I am new to lost foam casting and have been reading a lot. Thank you all for the wealth of information!! I am about to attempt my first lost foam cast and want to know if the gating is reasonable. This is an open rectangular box (eventually it will be for and air filter). Does the sprue and runner design make sense?Solid Top.PNG
The drawing isn't the best. The wall thickness is 1/4", the box is 20 3/4" long, 14" wide, 2 3/8" deep. this will be cast with A356.
Looks like the runner/gates (sometimes it's hard to discern between the two in LF casting) are 1.25" square. I think they could be 1.25"tall x .5" wide, both fed by a 1.25" square sprue. Also, skinny down the width of the runners/gates where it contacts the pattern with a chamfer or ball nose bit. It will make degating and clean up easier. I poured my last intake manifold with a feedsystem that size, and it was 1.5x-2x the size pour as yours. A carbide blade on a table saw with a little grinders grease or wax for lube works amazing well for degating especially if you can set the fence to do the job......just use common sense and be careful. Best, Kelly
I've cut aluminum that way many times, I'll add one cautionary note, the aluminum chips produced are NASTY, so appropriate PPE (especially eye protection) is essential.