Macaulay's Molds... Part I

[Jive-Bomber]

My buddy Ron had been telling me to come over and check out his hot rod stuff for a while. I knew he's got lots of gearhead goodies collected over the past 30 years like old speed catalogs, 50s car show programs, and vintage racing annuals. When I fi...

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[Toner283]

COOL! looking forward to more bigger pics.

[Jimmy B]

Wow!!!!!

[switchkid0]

I'm really looking forward to seeing more pics. And for some reason, I feel the urge to buy some shoes... Damn that not-so-subliminal advertising.

[harrington]

Thats way cool......

[jakespeed63]

Hey Jive Bomber, thanks so much for sharing. As a youngster, growing up in Cleveland, my Dad took me to many machine shops and "specialty pattern shops". Granted they may have been making patterns for a Hoover vacuum cleaner, but it was no less amazing to see this block of wood, that was created to make a part. Still some of these floating around his workshop. Don't think there are any pattern shops left in Cleveland. What a lost art.
JT

[boldventure]

Thank goodness that stuff was saved!
Casting patterns made to "old fashioned way" are really beautiful example of true functional ART!
Back in the late '60's I had the opportunity to spend some time in the pattern shop at the Chevrolet Tonawanda engine foundry. One of the pattern-makers showed me the dusty patterns for an experimental set of tuned long tube 409 headers. The image is still clear in my mind... Wonder what ever happened to them...

[fur biscuit]

holy wow! right here in the bay.

[chop&drop]

As a point of clarification, what your buddy has are patterns and coreboxes, not molds. Patterns are used to make the molds and coreboxes are used to make the cores that create internal cavities in castings (the cores are set inside the mold before it is closed).

[Malcolm]

Wow... some really cool history there!!
Thanks, Jay!



Malcolm

[loudpedal]

AWESOME! I'd like to spend some time looking at those! You lucky dog!

[koth]

Thanks for sharing Jive Bomber, that is some cool stuff!

[boldventure]

This was on dispaly at Don Orosco shop when I toured with the Goodguys during speedweeks a couple of years ago.
Pretty cool if 'ya ask me...

[garysgun]

I am a retired wood patternmaker and that was a great find!! The good thing about this is you have the patterns and core boxes you can go in business making castings.
Just find a foundry that will break off from big production jobs to pour your castings.
I know of a place in town here in Muskegon, Mich. that will if there is nothing out
your way. I am sure you will need some repair on these old patterns etc. too.
Old hand made patterns from drawings with shrink and finish added are almost a thing of the past with all the CAD data and CNC machines of today. They are a thing of beauty to us gear heads. If you never use them clean them up and give them a coat of clear as they are a work of art. GM

[boldventure]

Originally Posted by garysgun

I am a retired wood patternmaker and that was a great find!! The good thing about this is you have the patterns and core boxes you can go in business making castings.
Just find a foundry that will break off from big production jobs to pour your castings.
I know of a place in town here in Muskegon, Mich. that will if there is nothing out
your way. I am sure you will need some repair on these old patterns etc. too.
Old hand made patterns from drawings with shrink and finish added are almost a thing of the past with all the CAD data and CNC machines of today. They are a thing of beauty to us gear heads. If you never use them clean them up and give them a coat of clear as they are a work of art. GM

I've only had a few short visits to any pattern shops so I'm going to take a risk and ask this question here. Once a pattern is ready for use how is it finished? Some of the examples I really seeing look as though they were treated with a glossy coating I would have called varnish. It seems to me the various binders used in casting sand would penetrate untreated wood.

[garysgun]

Originally Posted by boldventure

I've only had a few short visits to any pattern shops so I'm going to take a risk and ask this question here. Once a pattern is ready for use how is it finished? Some of the examples I really seeing look as though they were treated with a glossy coating I would have called varnish. It seems to me the various binders used in casting sand would penetrate untreated wood.

This is correct. The wood had to be sealed because the molding sand with a little bentonite clay has moisture in it to stick together. Old finishes were
orange peal shellac "Clear" and for the core prints you would mix lamp black powder into the shellac for a black color.

If you look above, in boldventures pictures, the cylinder block pattern has some dusting on the lower half of the pattern, this is a release agent so the sand would not stick to. Cleaning this off and giving it a coat of clear would not hurt the value of it as the top half had been cleaned off already.
We would use clear lacqure as it dried faster and was a tougher finish than shellac.
When I was an apprentice Patternmaker over 38 years ago, we cleaned out the garage and threw out many old patterns. I kept the Hudson Hornet
name plac and it is around here some place. The second run of Halibrand wheel models are probably still there along with the 1st patterns of the
Viper V-10 block which I helped make. That was sad as the engineers used the truck block and made it out of aluminum and did not beef it up at all.

[Hitchhiker]

So, when do these go into production?

[johnny bondo]

Originally Posted by Hitchhiker

So, when do these go into production?

yeah no kidding!


shit i know i wouldnt be able to control myself. id be out there with a box of green sand melting down some toyota blocks lol

[boldventure]

Originally Posted by garysgun

This is correct. The wood had to be sealed because the molding sand with a little bentonite clay has moisture in it to stick together. Old finishes were
orange peal shellac "Clear" and for the core prints you would mix lamp black powder into the shellac for a black color.

If you look above, in boldventures pictures, the cylinder block pattern has some dusting on the lower half of the pattern, this is a release agent so the sand would not stick to. Cleaning this off and giving it a coat of clear would not hurt the value of it as the top half had been cleaned off already.
We would use clear lacqure as it dried faster and was a tougher finish than shellac.
When I was an apprentice Patternmaker over 38 years ago, we cleaned out the garage and threw out many old patterns. I kept the Hudson Hornet
name plac and it is around here some place. The second run of Halibrand wheel models are probably still there along with the 1st patterns of the
Viper V-10 block which I helped make. That was sad as the engineers used the truck block and made it out of aluminum and did not beef it up at all.

Thanks for the reply!

[nvr2lo]

That is very cool. Saved some history, always a good thing.