Casting Aluminum for the Home from a Simple 3D Print

this video will show my process of how i cast a simple wall hook out of aluminum using a 3d printed pattern the challenge will be doing this cast using a two-part mold this will mean that the part must be tapered on all sides after i smoothed the 3d print with a file i coated the surface with ca glue then the pattern could be sanded smooth and finished with polyurethane the final pattern looks great but i have a new unexplainable craving for black licorice the concept of tapered pattern or draft is something that escapes many people that are new to casting i decided to make a quick demonstration to illustrate this first this is an undercut i could not actually pull out this pattern without damaging the mold next is a pattern with zero draft this was more difficult than i thought it would be to pull this out of the sand this is a properly drafted pattern and it releases very easily even complicated forms release easily if there is a proper draft this is the profile of the wall hook from the mold's perspective the entire part is an undercut but all the faces taper in the direction of the axis of removal for this cast i am using sodium silicate sand the mix ratio is about three to four percent sodium silicate to find masonry sand by weight i chose this method so that i didn't have to worry much about venting cured sand is basically like a sugar cube here i have coated the pattern with mold release and then pure talc powder i have found that mold release works best for the removal and talc helps a little bit with the surface finish i'll start by forming the coat there is no need to ram the sand as i'm looking to take advantage of the porosity here i'll add the sprue striking off the mold gives a nice appearance and a flat surface when the mold is flipped sodium silicate cures in the presence of co2 i let this rest in the open air for a couple of hours once this is flipped i will allow the other half to cure for a couple hours talcum powder will keep the wet sand from sticking at the part line i place this lid over the screw to stop the sand from going down the hole and to serve as a small chamber to slow any turbulence during the pour the next morning i split the mold and remove the patterns wedges helped to release the mold line after all of that work i still had no idea if the pattern would actually release from the mold but with a couple of taps the pattern released perfectly i'll cut the runner in the drag it doesn't have to be large just enough to allow a decent flow even though the shortest distance between two points is a straight line a longer curved runner will help to clean the molten metal now to put the mold back together and fire up the foundry [Applause] i'll only be using propane for this melt the torch i built can use propane diesel kerosene vegetable oil or waste oil here i'm just adding some scrap to re-melt into ingots it's always better to have excess aluminum than just enough it can always be remelted after the aluminum is degassed i can scoop the slag off the top once the aluminum was up to temperature i grabbed the crucible with my pouring tongs this was allowed to cool overnight the difficult thing about casting with sodium silicate is removing the parts luckily it eventually dissolves in water here's the cast part fresh out of the sand [Music] i will need to cut off the sprue and runner and smooth the surface [Music] using a file i'll simply remove the texture and refine the surface i wet sanded the piece up to about 320 grit sandpaper [Music] one more next i needed to make the aluminum mount plate the paper patterns make the layout easy the aluminum plate is epoxied on using jb welt [Music] the wall hook came out even better than i'd hoped best of all it works great too you

Channel: Brian Oltrogge

Views: 1,127,120

Keywords: aluminum, casting, molten, metal, cast, wall hook, coat hook, foundry, torch, sand, pouring, pour, backyard, diy, 3d print, mold, pattern, aluminium, brian, oltrogge, grunblau, custom, fixtures, home made, homemade, modern, design, hungry snail

Id: 9AaujAPghhE

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 17 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Grunblau]

Felt good getting back into the foundry a couple weeks ago!

[u/muad_did]

wow! very very clean cast, im envy! and great voice! totally pro-voice-over! very clear!

[u/ndrefg]

What is that white sand mate? Good job!

[u/mr-highball]

Cool vid. Been working through my own workflow for 3D prints -> metal (sintering vs cast) if you'd like to take a peek https://youtu.be/iV8TFZsQQUw