Decided to join and say hello. My name is Monty. I have been working on developing lost PLA casting techniques for a while now. Mostly to support my interest in piston and turbine engines. I got started down this path trying to cast a piston and cylinder for a two cycle engine. The goal was to be able to rapidly prototype and cast ideas I had. Eventually I started working on much larger castings. I look forward to sharing and learning. Here is one of the larger castings I've done so far.
Hey Monty. Welcome. That looks great. Like the offset pouring cup and bottom gating system. Look forward to hearing more about your process and seeing more castings. I love engines! Best, Kelly
Hi Kelly, That was the second try! The first one didn't turn out so well because my sprue and runner were a crappy design. The failure motivated me to size the gate, pour cup and sprue properly on this one. It worked, but the next one uses a direct pour riser with a filter. Hopefully this works!
Oh, I'm familiar with second tries but I usually don't run out of fingers! What alloy are you using? Best, Kelly
That was virgin 356. I also use some 2000 series from aircraft and diesel pistons for high temp parts. Great stuff, but I make fluxed, degassed ingots before I make an actual pour.
