Hobby Metal Casting?

[rbattelle]

Anyone in here do their own metal casting at home? I just found this page and now I'm all excited to try it myself!



Man, I got too many hobbies. And most of them involve metal, electricity, and fire.



-Ryan

 

[rrausch]

I worked at an Aluminum foundry after High School for awhile. The owner ran it out of his garage! He bought used pistons by the trunk load (Car trunk).

Casting sand was just ordinary sand mixed with motor oil. He made all his own casting forms and cast a lot of Alum. furniture etc. He had a Nat'l Gas furnace to melt the pistons. It was a lot of fun when pouring time came--you definitely don't want to spill any of that molten alum. on your shoes!!!



I wanted to cast things from time to time, but just never got around to it. It ain't hard though--it's dangerous if you are not careful, but it's not rocket science.

 

[rbattelle]

There are instructions out there for building a forge that runs on used vegetable oil, which really cuts down on the costs associated with melting metals. I think I'm going to buy a book on the subject...



-Ryan

 

[jkalchik]

Take a look at http://www.honecksculptures.com

 

[Clifton]

I built my own foundry in the early 90's in my driveway. I only cast silicone bronze ( 2100 degrees). Aluminum is easier to cast in some respects( ABOUT 1100 DEGREES). The largest thing I cast was a life size mermaid. It was done in sections and welded together. IT is not that hard to build A crucible furnace. I have seen bronze melted in a furnace made from a garbage can using a leaf blower to supply air to the burner. I cannot stress saftey enough. DO NOT EVER HAVE MOLTEN METAL WHERE IT COULD SPILL ON CONCRETE!!!!! Put down a few inches of sand on top of any concrete. Check out this site for some good books on casting: http://www.lindsaybks.com/prod/index.html

 

[nickleinonen]

i did some aluminum casting when i was in highschool. we used all sorts of stuff for the aluminum, but mostly it was old aluminum electrical wire [high tension 0 & 00 gauge stuff]. pistons are a great idea, as long as you get the cheap plain cast ones [not the high silicon content hypereutectic ones. . ]



we used petrabond sand for the forms, but after it was used a few times, it wouldn't hold a shape properly, so we also did some "lost wax" casting, but used blue styrofoam unstead of wax

 

[rbattelle]

I bought a 20 lb. crucible on Ebay and ordered a beginners book on sand casting. When I learn to weld better I'll make myself a foundry operation!



-Ryan

 

[sdstriper]

I worked in an aluminum extrusion facility that cast logs too. EXTREME CAUTION should be used when casting. If water or moisture gets into molten metal casting process your talking bomb-like results. Deadly serious results so CYA. I did meet a friendly old scrapper couple that learned from this the hard way, they were lucky and lived with only serious burns.

 

[magothy1]

Yes my god on the water, we pour lead for bearings on the winches, and it's pretty scarey what a very little bit will do with molten lead. Think clean, think safe.