G'day from Col.
Welcome if you are a new ezine subscriber, I hope you can manage to learn something from the articles and other stuff we provide in this months ezine, just remember that metal casting is mainly learnt by doing, and if you want to have a go at it, you'll have to hop down off the fence and make that all important start. Metal casting being the small niche that it is, probably means you wont find anyone living close by to share your ideas and projects with.

But, on a global scale there are many thousands of people doing their own hobby metal casting, as mentioned in previous ezines, the number of people from non-English speaking countries who have accessed our ebooks has been incredible. We currently have many new customers throughout Europe and the Middle East.

I think it's great to see so many people have a go at something and make a success of it, over the past couple of years I have seen some fantastic metal casting work produced by people using very basic hobby foundry set ups, it's not how fancy your tools are, it's the way you learn to use them that makes the difference. 

This months feature article is provided by your's truly (me), so I hope I don't bore you too much, but I am going to share my latest project with you, just to prove, that yes, I do actually cast metal, and don't sit at the computer all day figuring out ways to sell more ebooks... but crikey, a blokes got to have some kind of reward for the all work he puts into this ezine, wouldn't you agree?

And as I write, no doubt you would have heard by now that Steve Irwin, the famous aussie Crocodile Hunter has died from a Stingray attack while filming near a reef in North Queensland, Steve was a true blue aussie and passionate about nature and animals, he will be missed by everyone who grew to love him, hopefully his beautiful American wife Terri will be able to carry on his work. Steve leaves behind his wonderful wife & children, daughter Bindi & son Bob, people from around the world have poured their emotions out in disbelief at the tragic loss. This tragic incident really brings home just how fickle life can be, you just never know when things like that are going to happen.

And over the weekend motor sport fans in OZ were stunned by the death of Peter Brock while competing in a closed targa road event in Western Australia, motor sport may never be quite the same again in this country. Brockie as he was known, won the famous Bathurst 1000 race nine times, he was a legend and will be missed, we send our our condolences to the Brock family.  

On a much lighter note, have you had success with any of your projects lately? I guess it depends on what you want to achieve with your casting work. If you just want to melt for the fun of it, you don't have to be too specific about what you want to do. But if you are trying to reproduce some kind of machine or vintage repro part, then you need to work more carefully and make sure that what you are making will do the job, especially if machining is involved.

When starting out in metal casting, a lot of people want to know how to set up a hobby foundry without spending much money, well you can, if you are resourceful and you have general metal working skills, such as welding, machining etc, and you have a reasonably equipped workshop which you can use to build the gear as you require it, a well equiped workshop will save a lot of money over time. Woodworking skills will be no burden to carry also, as this will come in handy when making your timber patterns.

The project I am about to show you has been carried out in a very simple and straight forward hobby foundry set up, the moulding medium was green sand, the melting done in a home built gas fired furnace, the patterns were made using basic techniques and tools, all quite simple really, anything is possible when you set your mind to it.

You don't have to have a degree in metallurgy, or engineering to do hobby metal casting, hell no, but you do have to read - learn & practice before you become proficient at it.

Ok, on with the show as they say, below you will find a selection of photos taken throughout the project, I can't put them all in (about 28) as space wont allow it, so just read through the article and refer to certain images when required.

Build Your Own Metal Rolling  Machine..
Sometimes, you just have to roll your own, we are talking about sheet metal here. If you are building a furnace or some other kind of project, you'll want to roll some sheet metal sooner or later. You can build a machine for a fraction of the cost of a commercial unit. It is a worthwhile machine to have in your workshop. If you want to build a sheet metal project, then click here to learn more.

Spin Metal Casting.
What is spin casting? It is the process of pouring molten metal into a revolving mould. All kinds of things can be made with this process, spin casting may be something you would like to do. Click Here to learn about this fascinating casting method.

Sponsor Message.
If you are new to this ezine you may not be actually casting metal yet, but you'll be thinking about it I'm sure, you'll be thinking and planning how to go about it.
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Everything you need to set up your mini foundry.

    Marshall Nordec Blower Project.

         
IImage:1 Kauri pine planks which have been glued together as a block ready for turning, the thin timber strips will be used for the ribs & the MDF craftwood for the base.

          
          
Image 2. Measuring the nose peice, timber was turned on a normal metal work lathe, timber workpeice was held and centred in the four jaw chuck and tail stock centre.     

          
           
Image 3.The base and nose piece have been machined, fitted and held together with a short centre dowell. The taper of both peices had to blend perfectly together. The turned/tapered base was then cut off and prepared for the next stage.

        
            
Image 4.The base and nose piece have been glued together. A wood chuck was turned and bored to the same taper to hold the pattern, the wood chuck is mounted in the four-jaw chuck. The pattern can be quickly inserted or removed from the wood chuck using a length of dowell inserted through the hollow lathe spindle, a witness mark on the chuck and work piece ensures that the pattern is placed back in the same spot.          ers and bronze tappets.

        
          
Image 5.The original alloy casting and the shellac coated  repro pattern, extension on top provides the core print in the sand mould. allowance has been made for machining top and bottom.

       
          
 Image 6. Commercial baked sand cores, the larger collar was glued in place with core glue.

   
           
 Image 7. Lost foam ingate leading from sprue to pattern.         

    
        
 Image 8. Sand moulding drag box completed, sprue, feeders and core print in place ready for parting dust, and final moulding step.

    
            
 Image 9. Alloy blower casting, straight out of the sand mould, notice the ingate formed from the lost foam.            

Project: To Reproduce Drive Housing For Marshall Nordec Super Charger.

At the end of May this year I was approached by an interstate gent here in OZ, to reproduce the nose piece drive housing of a vintage blower housing, at the time I knew very little of these old 1950s superchargers. An original aluminium housing was left with me to begin the process of remanufacturing the part, if you look at the first image above you will see the pieces of timber I had prepared to begin making the pattern. Lost foam was out of the question here as we were required to reproduce ten housings. So with some careful measurements taken from the original casting supplied, the pattern making process was begun.

I am not a trained pattern maker (I wish I was) my only experience with patterns, was when making some small two part patterns, which were mounted on a pattern board along with the gates, and runners, which allow sand moulds to be quickly rammed up at any time. The blower housing could not be made as a two-part pattern because of the four strengthening ribs arranged around the housing. So a one-piece pattern was the order of the day. The moulding & casting method was changed a couple of times during the project. Image No 1, above shows the timber pieces used to make up the pattern. The blocks were joined with woodwork PVA glue, then clamped in the press, and allowed to set over night. Next morning the centres were marked and centre drilled ready for the turning operation.

The turning of the pattern was done in a normal metal working lathe, full use was made of the three jaw, four jaw and faceplate as various parts were made. Image No 2. Shows the nose part of the housing being machined, callipers were used to check the diameter during the process, I don’t worry about having a separate wood lathe and metalwork lathe, it is just as quick to do it all on the one machine.

Image No 3. Machining accuracy was called for here, the two parts had to mate perfectly other wise the edges would snag in the green sand during the moulding session and would create problems when removing the pattern, and we certainly don’t want that. A central dowel held the parts together.
Image No 4.  One of the most useful tools I made for this project was the simple wood chuck, this device was made from scrap timber blocks glued together and mounted in the four jaw chuck and machined to hold the pattern, all you need to do is match the pattern taper which is easy enough to do on the lathe. If a soft wood like pine is used the woodchuck will grip the pattern firm enough to do any machining required. Image No 5.  This image show's the original casting plus the finished pattern, the time spent on the pattern was about eight hours, it seemed longer, but there is an awful lot of fiddling, checking, and yes lots of thinking to do.

Image No 6. Commercial baked sand cores were used to create a hollow inside the casting, the cores are quite cheap to buy and it is not worth the hassle of making them yourself, they are very strong and handle quite well, in fact I accidentally dropped one on the floor, it broke in two, so I simply glued it back together and used it again. The cores smell of formaldehyde after the metal has been poured.
Image No 7. During the first trial run of moulding and casting, the decision was made to top feed the casting, unfortunately this was the wrong way to feed the metal, and so a bottom feed was chosen. A three part moulding box was used, and a solid piece of timber could not be used right at the bottom of the sprue to create the ingate in to the cavity, so the lost foam technique was adopted and it proved to be the right method to use. The photo show's the bottom of the sand mould with the lost foam ingate placed in the sand, the green sand was then rammed over the top to finish the mould, the box was then rolled over.

Image No 8. This shot shows the top part of the sprue attached to the bottom section, (because of the moulding method, the sprue had to be in two parts.) The feeders are in place, as well as the core print, which is a loose piece is slipped into the hole in centre of the pattern. The cope is then placed on top and the sand is carefully rammed into place, once that is all finished, the box is rapped and carefully removed, the down sprue is lifted and the feeders are removed, the pattern is rapped and then removed, any sand particles are gently blown out of the mould cavity, and a final check is made before placing the cope back on the drag. Image No 9. Unfortunately I don’t have pictures of the pour (one can only do one thing at a time while casting) but this is the completed casting, it weighs just under 3Kg with the feeders and risers attached.

This has been an interesting project, ten castings were made, and then they were sent to the heat treatment plant, returned and then sent of to the customer. All of this work has been achieved using the same foundry equipment outlined and described in our ebooks, so if you put your mind to it, quite a bit can be achieved by using proven foundry methods with simple equipment and techniques. Have you got something in mind that you would like to cast in metal? You can do it if you want to. Your journey could start here.    

Incredible Ancient Lost Wax Gold Casting.

A 2200-year-old treasure trove of gold jewellery has been unearthed from a Thracian burial mound on Bulgaria's Black Sea coast. Daniela Agre said her team found dozens of tiny jewellery pieces in the tomb of a woman, most likely a Thracian priestess, near the resort of  Sinemorets, about 500km southeast of the capital.

The discovery included two earrings crafted like miniature chariots, and parts of gold necklaces, one decorated with a sculpture of a bull's head.

The artefacts were unearthed in August during urgent recovery works at the mound, which was half destroyed, allegedly by a local hotelier who thought it an ugly sight for tourists.

Rapid Prototyping consists of many different technologies and processes, all with the same aim, to produce real physical models of your design in the fastest possible way.
http://www.solid-concepts.com.au/index.asp
 

Harley-Davidson to buy Australian wheel supplier.
Did you know that the alloy wheels on HD motorcycles has been made in OZ for many years?
Read all about it here.
http://www.duluthsuperior.com/mld/duluthsuperior/news/politics/15389227.htm