I didnt realize this morning when I set out to cast up a car club plate for my car with the intention of posting it tonight that there would already be a post on aluminum casting today. So I hope this doesnt make for too much casting porn for one day. I will keep mine real short and just show a couple photos of right after the pour and then a finished shot. Nice post Johnny Boy by the way. The purpose of this pour was to create a club plate that honors the former State highway 50 that runs past my place. It was probably one of the shortest state highways in Iowa, starting at Highway 169 and ending about 10 miles later at the end of main street in Lehigh. I have the original highway 50 sign, that used to grace the road on main street, hanging in my garage. I said former because a few years ago the state gave up rights to the highway and turned it over to the county and old Highway 50 was no more. So this is my Hi-Way 50 Fords plate I have been wanting to do for quite a while and I wanted it on my car for the Iron Invasion show. Shortly after the pour Finished and on the car, finally got my HAMB topper installed also Smokey
Thanks to all IowaMercMan -- I used aluminum for this plate. Pewter could have been used but would have been costly. Also in this case, aluminum would be much harder and hold up alot better. Smokey
Gosh, remember when we used to make those in high school shop class. You'd make the pattern, ram up the flask, pour the metal and smile when broke open the mold. Another popular item was 1932 headlite stanchions. But, those days are gone, for the most part.
I dont know about you but I'm hooked now, the amount of time spent to get to that point and you break open the mold the pour is successful is kick ass to say the least. Great job Smokey and see ya at the Invasion! Hey look for the U Boat!
FFFFrank The pattern for the plate was made from mdf. The main reason for this is its cheap and easy to work with. I coated it with about five coats of polyurethane. It builds up in the corners and gives them a radius to make it pull out of the sand better. I then coat it with spray on slip-plate, a graphite spray paint that farmers use to coat augers and wagon slides and such. Works great with talc parting dust for good release from the sand. Johnny Boy Yes very addictive. Especially when you start thinking about all the things you want to make. My motto has become why buy a part for $10 when you can make it yourself for $20 . Nice car, that will be easy to spot. Look forward to talking with ya this weekend. Smokey
So how do you make the MDF plate? I just so happen to have a shop full of laser cutting/engraving equipment so I could make these mold plates all day. Unfortunately, they don't work super well with MDF but there are plenty of other materials that I'm sure would work.
There's a side job for you, I'd bet you would get a ton of request's I for one have acouple of things in mind.
**So how do you make the MDF plate?** Yea, I should have explained that. I use a couple of different methods. One is to use a router and I like to use a little formica (hard laminate) trimmer. It is small , very powerful, and easy to control. Another method I use is to just build up in layers. Both methods would have worked on this particular project, but I used the router. The inside of the plate was cut .100 deep and the outside surrounding the plate was cut .300 deep. This gives you a match plate type of affair, meaning the pattern is attached to a substrate which aids in the alignment of the pattern to the casting flask. As I mentioned in the previous post, several coats of polyurethane builds up around the details and you can get by without purposely putting any draft angle on the walls of the features. Like if you were to use a router bit with a 5 degree angle so you can extract it out of your molding sand. Helpful or too much mindless rambling? **There's a side job for you, I'd bet you would get a ton of request's I for one have acouple of things in mind.** I do requests from time to time. Its usually when I can find spare time and if its different enough to be interesting. I do find the whole casting process a blast and fun to combine it with other processes. I located these from a few years ago here on the Hamb and they might be of some interest and another way to make a casting pattern. Part 1 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48504 Part 2 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=48868 Part 3 http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=49040 Smokey
Met Smokey at the invasion and had a great conversation about pouring your own! Really great dude and wish I had more time to talk, maybe next year at the Invasion or at Vintage Torque Fest?
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