TECH- How to SAND CAST Aluminum Car Club plaques at Home!!!

Go the the sticky's at the top of the 1st forum page and look for the baileigh bailout link and make your selection there!

 

Damn too bad I've been spoiled by California weather... or else I would be starting to look for a job back east casting! I love to be working in a foundery instead of sitting in a cubicle!

 

This is the kind of stuff you used to be able to watch on Saturday morning television on shows like "Industry On Parade".

(note to self: Consider adding this quote to short-list of potential new forum post signatures!)

 

Wow thanks a lot on both of these suggestions this is stuff that is priceless to us novices!

 

Very nice tutorial, something that I'm going to try. Thanks for sharing!!

 

Xcellent tech idea. I spent many hrs. running a furnace in a cast iron foundry in upstate N.Y. and, believe it or not, I sometimes miss it. When I first started they where still doing some small br*** and aluminum pieces in much the same way. Back then I made the sand! Anyway, great job !!! It brought back lots of memories. Cat

 

Congratulations Chris, you definitely have a mul***ude of talents.

 

I have wanted to try that for a long time, thanks for the post.

 

If anyone needs help with sand castings let me know. My company makes iron suspension and powertrain parts for the OEMs. I run the software that simulates the molten metal flowing into the mold and then solidifying. I'd be happy to run a simulation - just don't tell my boss! This is more applicable to making intakes, gas caps, shifter knobs, windshield frames, etc. than plaques, but...

If you are having problems with cold shuts, porosity, "sink ins," - just send me a message.

 

Hi Pins&Needles,
Great article. Sure brought back my high school shop days. We did some car club plates, back in 1961-62 using an actual plate, as a master, bought by earlier members of the club. We used sand, in a box, with metal, melted down in a crucible. We used old car pistons melted down. I recently dug out my plate and stripped it of many coats of paint, and now have painted it flat black again. Here is a photo after it was stripped. Thanks for a great Tech Article and the memories....duane

 

AWESOME! Thanks and Congratulations on the win!

 

It's funny was waiting for some one to ask my stupid question is there any thing else to use for molds besides sand
I've made some out of potery mud that's been fired at 2200 degrees am I going to have a problem with this method
even made some out of plaster of paris but haven't got to the pouring stage yet I'm making a cruce right now and a small oven for propane heat
a big pot lined with fire bricks will be the oven
I work at alcan aluminum smelter but there's so much I don't even know about the pouring part but do know there's big danger as we aren't allowed to bring any sealed containers of pop in there at all for obvious reasons

any way I've already done the wood part like you said many hours and made the mold only to ruin the first template then on to many hours to make the second template only have a pic of the first one but the second is very similar





don't want to blow me self up heh!! going to make it to sixty years old this year

just want to know if these ideas will work got a hot plate to heat up the molds befor I pour

and sort of want to be able to reuse the molds at a later date in other words keep molds on file and be able to make more at a later date easyer than the sand method ?

 

Very nice

 

Very informative. Curious about how much you spent going this way, versus buying them from someone?

 

I tried plaster and baked the mold in the oven to drive out the water. In the end thet were too brittle. If you do not drive out the water the will explode.

 

Hell yea!!.....thats definately something ive got to try. I have done this with resin, time to take it to the next level. Its always better when you get to light **** on fire.

 

I was just reviewing this old thread to see if there was any more excellent information and I saw this post by NM Sandrail.

It so happens that I have the original pattern that your plaques were made from in the 50's. It is one of the 12,000 I acquired that came from Chicago Metal Craft or Speed Gems (yours was from Speed Gems.)

Here's a picture of the original pattern (which BTW was made from Masonite, leatherette and hand carved linoleum.)

 

i melt my aluminum in a bucket with a hole in the bottom and a hole in the lid. Pack bbq charcoal around the crusible and light it on fire takes about 30 -40 minutes but will melt down quite a bit. You can pour then ad more aluminum.

 

Blowing air in with a hair dryer might speed up your melting.

 

im so glad i got to play around with this stuff in my high school shop cl***.. wood working, metal working.. kids these days.. its really to bad these cl***es are not offered.. i know my sister graduated in 2005 and she did not have the option for shop cl*** not that would interest her but yeah.
i dunno what would of happen to me with out shop cl*** to keep me out of trouble.. hell i was able t o take two shop cl***es a day.. instead of some other elective that did not interest me.. mr. crow you rocked.. will never for get him.. aka shop teacher, that everyone loved in the school.. and all the girls loved hanging around him.. bonus for us guys .
chris.

 

Yep,

It's amazing how many young people call looking to see if I have a pattern in my 15,000 piece collection for a club plaque they're looking for and I don't have it. When I say that it might have been made in shop cl*** back in the day there's this awkward pause on the line before they ask "Huh?".
Even many of the trade schools often don't do any foundry teaching these days. Bet they do in China

 

You right they do in China, I have worked with a few of them, very knowledgeable people.

 

Such a useful tech article, thanks. I will definitely be trying it out soon.