Projects Home foundry and award pour

Hey all, I have been encouraged by my club mates (the Twisted Pistons) from the mid west to post up a project that may have been covered on the HAMB but I figured I'd throw down my pics, videos and all around experience from start to finish with a "home" or "Back yard" foundry.

I got interested in doing this thru some very cool videos from Youtube and the net. When we started our club in early 2012 we were throwing a ton of ideas around and one was drag plates for our cars, in researching the plates on the net I ran into some guys that were pouring their own drag plates and that just struck a cord in me that has not quit since then (just ask my wife).

In particular this web site that really inspired me to make my own backyard foundry.
http://www.hotroddisorder.com/p/v8ers-car-club-plaque-from-conception.html
thanks AJ.

I also watched a ton of videos on youtube and got on to a really informative site called Alloyavenue http://www.alloyavenue.com/vb/forum.php where the alloy geeks abound with knowledge! This is where I truly learned how to make a safer foundry, pack a drag and or cope, melt aluminum and pour safely without killing me and all my family and friends. I did a lot of reading, building and practising to get to this point and the finish products so far have been amazing to say the least. Me and my club mates have been talking about pouring our own drag plates so we'll see how that works out in the future.

Here is some of what I have done to this day so far:

I had to build the foundry or "pot" as some call it, It consists of a steel bucket, a clay glazed flower pot, some black pipe, cement (which I used the wrong stuff but it turned out OK) a blow dryer and some plastic hose.

This is the finished pot ready to get fired up for the first time.



My good friend "T" from the pistons welded me together a sweet crucible for smelting.



The crucible (albeit way cool) was to big for the foundry so I made an extension for the pot out of Perlite and refractory cement (the proper cement to use) If you use "Portland cement" which retains a ton of moisture this can happen when heating up the pot. As someone said "did I have to change my shorts after that?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BDjal-PHac&feature=g-upl

I remade the top with the perlite and the refractory cement combo.



The pot was finished and we were off to the races. This is the first non blow up heat up of the foundry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EOiS96SnSg&feature=g-upl

Next came the crucible heat up that went off without a hitch. This was the coolest part of the whole setup to this point, nothing like a good fire to make 3/8" steel red hot baby!



Now came the learning part of the process and it started with melting some aluminum. Ones again my club mate came to the rescue with some nice pieces of aluminum to melt down. I had an old cup cake tin to pour the ingots into after melting and drawing the slag from the molten metal!



One Friday night when my wife and Triplet 7 year old boyz were away from the house I decided to make the mold for the plaque and in about 5 hours I ended up with the piece that we are using for an award plaque. It is a combination of ideas from the Twisted Piston club members. This is one stage of the plaque mold build.



Here is the plaque mold and the drag that holds the mold material (called Petrobond) for the negative mold.



The petrobond which is the red mold material has to be "rammed" (another fancy word for packing real hard) into the cope over the mold that I built, this pic is of a very interested son of mine after a few practice runs with the petrobond. The 2 holes in the Petrobond are also practice runs for a "sprue" and a "vent hole." The sprue is where you pour the metal and the vent hole is for well......venting.



I was not without a ton of questions to ask and the geeks at Alloyavenue were more then happy to answer them and set me on the right course.

Its time to pour.

With all the things going on in my life including work, family and wanting this whole thing to work out right it goes without saying that the week leading up to the first pour I was a little nervous and just a bit stressed about what the outcome would be (this is very much not like me) but there was a lot of time invested and I wanted it to be better then expected.

Prep for something like this takes time and the foundry geeks told me in no uncertain terms to lay everything out for the pour and walk thru all your moves so as not to trip and fall with a 1320 degree crucible full of molten aluminum in your clutches! Club mates Keith and Wolfy came over to help out and also see just what this was about. They became a great help without even knowing.

Tools and pot at the ready.



Now for a few cigars and a libation or two while the aluminum melts in the foundry.

The foundry at full blast.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6FJU2o0e70&feature=g-upl



the video here is of this past Saturday when 6 of the Pistons along with one of the Blackwall and a couple other friends came together to witness the wonders of pouring an aluminum mold. Thanks Jeff for the video. Is a little dark at first but you will get the full affect after a few seconds.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzjXnzOKNQA&feature=plcp

And finally the breaking down of the mold itself after about an hour or so.
This is the payoff moment that is so cool and now has me hooked along with a few other guys I know. "Uncorking the award" as Jeff says, very cool!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3Gqp8SsO-g&feature=channel&list=UL

"Uncorking from the first pour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPDVpTUKFtc

Thanks to all that put up with my new little obsession, especially my wife Laura and my buddy's in the Twisted Pistons.

I will post pics of the finished awards soon, but for now I have to get ready for the Iron Invasion coming up on the 6th of October 2012 in Woodstock Illinois.........shameless plug but worth it!

 

Been a long time since someone posted backyard foundry threads,,I really enjoyed the post. HRP

 

Thanks for posting. I love this stuff. This is something I've wanted to do for years but haven't yet.

 

Saved it for my kid, shes into casting. Great post.

 

remember to post this again when Tech week rolls around again. HRP

 

oh yeah the vids turned out great,,, thanks for posting i feel like a celebrity

 

Awesome. Very cool to see.

 

Crude crucible seems to be holding up well. Wish i coulda been there but Wife and I went to Bombers show at Cordoba with some friends then hung out at the American Pickers store Sunday afternoon. No Doc........ Danelle was not there......and i didnt get to ask her where her tatoos stop.

 

Ha Ha!

T we will pour again soon If I have my way, Im thinking at the shop in Delavan! Perfect spot to hang!

 

like it

 

very cool

 

Awesome!

 

way cool!!!
cant way to see these in person!

 

Here's a pic of HAMBers JohnnyBoy, Big Vic and El Gringo contemplating the invention of fire.

 

Great job guys! Except Vic apparently got too close to the fire...where'd his goatee go?

 

I scored about 6 lbs of unpainted extruded aluminum for our next pour.We had scrap left over from job at work they said I could take home.

 

i was accused of making 9 fin vette V. Covers and
Hurst T-Handel's ....ONCE

 

Damn, we had the award plaques that we made pin striped and they looked outstanding but I never took pics of the awards before we handed them to the winners. Hot Rod Josh and Jeff if your out there and can post a pic on this thread that would complete this post for sure.

 

I want to give a huge thanks to the Twisted Pistons Car Club. I have been following this thread from the beginning. I love the idea of home casting and it is an honor to be the recipient of one of your plaques. Out of the hundreds of cars there I never had any idea mine would have been picked. I have to say this is my favorite award I have won with my car. Just the idea of how much fun you guys had making it is the best part.

Here are some pics of the major award:







Thanks again guys!!!!

 

right on josh!!! thanks for posting the last pic is awsum the sun finally came out

 

Now that is fucking cool...great job man!!!

 

Josh, so very cool of you to post the pics I am really very happy you got the award. Rock and roll man!

 

A great looking trophy for a worthwhile event and deserving hot rodder.

 

A fitting trophy for a supercharged flathead . Very nice.

 

Finally got the car cleaned up for a pic. Thanks Again for choosing my car im still in shock you picked my car over all the others there. My wife is moving things around so the plaque can be on display in the house. The work you guys went through to make these is awesome. It will be in good hands and well taken care of i really appreciate it Thanks Again Jeff

 

Congradulations....most deserving...trophy fucking rules.

 

Jeff, Thanks you for posting the pics in this thread, I guess the process is complete!

 

Great thread ... Love this kind of stuff!

 

Jeff, your car embodies ,in my opinion, what hotrodding is all about. It was more or less scrach built by you and your buddies in a two car garage. One of the criteria that we decided on was the winner was not going to be a shop car or a check writer. You drive it as much as you possibly can and you pound the shit out of it at the track. Any street driven car that runs 10s deservs a second look. There is way more engineering in that car then meets the eye. The award is well deserved, congrats.

 

Very cool! Lindsay Publications has a series of inexpensive books on the charcoal foundry, mold making, etc. Good info in case you want to cast an unusual part.