Casting an Intake manifold

[SOHC]

Made this cast intake manafold adaptor a wile ago for an old ford, made the mold from roofing silicone and plaster, then slip cast the wax mold and did the fire proof mold around that using plaster and molochite mix, used beer cans old pistons and one of those aluminium security grills for the aluminium.

 

Cast a few stupid shifter knobs and shit to

 

 

 

 

[flyingbrick]

That's so cool!! Does any paint or impurities in the aluminum just float on top?

[Llama]

Sweeeeeeet. What do you do your melting with/in? I'm looking at getting a crucible made for my induction furnace when the bits arrive from from the states

[SOHC]

That's so cool!! Does any paint or impurities in the aluminum just float on top?

 

Yes it all goes to the top, then you scoop it off with with a piece of flat bar,

[SOHC]

Sweeeeeeet. What do you do your melting with/in? I'm looking at getting a crucible made for my induction furnace when the bits arrive from from the states

 

 

I have a home made furnace and home made LPG burner, my crucible is steel pipe, I would be keen to see your induction furnace

[SOHC]

thats me pouring the manifolds

[cletus]

awesome. burt munroe spec DIY

[Llama]

I'll be sure to put up a thread when I get it going. The prototype will be a little one, probably for jewelry size casting and brazing. But if the design works, I'll get some bigger capacitors and probably try for three phase. 

[Ned]

Me and slacker.cam have been planning the same thing haha. Might have to pick your brain about a couple bits and pieces one day

[snapper]

thats me poring the manafolds

seriously awesome - total shed-spec foundry.  was the mould outside to make alu ingots?

[SOHC]

Yes its a piece of angle iron I made an ingot mold out of, I hold it over the flame to pre heat it, or it will spit the motlen metal in your face.

 

Been doing alot of bronze casting but want to do some cast iron, my home made naturally aspirated burner just isn't hot enough, going to make an oil burner.

 

 

 

[Llama]

Then you can burn all the free waste oil you can get Going to be a babbitt oil burner?

[SOHC]

Then you can burn all the free waste oil you can get Going to be a babbitt oil burner?

 

 

it would have to be the oil from the Chinese takeaway or diesel. Babbitt burner? it would be made from steel and refractory cement

[Steelies]

awesome! keen to know more about how you cast something with a hole through it, not sure i really understand the process.

[Ned]

Looking at the video, they look like 1 use plaster moulds, so 1 way of doing it is you make the part out of something that can melt/burn (like PLA from a 3d printer) and cast it in some plaster. Then you burn out the part by putting it in your forge/furnace, which leaves a nice hollow complex part you can then cast.

You can also make a 2 part mould for that and put a plug in. So you make a solid version of the part, pack the mould in around it, split it and make a plug out of some sand etc to hang in the middle of it to create your hole. No idea if that makes sense lol.

How are you finding shrinkage? Quite keen to see how much you're getting on various parts. 3% seems to be a good rule of thumb, but i've obviously never done any casting myself so keen to hear from someone that has actually done so

EDIT;

just watch this;

and this

[Llama]

it would have to be the oil from the Chinese takeaway or diesel. Babbitt burner? it would be made from steel and refractory cement

 

Sorry, meant babington burner. Essentially uses compressed air to atomise a fuel flim flowing over a small hole

[Steelies]

ah wicked. seems to be a lot of craftiness involved. damn now i want to try haha

[SOHC]

Looking at the video, they look like 1 use plaster moulds, so 1 way of doing it is you make the part out of something that can melt/burn (like PLA from a 3d printer) and cast it in some plaster. Then you burn out the part by putting it in your forge/furnace, which leaves a nice hollow complex part you can then cast.

You can also make a 2 part mould for that and put a plug in. So you make a solid version of the part, pack the mould in around it, split it and make a plug out of some sand etc to hang in the middle of it to create your hole. No idea if that makes sense lol.

How are you finding shrinkage? Quite keen to see how much you're getting on various parts. 3% seems to be a good rule of thumb, but i've obviously never done any casting myself so keen to hear from someone that has actually done so

EDIT;

just watch this;

and this

yes the shrinkage was about 3% it shrank about 3 mm, the places it mattered i built up with wax,  I am doing my molds lostwax style, it has a core. some times I have to use rods to support the core.

 

I have to fire the molds in a 44gal drum lined with kawool for about 5 days at 800 degrees c, witch uses nealy a full 45 KG LPG cylinder.

[SOHC]

I recommend this website for ideas  http://backyardmetalcasting.com/

[Ned]

I havent looked much at lost wax, but 5 days at 800c? wow! That second video i posted shows the dude melting out foam and PLA using his furnace at 1000 deg in a pretty short time. Didnt realise lost wax would take that long...

Quite keen to start my own casting soon. Just keen to do brackets etc for mounting super charger and things like that. Nothing too complicated (famous last words haha)

Where in NZ do you get your supplies from? and what did you use to make your furnace etc? I havent looked into where to get all the bits and pieces from in NZ to make the furnace and where to get the same etc. Also, how are you making up your plaster? I'm probably going to do a lot of lost PLA 3D printed parts as i'm too lazy/not skilled enough to make sweet mock up parts 3% bigger than they need to be so 3d printing seems like the easiest solution