Not-a-number

Cheers. I do want to make a few more. But doing it in the garage is really limiting and makes it a lot harder than it needs to be. I need to figure out a better way. The best way would be to re design the patterns so that the foundry could easily handle them. Then I take them there and do it all. At the moment they are not very user friendly. I think I will weld this one up and make it usable because really all its doing is holding oil. I can re use the patterns to make new cores/moulds (on the patterns that I didnt break!). The cores are the inner bits and the moulds are the ou

Well it didnt 100% work. But it could definitely be fixed with a welder! It didnt fill fast enough and there wasnt enough pressure. So they had to frantically fill from one of the riser holes to try save it. In doing that there is a big section of cold lap and a big hole! So the changes would be to have 2 filling sprues in the middle of the casting. Then increase the head pressure a little bit. The bowl I had in the sprue was way too big and reduced the head pressure. For the most part it looks pretty good. All the finer details are there. No cores collapsed or shifted, no shrin

Finished and loaded up. Probably the most expensive and elaborate way to lower an El Camino! Looks like we'll see how good these bump stops are!

Got it down without dropping it or injuring myself! Been a productive weekend. Just need to add some walls and pack some extra sand around the areas im worried about. Then will be good to go to the foundry!

All assembled. Quite a mission. Not my best work but I'm learning a lot. Total is about 380kg. Now I need to make a pallet and tie it all together well enough so that when it’s tipped over to horizontal it doesn’t shift around.

All the bits ready to go together.

Got the small cores made and bonded in. Will try not to break them off when installing the main core.

Runner mould done. Was being a bit too fast and didnt mix the sand as well as I should have. Really soft section at one end. This wouldnt be good because it would erode like crazing and send sand through the fill. Managed to cut it out and repair it. Hopefully it doesnt leak.

Partitions assemble like this. They look overly complicated but once the rods are fixed in place with sand its tricky to remove the walls so need them to split up.

Got the runner and other small moulds sprayed with the same stuff. Way easier/quicker than using wax release! . This will save me a ton of time going forward. The runner is 110kg so its going to be in 3 pieces. Just finished printing some partitions. These are the jobs this printer is made for! Instead of spending hours making something from wood I can spend 30 mins on the computer and then its done by the morning!

That worked quite well. Used a different mould release, sand just fell out of the pattern. Rods are holding it together well by the looks.

Filling the inner core next. Its about 75kg so cant fill in one go. Going with a partition again but Im going to tie it together a bit better. I think a few threaded rods should work and Ive put some deeper keys in the partition wall/plate. It also needs some lift points so ill put some eye-nuts lifting off the threaded rod. This is where the part goes. Suspended in the middle of the main mould.

Now I need to drill riser and vent holes in it. Make the big inner core, big runner system and 2 small cores. Fit it all together. Decide if im going to bolt it all together or not. Im concerned its not going to get enough pressure in the top of the pattern where the thin fins are. So im going to add some extra bits which is going to take some mucking around. Then see if the El Camino can carry it (pretty sure it cant!)

Got it flipped over without too much drama. Then removing the pattern was a lot of drama! Took a whole day of slowly wiggling it out with pullers. Usually you pack the sand and 10minutes later pull it from the pattern when its still a little soft. With it sitting for days it was as dense as rock so I had a hell of a time. Came out ok enough. A few cracks and damages to the sand and a few to the pattern!

Got the rest filled up. We're at 170kg! . Thats a lot of mixing. Now need to figure out how to turn it over without dropping it!