of the wax with your metal syringe. now steadily ingect the mold with the wax till its coming out every hole. now immediately push whatever remaining wax into the crock pot again. take the plunger out of the metal syringe otherwise it will harden and itll be stuck, and then youll have to heat it up alot. good luck. hope that helped..... my back still hurts..
You are new here,,,don't expect answers fast,,,,and when you throw smart *** remarks as a response to your own question it is likely it will be ignored all together,,, Very few people do their on casting,,,Dennis here on the hamb has done thousands of club plaques,,,,He is a pro,,,,,use the search ****on .alliance venders I think it was Whizzer Rick that did the hamb plaques on a small scale ,,,,he cast 5 or 6 a few years ago to auction off to support the hamb. Here again use the search ****on,,,,tech HRP
Check with a local university/art school etc. Lots of times they have casting facilities, especially for small batches. There's two ways [as far as i know] for small pieces -- "lost wax" in which you make the master out of wax or styrofoam and then bury it in a sand mix and pour the molten metal into the sand so it melts the wax/foam and fills the cavity. The other way is to "stamp" the master into sand or clay and pour it full. Problem with melting aluminum is keeping oxygen out. To make the master I'd make a computer printout of the design, glue it on a thin sheet of something easy to cut and cut out the raised parts. glue them on another piece of foam etc to make a "stamp" style master. Carve details in with die grinder, etc using small tools like they sell for Dremel/Rotozip. You could practice using plaster until you get the master right. Just my too scents
Why don't you contact Obrian Truckers here on the HAMB they are an alliance vendor and they also make them.
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