sand casting/aluminum-projects

[Shep1970]

Holy crap, yup thats costly. Ive been looking for a broken cheap ebay one just to try to cast it but dang you guys are right they are hard to find and very costly when i do see one. I can double up the pouring stack to get more alum pressure into the sand but.....and a sandcore for the pump outlet. But... Maybe someday
Pressure casting machine WAY outa my league- maybe i'll buy a lotto ticket.


Shep

[El Camexican]

Just because you asked a supplier that has better things to do than cast 3 wheeler clutch covers how much money would make it worth it for them to make doesn't mean that's the only option!!!

As his largest client going on 12 years I'm pretty sure he had nothing more pressing than to give me his best quote at the time, but seeing as you seem to think there are other options why don't you share them with the class?

[El Camexican]

Holy crap, yup thats costly. Ive been looking for a broken cheap ebay one just to try to cast it but dang you guys are right they are hard to find and very costly when i do see one. I can double up the pouring stack to get more alum pressure into the sand but.....and a sandcore for the pump outlet. But... Maybe someday
Pressure casting machine WAY outa my league- maybe i'll buy a lotto ticket.


Shep

He mentioned that a lost wax mold (investment casting) would work, but again costly and not the best way. In a bind I would think one could be machined from a solid block of aluminum. The programing would be a couple grand and the machine time would likely be over 4 hours any at least $100 per hr, but it could be done.

[bkm]

As his largest client going on 12 years I'm pretty sure he had nothing more pressing than to give me his best quote at the time, but seeing as you seem to think there are other options why don't you share them with the class?

Maybe since Douche is a tax code wizard, he has a 501c charitable foundry setup to produce clutch covers for underprivileged tri-z owners? Betcha didn't think of that did ya?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

[El Camexican]

Maybe since Douche is a tax code wizard, he has a 501c charitable foundry setup to produce clutch covers for underprivileged tri-z owners? Betcha didn't think of that did ya?

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

I picture him trying to melt rusty nails with sunlight and a magnifying glass to pour into a mold he made in a communal sandbox. The only thing stopping him from achiving the perfect mold is that his mom won't let him use her flour sifter to filter out the cat cr*p from the sand.

[Mr. Sandman]

Very cool. Back in the late 70's and early 80's in my high school metal shop class, I sand cast a pair of aluminum DeHandler shorty brake and clutch levers for my IT175 using Red Rider's plastic levers for the mold. From what I recall they came out pretty nice and worked great. I also have a brass Moto-X Fox belt buckle somewhere at home that I cast from a friend's real Fox buckle. Good times, "back in the day".

Here's my 38 year old, made in high school, Moto-X Fox (now just Fox) belt buckle, sporting Honda colors of course. Time to polish it up again and start wearing it.

[Shep1970]

Well, i'll continue messin' with this in the early spring, unless of course we have a nice mild winter.
Until/ then
Thanks for looking

Shep
Happy holidays

[Shep1970]

Going to try to do a cast alum 86/87 200x tank, figure if I post about it it’ll give me more motivation and also put pics here so I’ll have room on my phone again.
Not a quick project/aiming for 6-months
Any way I recieved a pitted/rusted/dented bad tank. From sledcrazy(thanks it’ll be great for this)This tank will never see gas again, but is needed for the outside shape. My plan is use 2-part plastic and while it’s semi set up in a sheet wrap the tank topside and let plastic set up hard. Then do same with underside and then seam weld the parts when converted to alum with sand molds I will make from the plastic. Well that’s the plan......
Plastic needs to be atleast 5mm thick so molten alum will fill.
Should be a fun project. Well, maybe
Pics coming but not really interesting yet

This is what I’m starting with/ I had a before pic but it vanished, oh well
Also could be a couple wks before I update this again, hopefully sooner
I’m out of good headlight shell plastic but have a gallon of another type that I need to use up before it goes bad for this project.
Edit-
Hopefully pieces like the one in my hand “still formable” but larger will form around the tank then set up. This pic is just a trial piece-
Shep

[Shep1970]

My son aj’s “side” project for his summer job at his tech school, working w/his shop teacher he helps to run a kids summer camp, (paying job) and come September he will get some extra credit for this. My son did everything except pour alum and light the foundry.
I guess these two pieces make scrolling? If that’s the term. The younger camp kids make butterflies and things out of them but the school only had one set and took a while to do them, couldn’t get new ones they’ve been on backorder so I’ve been told.
Anyway here’s some pics-
I used black paint on one thin mold sand section to hold an 1/8 inch edge together “it worked” after drying
Thanks for looking, oh I just though the #3 in flames was just kinda cool
Shep

[Shep1970]

“Attempting” to cast the 1”-1/2 outer side head cases out of aluminum today. For sides of elec bike) Should be interesting! I still have to clay up the deep fins so there more shallow. Just doing half molds so there’s no pressure to fill up deep fin sections (I think)

When I’m done it’ll make more sense why I’m doing this....

Shep
Prob be a couple hours for “any results”


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Joseph Farrow]

Cant wait to see results. IF this works I may have a project for you.

[Shep1970]

Well I think a little clean up it went good.
Couple small blowouts- that’ll clean up

Tuesday (rain pending) for the other side + the stator cover
3lbs of alum today





Still gotta clean off the charcoal(burnt sand)

Edit: done, not perfect but a quick pour is what I did and that’s what I got. Looks great from 3 feet away, it’ll be fine.
Now I do have to paint it too, the bare alum would like oxidize and be dull within the yr.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Shep

More casting on hold- raining for two days

[Shep1970]

Other side of the head done, spark plug area did not go as planned but I’ll smooth that area off. Plug area is deep and no matter what I tried the sand failed there, maybe it’s time I refresh the sand (get new)
Anyway here’s pics
Thanks for lookin’





Shep


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Shep1970]

I tried a little white bronze (copper, manganese, zinc and lead mixture)
The melting pt is 1650f
Alum is 1200 ish.
White bronze looks like a brass color.
Been wanting to try a 200x cover for a little while, they are sooo thin, i think if i could add 2mm in thickness on the backside these would definetly be do-able someday in aluminum)
The metal just wouldnt flow so i'm just passing on some fail pics. Neat wall hanger though.








shep


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[big specht]

It looks like some of the oem ones out there now lol. But still didn’t turn out to bad for the first try the finish looks pretty smooth