Motorcycle Cylinder Sample

I had to escape Winter for a while. Since I’ve been back it hasn’t been above 0F. Next week looks better with temps near freezing so I’ll have a go at casting then. I did get the smaller pieces sprued and dipped.



Best,
Kelly

 

Finally, some decent weather…….and dry pavement! I got them cast up. They turned out well.



Here’s a video recapping the project.



Best,
Kelly

 

Looks good Kelly

 

Wow! Those fins are super thin.

Jeff

 

Thanks for the comments and likes guys. I was surprised to see the fins fill on the small ones. The patterns were so weak the .050"t fins stuck to themselves when I dip coated them until I clear out some slurry.

Have a look here.

http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?threads/lost-foam-dip-coating-rig-–-the-big-dipper.776/#post-20815

.....but you could probably get same/similar result with thinned non-setting dry wall joint compound.

http://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php?threads/dip-coating-polystyrene-foam.573/

Best,
Kelly

 

This was sort of an art of the possible experiment for making finned cylinders in lost foam. Pretty hard to beat air cooled engines for simplicity and light weight. Liquid cooled engines can be quite compact and promote better and more uniform cooling at the expense of some additional overhead, pump, radiator, sealing, hoses, etc, but lost foam can be a useful method for all the coolant coring without having to make all the core box tooling. Of course, you need to be able to fabricate the foam pattern. This was one of my very early experiments for engine water jackets:

Unsupported Closed Loose Sand Coring In Lost Foam | The Home Foundry

I have made many, many, process improvements since then, and gained a lot of experience in how to support such cored features.

Best,
Kelly