Gun parts from steel

Discussion in 'Lost PLA casting' started by Jeff Jefferson, Sep 12, 2020.

  1. Hello!!

    I am new here. And i am wondering if any of you have tried casting black powder gun parts/ normal gun parts yet.

    I would be really easy to just cast PLA 3D printed parts.

    I have the prints of this website: https://www.assra.com/Archivelibrary.htm

    Its single shot rifles. And i am looking at the Winchester High Wall 1886 rifle, as a concept.

    I havent 3D drawn the files completely yet. But a few evenings will get it done im sure.

    What actually made me look into casting is this file "M16 trigger" [​IMG]https://ibb.co/PGMGbqt (Its only there for a month..)

    And this video convinced me:



    You can make guns, and gunparts with casting. The thing is. What is the right approach? What plastics are the best? What mould material is the best? Ive seen jewlers investment powder where is vacuum needed when pouring. Ive seen boxes with sand, where the pour is performed. Ive seen hard sanded shell methods.

    The sanded slurry method seems to be the easiest. You slurry and sand your parts enough times. Burn out the plastic, and you pour with hot slag skimmed steel, and thats it.... But would it have good enough "resolution"?

    And i dont know what is a good method to heat the steel to the right temperature.

    Gas, induction??
     
  2. Petee716

    Petee716 Gold Banner Member

    Welcome to the forum. Theres only one guy here that I know of who has successfully melted steel in a home shop and with all due respect to him and his work, I would not use it in a firearm. One thing you may notice from the linked video is that everyone involved in those castings is an expert, not a hobbyist in the bunch. We're in organ donor territory here. I would save this idea for a later date. I'm not speaking for anyone else here and I hate to be anything but encouraging, but some things are better left to the pros.

    Pete
     
  3. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Uh yeah, that's not happening anytime soon for you!:rolleyes:
     
  4. Melterskelter

    Melterskelter Gold Banner Member

    Investment casting steel has been done for many years. I bought investment cast steel lugs to make a steel bike frame 30 or more years ago. They were a thing of beauty. But casting steel is an endeavor with a very high learning curve. Doing it on a hobby basis would require serious investment of time and likely money as well.

    Here is a video of investment casting steel done on a relatively small scale without controlled atmosphere in a fuel-fired furnace and without centrifuges. Still look at the coordinated effort between the burnout oven and the furnace. Who knows how long it would take to get the formula right considering making investments, burning them out properly, producing correctly alloyed steel, not having it crack in cooling, etc. I think someone going down that road will be spending a lot of time figuring it all out and better be prepared for a long road of disappointment before experiencing success.



    Like a lot of things, it can be done, but not easily.

    Denis
     
  5. TRYPHON974

    TRYPHON974 Copper

    If you really want to cast your parts, why not use brass? Maybe not the most obvious choice for a gun but brass is in the reach of a hobbyist metal caster. It's easy to machine and it is a decent material for guns.
    Here's my "Lefaucheux", a gun made out of brass around 1870.
    lefaucheux.JPG
     
  6. Hi Denis, judging by the cables going into the side of the furnaces, the electrical panels behind them and the high pitched whistle, I'd say they are induction furnaces which would go a long way to avoiding extra carbon in the melt. Certainly the sort of stuff that would be difficult for an amateur to get hold of.
     
  7. Melterskelter

    Melterskelter Gold Banner Member

    OOOOPS. My mistake on the furnace. It does look like an induction furnace.

    I do think that trying to go for investment casting steel on a very small occasional basis is extremely impractical. The company in the video is making parts in quantity on a daily basis justifying the expense and technical difficulties of learning the process and then actually setting up and running the foundry.

    Denis
    Denis
     
  8. Fulmen

    Fulmen Silver

    Yeah, casting high-stress parts should be left to the professionals. That said I do plan on casting a small bronze cannon. Mainly for salutes, but I know myself enough to know it will be fired with a projectiles at some point.
     
    Jason and Tobho Mott like this.
  9. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I prefer to purchase my firearms. Ya gotta know when ya just don't have the skills, equipment, time or money to do some things 100% correctly. This is one of those.
     
  10. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    I've thought about casting a 1911 frame lost pla style many times, and even printed it out a couple of times checking things over. But casting steel in a home foundry setting is improbable, maybe in cupro or bronze or some other non ferris alloy??
     
  11. TRYPHON974

    TRYPHON974 Copper

    ... Bronze, not brass...
     
  12. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Easy to confuse the two. I doubt you wanna light up on that thing with a tig torch to know for sure.:eek::D
     
  13. TRYPHON974

    TRYPHON974 Copper

    You're right I prefer live with my doubts:)
     
  14. As DavidF said, you may want to consider using some non-ferris alloy. Not sure if you keep up with the 3d printed gun community but the are making some pretty effective parts just out of plastic, of course most metals are stronger than 3d printed plastic. People are finding that most gun parts do not need to be as strong as once believed, that being said there are a handful of parts that must be steel for safety (the barrel and breech.) But for the most part you can make the other parts. You may want to look into old school gun metal, it is 88 percent copper, 10 percent tin, and 2 percent zinc. Please share your progress of making various parts I would love to see, I also make my own guns!
     

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