Well I will be moving to Tennessee in two weeks. Currently I am in Orange County California. I started becoming interested in aluminum casting a year ago while learning to build my own vintage Honda motorcycle. I found an article that explained how they created the engines by Sandcast method and figured why not continue to make parts in that way. Not knowing where to start, I found a few resources from Youtube and Ebay that helped me to put together a hobby foundry and off I went. through this last year without a job due to the pandemic, I have gone through a lot of trial and error to work out the bugs with each of my pieces that I wanted to make. I have had a few successes and many failures but each time I get closer. I cannot remember how exactly I found this forum but I am glad I have found it so I can progress further in this craft and keep making better and successful castings the first time because in honesty these sand molds get freaking heavy!
Welcome Antony. Be sure to post up some pictures of your foundry equipment and castings.....we like pictures! Best, Kelly
thanks for the warm welcome! I am heading in between Nashville and Knoxville to Spring City. I found a pic of the foundry when I first started made from a trash can, kaoh wool and some chain wound around the bottom. smallest piece made so far has been a plug for my motorcycle tach cable and the biggest are sets of side covers for a cb550 and a cb750
Hi, I'm new here also, appears to be a friendly place with some very knowledgeable people happy to offer advice and assistance. So far I've not noticed evidence of over inflated ego's or passive aggressive posting that's prevalent in some other forums (hifi) can be awful, I guess it's because metal casters are real men and not posers
Those look good and putting your foundry to good use. Just spying the orange sand in the flasks in your foundry picture, is that Petrobond? Best, Kelly
Welcome Anthony! Excellent job on those side covers. I just so happens that I have a 1974 CB550 that I would like to cast covers for. I assume you used originals as patterns, or did you make your own? Any trouble with fit? Pete
yeah that was petrobond that I started off with, but after pouring aluminum the first time I went to sit back down and wait for it to cool when I noticed my wife at the side staring at me shaking her head. all she said was uh uh that stuff stinks. so off I went to green sand! LOL! I would have loved to keep using the petrobond for more detail castings but I have made some good progress with greensand. I did use the original 550 covers to make them but went through so much crap with making them aluminum. I still have not made a complete set of these and the ones I have on my bike the tabs are replaced with studs so they can be bolted into place. but I made a set for a honda cb350f that uses a different style that is way much better than the prongs in my opinion. I am going to try that. I have been looking at the intro section with starting off casting because reality I only know what I have been able to find on youtube which is (what part you're making get the mold dump the sand pour the metal and you got the casting). I need to take it back to formula and I you could say learn it right and I bet that after fixing or tweaking the methods used for what I want to cast I will not be crawling but sprinting to better and more completed castings. also I don't want to have this look on my face in the pic! it might start to look like that after awhile!
hey peetee716 i got up a whole thread of my journey through the rabbit hole with those covers go check it out just google cb550 aluminum side cast covers (build?)
Welcome! That's some really nice work on those covers! I also liked hearing about your troubleshooting process with the standoffs. As Amber Foundry said, we are all just regular folk who really appreciate each other's knowledge.
Thanks Rob! I have been picking through these forum threads and there are alot of light bulbs appearing over my head! There are so many different steps to my casting processes that I never even thought about which is why they probably failed in the first place. I have to rebuild my boxes with the grooves or the rebar slats across so I can try flipping my side cover molds with the heavy side on top. I tried it with just the wooden box and when I would flip it to put it on, the sand would break off and ruin the mold! I made my final trip out to Cali to get the rest of my stuff and drove back to Tennessee. now I got to get started making stuff again!
Yes! The internal ridge helps a great deal. I can only think of a few things more heartbreaking than watching the fallout of a beautiful mold. Oddly enough, I as born in California, we lived in Lindsay, and from there we moved to Jackson, Tennessee. So I have made that trip as well.
born in san jose but didn't go back to cali until 2008 I just put together a timelapse video of the trip. sends shivers down my spine helping me to remember (DONT DO THIS EVER AGAIN) LOL got most of my stuff together and just need some propane and a sunny day before getting back at it.
