General Categories > Non Gun Stuff
Aluminum melting
Les:
Sorry guess I misspoke, meant to say cast Al.
unfy:
I have yet to do any useful casting. Been mostly just ingot-izing a pile of cans.
I'll be grabbing a thrift store coffee grinder or food processor to grind up some cat litter as a bentonite clay source for green sand. Will also be making my own flasks real soon now, too.
After that, I'm free to play with trying to cast useful objects. Whatever those may be - I've got no plans for anything as of yet heh.
Wonder if using some silicone or plaster and other stuff in order to make a pattern or something for duplicating an object... or... I dunno. *shrug*. Sadly, a lot of the 'useful' objects ya might wanna make would usually require further machining - which I don't have the capacity to do at the moment :(. Artsy stuff I can prolly do... but I am not an artist :D
Les:
--- Quote from: unfy on November 22, 2016, 02:39:44 AM ---I have yet to do any useful casting. Been mostly just ingot-izing a pile of cans.
I'll be grabbing a thrift store coffee grinder or food processor to grind up some cat litter as a bentonite clay source for green sand. Will also be making my own flasks real soon now, too.
After that, I'm free to play with trying to cast useful objects. Whatever those may be - I've got no plans for anything as of yet heh.
Wonder if using some silicone or plaster and other stuff in order to make a pattern or something for duplicating an object... or... I dunno. *shrug*. Sadly, a lot of the 'useful' objects ya might wanna make would usually require further machining - which I don't have the capacity to do at the moment :(. Artsy stuff I can prolly do... but I am not an artist :D
--- End quote ---
The reason I'm curious about cast is I have some cast aluminum pole bases and aluminum poles (5" if memory serves) I was planning on scrapping but wondered if they can be melted down for a usefull purpose.
m morton:
i did some casting back in school using forms and that sticky oil sand . place an object face up , put the sand on top of it and tamp the sand as you add more and more till the form is full "the forms should not have smooth in side surface" or the sand will not hold to the inside of the form and fall out while flipping them over etc.. ,once full you strike a clean flat top so it can be flipped over, place another form on top fill another form from the back , filling and tamping the sand the form should have a pins or rods to keep them from moving apart or side to side. then after both are filled you separate the 2 forms remove the item being duplicated. and make fill and vent holes plus cut out flow notches to the fill and vent holes . once the aluminum is melted pore it in to the fill and vent holes . allow to cool and remove the cast and dump the sand in a storage ben to be used again.
once the cast is cool to the touch you use a saw to remove the notches and fill hole excess and a file to smooth it to look as it should. i did a few items and i should still have them in a box in storage. was fun projects back in metals class in Jr. high. back in the late 70's
FYI the tacky sand will smoke, so do it in a well vented area ! the sand is reusable till too much of the tacky oil is burned off the sand from the hot aluminum, when that happens the casting will be harder as the sand will not pack as good and crumbles and the vent and fill holes and cast will cave in. not sure if the metals teacher added more tacky oil to the sand or replaced the sand all together ??? sorry never seen him do either . i just know the oil sand started out black & tacky and when it was dark gray it did not work as good and soon after the storage ben sand was black again...
that's what i remember from back then
ever want to try and would like my novice help i live in west Omaha and would need a ride
unfy:
--- Quote from: m morton on November 22, 2016, 01:09:07 PM ---i did some casting back in school using forms and that sticky oil sand . place an object face up , put the sand on top of it and tamp the sand as you add more and more till the form is full "the forms should not have smooth in side surface" or the sand will not hold to the inside of the form and fall out while flipping them over etc.. ,once full you strike a clean flat top so it can be flipped over, place another form on top fill another form from the back , filling and tamping the sand the form should have a pins or rods to keep them from moving apart or side to side. then after both are filled you separate the 2 forms remove the item being duplicated. and make fill and vent holes plus cut out flow notches to the fill and vent holes . once the aluminum is melted pore it in to the fill and vent holes . allow to cool and remove the cast and dump the sand in a storage ben to be used again.
once the cast is cool to the touch you use a saw to remove the notches and fill hole excess and a file to smooth it to look as it should. i did a few items and i should still have them in a box in storage. was fun projects back in metals class in Jr. high. back in the late 70's
FYI the tacky sand will smoke, so do it in a well vented area ! the sand is reusable till too much of the tacky oil is burned off the sand from the hot aluminum, when that happens the casting will be harder as the sand will not pack as good and crumbles and the vent and fill holes and cast will cave in. not sure if the metals teacher added more tacky oil to the sand or replaced the sand all together ??? sorry never seen him do either . i just know the oil sand started out black & tacky and when it was dark gray it did not work as good and soon after the storage ben sand was black again...
that's what i remember from back then
ever want to try and would like my novice help i live in west Omaha and would need a ride
--- End quote ---
This.
That is the process in a nutshell.
I won't be using petrobond (oil bonded sand) - but rather a mix of bentonite clay and sand (aka greensand). It can't reach the temperatures that petrobond can, and the finish won't be as nice -- but it's far cheaper heh.
There's a semi decent chance I might take ya up on the offer for a bit of help. If anything - it'd be an excuse to get together over a cup of coffee heh. Note that I'm doing my melting out of a detached garage at an apt complex - so snow and stuff incoming shall be fun :D. Don't have a schedule planned yet. Busy at work, holiday, etc.
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