Tech: Part 2 - Making tail lights from scratch

Tech: Part 2 - Making tail lights from scratch

This is part 2 of my tail lights from scratch. I will attempt to show you how I cast the pattern from part 1 in Aluminum. There are a bunch of photos so I will have to post this in two halves I guess.



Well here is the styrene pattern sitting atop the plaster plug. The plaster plug supports the pattern while I ram up the first half of the mold. After this shot I coated it with parting dust (baby powder). By the way, my whole foundry set up cost me about $50- 60 to put together. Homemade refractory for the furnace, homemade petrobond sand, burner, tools, flasks and misc stuff. Costs less than a dollar per 25 min. melt.(propane) I say this so that anyone that thinks it would be too much of an investment would know different. Plus it’s just plain neat to do.



This shows the fine riddled layer of sand directly over the pattern.



Here is the first half of the flask full of sand, rammed up.



And the sand screeted off smooth.

 

In this shot the first half of the flask is turned over and the plaster plug is removed.



The pouring sprue and vent sprue forms are put in place and a generous amount of parting dust is applied.



This is after the second half of the flask has been riddled, packed, rammed, and sprue forms removed then the flask is split apart. The runners are cut in and then the pattern is removed and any loose sand is carefully blow away. The flask is closed and moved out to beside the furnace.



And here they are all poured. Sorry for no dramatic pour action shots. I was alone and I haven’t quite mastered the task of shooting photos and pouring hot molten metal at the same time. But man it is cool to pour at night. This is always the hardest part for me. The wait from the pour to the cool down and opening of the flasks.



Oh yea, success! At least by my expectations. A tiny bit ruff in some areas but they should clean up nicely. This is the time when I look over the casting and see if I need to refine it a bit so it will pour and turn out better. I probably could but I know I won’t, cause I lazy. You will have to wait til the part 3 to see them cleaned up. At that time (soon) I will show the how to on the buckets and the final product.

Hey, any Iowa Hambers (or anyone for that matter) want to get together when the weather turns a little nicer for a Saturday casting party? Might be fun, think about it.

Thanks,
Smokey

 

****ing awesome....

 

posts like this and guys like you really keep me humble....great post and thanks for sharing...I can't wait to see the finished product!

 

Jeees Kyle..., didn't you take Foundry cl*** at Waukesha South...???

That cl*** was a blast...!

I was making copies of Cal Custom Barefoot pedals and I made a duplicate 430 Super Marauder Tri-carb Aircleaner....!!!!!

 

Most excellent.Thanks Smokey.

 

Yeah, what he said.


G.

 

Looks really great. If you think about making a pair to sell, I seriously want a pair, I'll even do the polishing myself.

 

You have my vote for best tech. F-in DIY.

 

hey Smokey, what kinda sand did u use & if it was oiled sand what did ya use for the oil. just wondering since its been 20yrs since i have poured steel at the foundry i use to work at & when i worked there we were always adding some kind of oil to the sand to make it stick better when making molds or cores for casting parts...GREAT WORK too...joe

 

GREAT info and pics for a basic understanding of how cope and drag casting can be done on the cheap!

excellent tech

 

You rock!!

 

Best tech hands down.

 

****
Never thought I'd wish I lived in Iowa...
Cool Tech!

Randy

 

Smokey........let me know when the pour is. I'd love to attend and I don't even need directions to your house!

 

Thanks for the great replies everyone.
TooMany2count - The recipe for sand that I made up was this
50 lbs. - Silica sand
9.375 lbs. - Low firing temp white clay, I don’t have the name of the clay in my head and will have to look it up. It’s not the typical bentonite clay that every one says to use but it is what I had on hand from another project.
3.125 lbs.- Straight 30 weight motor oil
Nothing more complex than that. I didn’t make up a fancy muller to mix the batches of sand up. I just used an old dryer drum with motor set in a stand with wheels for the drum to roll on and about 20 old billiard balls and it works pretty slick. I have been using the same 250 lb. batch of sand for the last 3 years and it still works great.

Smokey

 

Will do Rocky, I think it could be alot of fun.

Smokey

 

Hey Smokey,

If you get the time could you do another tech post on your basic home foundry setup, with pics? I remember reading an article about doing this stuff a loooong time ago in one of the rod magazines, but they were using the foundry at a local college I think. One of the things they mentioned was having to make the patterns slightly oversize, for things like valvecovers, because they shrink a little? I sure would like to see all this stuff firsthand, no doubt you'd have to hear even more questions but man is this stuff interesting.
Thanks!
Randy

 

Joe and I would make the trip...

 

I saw the first part of this series as well and was quite intrigued. What did you use to melt the metal? What did you melt it in? Where did you get your supplies? Does anyone have a link explaining just the basics of this process? I don't even know where I'd start, but it would be really cool to be able to cast stuff like taillights. It's a lot easier to figure out the nuances if I understand the overall process first. I've never done anything like this before, but it looks really cool...

 

Tech week rocks!!!
this is what the hamb is all about!!

Thanks...

 

How about April 9th? . or will you be at the swap at Hawkeye Downs?

 

I've been lurking here for a while, guess I need to introduce myself but in the meantime I've had this site bookmarked for a while.

http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/links.html

Plenty of good info to keep you busy...

 

Denny,
Great post! FORDY 6 was telling me about it this morning at coffee. If he will let me ride with him & Joe, I would be up for a casting party. Maybe a mini-cruise up to your place...Tom - restorit

 

Very cool...foundry stuff intrigues my small brain.

 

Great, glad to see so much interest in a casting day. I will try to come up with a few possible dates and see what works out best for the majority. Also I’ll have to make up some more flasks and car accessory patterns so everyone could cast up something for themselves to take home.

For those who were asking about sites on casting, here are some. Some of these might have been posted before in the past. A lot of good sites out there.

http://www.eugenesargent.com/casting.htm
http://www.host33.com/casting/
http://www.duncanamps.co.uk/metal/projects/projects.php
http://jackson.parcabul.com/sub/foundry.html
http://www.myhomefoundry.com/
http://www.artmetal.com/project/TOC/proces/cast/furnace.html
http://www.reil1.net/design1.shtml
That should give you some good reading.

Smokey

 

OK that's just too fukin slick. I gotta read it a few more times and probalby take a trip to the library to really understand it all . But I need to learn how to do this. I'm totally blown away.

Excellent post. Looking forward to the final installment.

SHORT BUSES ARE KUSTOMS TOO RIGHT?

 

bttt................"BACK TO THE TOP"...........for the newbies.