So a friend and I decided we wanted to try our hand at casting. Here are some plans and how to, to do your own casting for under $10. supplies: 2 large coffee cans Crucible (melting pot) Small fan, or small shop vac Metal Stir Stick Drill 1/2" drill bit Tins Snips Charcoal Tongs, or channel locks To Do: First take the tin snips and cut the top lip off one of the large coffe can. ( this is so you can stack them without them falling over) Then bend the edges of the can in so it will fit snuggly underneath the bottom of the other can. Next take the drill and drill bit and drill a fair amount of holes in the bottom of the uncut coffee can. After that cut a hole about 2" in dia. at the base of the cut can. (This will alow for air flow to "supercharge" the flame) Then find something sutiable for use as a crucible (the pot your metal will be melted in) You can use soup can although they tend to melt easy, other options are a large piece of pipe with a cap. (no galvanized), you can also use the screw top off a gas bottle if you patch the holes in it. and your done... Using the furnace: To use the furnace you first need to place 1-2 layers of charcoal in the bottom of the can with holes, then place the crucible in the can and place charcoal around the crucible. put something flamable, such as ligher fluid, on the charcoal and light. let the coals turn completly white then turn on the fan to get them glowing. once you let the crucible heat for a while you can then start to add material in the crucible. Soda cans, old pistons, what ever. let become liquid then pour into what ever you want. WARNING: if using soda can do not put the cans in upside down the air is t****d in the can and has no place to go and at a certain point the can will shoot out to the furnace taking with it HOT liquid metal. When melting metal you may have to place more coal around the crucible several times. Also stir the metal frequently. Below are some pictures of ours in action. If you have any question please ask. I'll scan a sketch of the design tomorrow.
You'll find there are quite a few 'backyard Foundrymen' on the HAMB. It's a very satisfying experience, to say the least... This is my Lil' Bertha: Check out this step-by-step pictorial I've prepared a while ago: http://www.whizzerick.com/bolt_topper/casting1.html ...
I'm about to get into that myself. I keep running into items I want to cast so I got pissed off and grabbed a furnace kit to get me started. Still gotta make/find crucible, tongs, etc., but I'm really looking forward to it. Even more aggravating is that Dad had all of that stuff from when he retired at the high school and gave it away. Dumb***.
There are several kits, and plans for other types of furnaces online too. I Got that for Christmas. http://backyardmetalcasting.com/ also you can get crucible, tongs, thermometers, and every thing else. Here http://www.contenti.com/products/casting.html?lnk=popular and ingot molds at http://www.outdoorsuperstore.com/searchResults.asp?searchQuery=casting&category=40303
So how did your castings come out? Photos? I built my foundry out of a small trash can with a large flowerpot concreted in, from the book I got from backyardmetalcasting.com. I still need to build my crucible and try it out.
Here's the 411. www.backyardmetalcasting.com http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/greensand.html Get these at least these two books, $8 a piece. http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/book_fp.html http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/book_sc.html
Another one of my firends Kevan is actual a jewler and pattern maker, hes got a full on hard core foundry setup. And we are working on making a cylinder head for the four banger in my sedan. Im desiging the head my self then we will make a pattern and cast a few. We will make a wood patern instead of the lost wax so we can make more than one. The head is still in the design stages though. Some of the basic ideas i want to incorporate in to it are a swirl shaped hemi head with two modern spark plugs on the opposite side of the dome and facing the opposite way to make a nice vortex for lots of power. Still pencil sketches, though.
Heres some pics... You will have to excuse the divits in them there were welds at the bottom of the tray i poured them in that i couldnt get out with the grinder. My very high tech weight system. 108-103=5 5/2=2.5
Gee whiz, I used to teach metal casting in high school metal shop for many years. We did aluminum and br***. Made lots of neat stuff. Even used styrofoam for patterns as well as wood and metal patterns. When the hot metal hits styrofoam, it evaporates instantly. Now those good hands-on experience days are history as many school districts are closing down the traditional "shop cl***." Heck, I even made my wife's and my wedding bands using the lost wax process.Oh well.........................
The only type of shop program they have at my high school is a theater design cl***, you get to make sets for plays and what not. I might take the cl*** next year just to be able to weld at school, plus its an easy A+
Dad was the same way. He taught metals, power mech., you name it. They had sand casting, centrifugal casting for jewelry, they had milling machines, lathes... just about everything a fella needed. When he retired, so did his shop and everything in it.
Here is my first casting of anything other than an ingot. It is a crude attempt at a shifter knob using the newer furnace kustommetal and I made out of the old furnace, cement, and a five gallon bucket. The pictures need to be resized so I won't post them here, but here are some links. http://www.savagemania.com/images/shifter-1.jpg http://www.savagemania.com/images/shifter-2.jpg http://www.savagemania.com/images/shifter-3.jpg
The Jalopy Journal
