Making a Durable Aluminum Pattern For Casting Plaques

I probably could, that's the plan along with digging the well a little deeper if I have any trouble casting the house numbers with the pattern as-is.

Jeff

 

Well, I made up the mold to cast the house numbers last weekend when we had a strange thaw which made my sand workable again for a day.



You guys may get a laugh seeing how I accidentally gouged a 'shrink bob' into the cope while opening up the mold. Maybe I should have put the flask's window sash locks on the sides where the pins are instead...

I also poured it this Saturday just past, seems like the more seasonal cold temperatures kept it fresh stores inside my molding bench for a week, as it came out not too bad. Not my best casting ever though. Maybe I'll try it again in bronze as Jason suggested, but I'll probably see how the aluminum one finishes out first before I decide.

I got some video of the melt/pour too, but it'll take a few days before it is ready to upload. Ill edit it in here when that goes up.

Meanwhile, I do have pix though...







Jeff

 

Thanks guys...

Pete, I cut these numbers out of 1/8" plywood. I'll be in touch about the next number in the near future, thanks!

Jeff

 

Video of the melt/pour/shakeout as promised:



I'd love to blame the rough stuff around the edges of the numbers in certain spots (see pic above) on it being a week old greensand mold I poured it in, but that broken sand all happened when I was drawing the pattern out of the mold. I think I need to get better gear/technique for rapping the pattern... Was using the screws I used to pull it out of the sand to rap on for the side to side rapping, but I did not notice the pattern loosening any. Something that fits into the holes on the back of the pattern and is both longer than those screws and fairly rigid should be more effective, I think.

Jeff

 

Hard to see in the video but it didn't relight until I stepped on the pedal to crack open the lid (faster than lowering the oil or turning up the blower, you think I chose wrong?) ... Glad the lid didn't go into orbit anyhow!

Jeff

 

There really wasn't time to think about it, I stomped that pedal entirely on instinct...

Jeff

 

If you like watching some guy do a whole bunch of edge, spindle, and hand sanding in high speed, you'll love the final episode of my house number plaque casting video series!

But if you're only into bandsawing and flap disc grinding and drilling, you'll probably only kind of like it.

For the rest of you, dont feel left out - here's a YouTube thumbnail showing what the finished plaque looked like before I hit it with some sealer spray, which you probably won't want to click on.



I also cheated a little and dabbed a tiny bit of silver paint into the little dings on the left side of the 6 and in the center of the lower border. They show up a lot less now.

Jeff

 

Oxide - great vaseline tip, 3 words I don't often use together in a sentence, at least in a public forum!

I tried wiping off the paint before it dried but it began drying faster than I expected.

OCD - thanks for the tips. I don't have a handheld belt sander, though the size would have worked out about right. I do have a bench top belt sander, but I still haven't replaced the belt that got ripped when I was sanding the edges of my Halloween belt buckle or I would definitely have used that! A terrible excuse, I know. The fact that I tried but got the wrong size may provide you guys with some amusement. More terrible excuses: I would have glued that sandpaper down, but I didn't want to get glue all over my best molding board (the top from an Ikea tv tray - a good fit for the 12X16 flask I used for this casting)...

Jeff

 

Sounds cool, make sure and post some pictures!

I'm looking forward to playing around with patinas and bronze a bit, but probably not until after winter ends - I think I have pretty much lost the battle with keeping my melting and pouring area shoveled out. The snow just won't stop!



Jeff