weathers right casting agian

[david a luciani]

hi just a quick update.
i've had nearly a year of research and considering.
now the weather is finally good for hot metal things.

here's my first mold second casting.
the first casting a stuffer was nice and smooth but was short around the spru.
easy fix.
anyway this went in too "hot" so there's some gas issues.
i was admiring my neigbors new harley bike and the metal was really too hot to pour when i got back.
should've let it cool a touch more.

for what it is it'll probably clean up fine.
but before i send things out it'll have to be way smoother.
hopefully today will go even better.
dave

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[Michael Allman]

David ,I make jewery can help with the finish before cleanup. Give me a shout .

[david a luciani]

hi mike,
would love to talk.
i should warn you i was a art major in college with my speciality being jewelery and metal smithing.
i banged around a little while after school and ended that part of my life as a jewelery model maker for a few years.
was supervisor of my department before i got tired of the constant b.s.
finally quit because i make better money swinging a hammer.

on the casting today,

i made a vacumn box to help draw off the gas even though nobody said too on any forum or book i read.
just square plastic bucket with the shop vac hooked up to it and holes drilled in the top..
strong enough to make it really hard to remove the board i used to test the vacumn.
figured i try the vacumn casting as it works great with any other metal i've cast ,i couldn't see any harm.

also sifted the sand through a finer screen.
helped with detail.
still not great at making molds but have only done maybe 20-25 and cast maybe 15.
should get little better with practice.

anywho heres one of todays castings.

dave

[Michael Allman]

What's the largest piece are you going to cast.

[david a luciani]

haven't decided really.
anything you can imagine can and was sand cast.
for my purposes right now i'm aiming at parts i need like pullys stuffers, motormounts, exhaust headers ect ect.
as i have over fifty mccullochs that need these parts.
so i need alot and prices would kill me.
besides i like melting metal!!!!
dave

[david a luciani]

cleaned castings a little.
don't have the right tumble media right now.
will order it or get the cheap stuff from harbor freight.

stuffer seals good , not pretty enough yet.
for me it's fine i'll use it.
motor mount usable but not pretty.
i'm just gonna drill the top part and use it for displaying motor.

next step is to make the parts into actual models.
in order to allow machining to true flat surfaces i need to add a 1/8 inch on top and bottom of the mount.
on the stuffer i need to clean it up so there no flaws and blot the gem stamp.
will stamp or cast the date into anything i make to so theres no confusion with old stock.
dave

[Brian Thomas]

nice work
Brian

[david a luciani]

hi Brian,

just finished the machining on my match plate vibrator.
the casting wasn't perfect but usable with about two hours lathe work.
i should have just done another casting.
anyway it's a vital tool for match plate work and it's nearly done.
just need to find a 5/8 ball bearing somewhere.

i am going to try pullys this coming weekend .
they'd be real easy except i don't want to cut the v-slot on the lathe.
just ain't worth it.
have to make a baked sand mold for the v-slot and a model out of one of my pully's.
after i get a few nice ones for the mc91's i'll need a mc101 pully to copy and the other motor types to as i have none.

dave

[Bill Hermsted]

David-
I'm astonished and delighted that there is someone out there who can still do something like this from scratch! I've been in aircraft manufacturing most of my life, but sadly never had the chance to cast. I do know enough, though, to appreciate what you're doing. Hopefully there are some more like you who can actually design and make things. Our future might depend on this trait.
bill
P,S. Goodbye to the dreaded stuffer pinholes!

[david a luciani]

Hi Bill,

thanx for the kind words.
i do have a tiny bit of casting experience from my days as a jeweler and from school.
my metal smithing professor went to Cranbrook and they actually built a turry to do sandcasting with cast iron.
he also had a small melt pot for aluminum , so i was aware of the possibilities long ago.
just never had a reason to build one before.
also the university i went to had a professor there who was involved with inventing a studio version glass blowing furnace.
he showed one class how to make the furnaces when they wore out.
i missed that class but had Peter go over the basics with me.

needing many cast go kart parts and being cheap/poor i figured to copy what i need .
been a while since i started but i have to build the equipment before i can use it.
that's a big job i'm just finishing.

if you look around there are a few people learning sand casting again.
it used to be there were casting outfits everywhere as that's the easiest way to mass produce many parts.
they were usually less than twenty guy shops that had many shop made tools and the equipment often wasn't exactly safe to a civilians eye.
it was also a really dirty place since you are working with dirt heat and burned stuff.

at the same time the environmental wackos decided that the many small blast furnaces were a big part of the damage being done to the atmosphere.
the boneheads that owned the big foundries encouraged the EPA to pass laws that effectively killed the smaller outfits.
that was short sighted since they drew their best people from the smaller shops.
since much of what's done is shown to you not written the skills that were stockpiled for several hundred years were lost in our country.

i managed to get enough info from the web and books to make a start.
eventually i'll go to a small foundry or two and bug them for info.
dave