Chainsaw Cylinder & Head

Discussion in 'Lost foam casting' started by Al2O3, Feb 25, 2018.

  1. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Red97 likes this.
  2. Mister ED

    Mister ED Silver

    Kelly, The things you do in foam continue to amaze me.
     
  3. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    <--- grabs popcorn...:D
     
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  4. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Here’s a series of short videos on machining each of the piece parts.


    First off, the first two machining operations of upper portion of the cylinder



    1 Upper Cylinder.JPG






    Next machining the fins onto the same part


    2 Cylinder Fins.JPG



    Next up the cylinder head.



    3 Cylinder Head.JPG









    Next the cylinder base



    5 Cylinder Base.JPG





    Best,
    Kelly
     

    Attached Files:

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  5. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Next the intake and exhaust port tunnels

    6 Int-Exh Tunnel.JPG



    Now I didn’t take video but there is an operation that holds the cylinder at the entry angle for each intake and exhaust port while the cylinder is machined to receive each part. Here’s a picture of that fixture:

    7 Boring Int-Exh Tunnels.JPG

    …..and a group photo of most of the jigs.

    8 Group Foamies.JPG

    …..and finally a couple pictures of the assembly detailed up and ready to be sprued, coated and cast.

    9 Detailed.JPG


    10 Detailed.JPG

    Best,
    Kelly
     
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  6. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Thanks Mr. Ed. Sometimes necessity can be the mother of invention. It's decidedly low tech, and certainly some design compromises made for (my version of) the Lost Foam pattern making, but once some simple jigs are made, duplicate patterns come fairly easily. We'll see how these cast up. I may add some porting details on the batch of patterns in the videos.

    The original head is a pressure die cast part. The fins are very thin.......probably .040-050" at the tip. You could get more detail by printing PLA and investing it but still think you have to make some design changes to get it to cast.

    Best,
    Kelly
     
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  7. Red97

    Red97 Copper

    Thank you for taking the time to document the process.

    Those patterns are very nice and should do everything I need.

    Is the fillet material a wax product?
     
  8. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    You're welcome. Still gotta make'em metal pal but I think we'll get there.

    Yes. I use it sparingly for detailing fillets and joints that can't practically be machined into the foam. Without it, the pattern coating can penetrate the small gaps and the resulting hairline cracks at the interface will cast through making worse stress risers than just a sharp corner.

    Small embossments, part numbers etc are possible too.

    These are the smallest I can apply." Still needs a little clean up here and there.

    11 Fillets.JPG

    Best,
    Kelly
     
    Red97 likes this.
  9. Not sure how you could beat this except an air cooled model aeroplane motor in lost foam.
     
  10. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    You guys know what comes next................

    12 In Mud.JPG

    Best,
    Kelly
     
    _Jason, Red97 and Mark's castings like this.
  11. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    <---- Munches popcorn in excitement....
     
  12. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    Cool beans man.
    Fantastic work.
     
  13. joe yard

    joe yard Silver

  14. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Kelly when are you going to ditch that drywall mud and use shell? Do I need to send you a BP too? You won't be dumping aluminum on your foam. You fire the shelled foam. Foam evaporates cleanly and in goes the aluminum. Your neighbors will thank ME for eliminating your obnoxious black soot.
     
  15. Red97

    Red97 Copper

    Next thing is to figure a way for high a silicon alloy around the bore...

    Like the old Vega blocks lol

    Then I wouldn't have to worry about an iron liner, or sending them out to be plated.
     
  16. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Think we've had this discussion before Jason but the short answer in this case is because shell only adds additional labor and substantial process time with no benefit to the part produced......and shell burn out of foam still stinks and persists longer than the 15 seconds or so of a lost foam pour.

    Best,
    Kelly
     
  17. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    After it's cast I would contend the next thing is for you to take a pause from burning wire onto 200,000lb steel castings long enough to machine the casting and run it! :cool:

    Best,
    Kelly
     
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  18. Red97

    Red97 Copper

    Touché..

    Have about 2k of wire burned about 13k to go.

    I may be able to have the machine shop here draw up a program, and finish the casting while I'm burning wire.

    Otherwise it will be a bit before i make it home to finish it my self.

    Don't think the customer will see the importance of pausing their project to do mine.
     
  19. Al2O3

    Al2O3 Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    That's the life of a self-employed man......just as long as you concede to being outdistanced by another self-employed guy twice your age....:p

    Best,
    Kelly
     
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  20. Red97

    Red97 Copper

    I'm used to it.

    Now how about them castings...

    #10 enough to do both? Or just try one at a time?
     

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