I've considered this for a while and will move forward with some encouragement from the peanut gallery, expect a new pattern picture "regularly" perhaps a video once in a while for the more complicated patterns . If you like what you see, please just hit like, if you have questions ask, but please if you want help or have a major issue idea, start a new thread, so we don't get way off target we will briefly go over my storage, as it is a critical issue and requires more planning then most think in the beginning Most of the Patterns are matchplates hanging from the rafters, this keeps the pattern surface from getting damaged , you cant just stack them side details of one of the rows , loose patterns are difficult and require a lot of different storage options , the Mug handles are stood up on a bar so I can see them, and so they don't rub on a critical surface, the interior of the handle is of little concern I've built some special storage for the follow boards, since they have loose pieces that would get lost if they are hung you can see the follow boards are in open bottomed trays, so that any items hanging off the bottom of the follow board is not resting on something that could damage them , loose parts on the bottom would get stacked atop the follow board, we will see more of that Thanks in advance V/r HT1
first up the follow board for the Cigar ashtray patterns , this is more or less a dead project I do most my sales on Facebook and Instagram, which have banned tobacco and Vaping so i have no route to sell these This pattern is very much different then anything else I do, the pattern goes entirely in the cope, so the big chunk of sand that forms the interior of the bowl is upright and not hanging , this also puts the details of the ashtrays in the drag where they belong. note the pins in the runner, match the pins in the knifegate , when you flip follow board after ramming the cope, yes you ram the cope first , the runner is set directly onto the knifegate using those pins to ram the drag, this pattern gets a double roll, , you ram the cope, then the drag, then roll the entire mold, so the drag is on the ground, and then lift off the cope, this way that big piece of sand that forms the center of the bowl is never hanging here you see a pattern on the follow board, follow boards have two basic purposes, they support thin parts, and create the irregular parting , the two pictured patterns are original masters made from wood about 3/16 thick, so pretty delicate especially where the cigar notches are, if you reference the first picture you note there is a circular channel routed into the follow board this is where the lettering on any of the patterns rests here you see seven different patterns that use the same follow board and one finished brass ashtray , the gray and rusty red masters look identical, but actually the red one is deeper, the deeper trays became an issue when I started adding items to the bottom, save the two masters all the others are cast aluminum , the USS Independence pattern in the center, being twice removed from the master, is a little tight on the follow board (let me explain, the grey master was cast in aluminum, the hero's boiler was added [upper left} that was cast, and the letters added to that third casting to create the pictured pattern ) if there is a lot of confusion, i will film me using this follow board, I know follow board can be a little confusing, but are absolutely necessary sometimes V/r HT1
today we are going over the patterns associated with the 57MM BOFORS mugs, i convert old Naval shells in to brass mugs Here is a 57MM Shell with a finished mug Blank aluminum handle patterns are cast from this matchplate to make (master) split patterns. the right shows the interior of a set of patterns, note the 1/8 inch diameter brass alignment pins , and in the center of the handle( as near as I can get to the balance point is a 10-32 blind tapped hole I use to pull the pattern, at that location each half of the pattern is only 11/32 thick (8.7MM) so a small fine thread bolt, with a bottoming tap is a requirement you are only getting a few threads, to the left is a finished pattern, with lettering added, I use the Freeman 1/4 inch plastic letters, applied with super glue , use a cotton swab (Q-TIP) to position them and to soak up excess glue, if you mess up, on the aluminum pattern, let the glue dry completely, and just take an exacto knife to it, and steel wool (sand away the excess glue . and of course everything gets my favorite pattern finish: red auto body sandable primer ( I'm going to do a separate post on that, because it deserves it ) here is the follow board for making saddles: to attach flat things ( coins and insignia) to the mug I braze a "saddle " to the mug front, rear, or both, I have to cast those saddles, I use this follow board for the most common ones the splash well and runner is a loose piece, it stays in the drag when you remove the follow board with the patterns, I have a collection of runner splash well combinations I use for many different patterns , note the shallow hole in the one at the bottom of sprue cutter, that hole is sized so the sprue cutter snugly sticks in it, so you dont have to hold the sprue cutter while ramming note the holes in the runners, those are of course to use wood screws to pull the runners out , the aluminum one has a drilled and tapped hole for a 10/32 machine screw, I dont use the aluminum one much anymore, its far to large for most of my patterns , as a matter of fact most of the runners pictured are really larger then they need to be here is the follow board with patterns in place, there is a selection of the most used patterns, I have multiple patterns of these, so I can do 2-4 at a time if i need a pile of one saddle, the most common one on the upper left is 1.75 inch diameter, some of these are wood originals, others are metal for durability, the saddles are VERY thin in the center and at the edges, actually tapering to zero, so the follow board is critical, i hand cut the gates in the cope side of the mold sorry for the odd picture, it will not load right side up??? admin??? this is a selection of the rare(singular) saddles, I use a follow block sometimes called a ram up block (bottom middle) to support these saddles and to create the irregular parting line so I dont have to cope down to the pattern, great time saver, and simpler then a follow board V/r HT1
gonna cover some of the processes for wood patterns so I don't keep repeating myself, you may want to mark this post most of my patterns are matchplates, I do everything I can in 12X12 inch flasks , so the matchplates are 14X15 inches , I make them up in bulk and finish them to the pictured point ( the right) you dont have to use great 3/4 inch sanded plywood, you can finish them your self, by running a skimcoat of wood filler or Durham's water putty using a large drywall knife over the entire surface, then sand with a random orbital sander. the one pictured has a defect on the left hand side, i'll patch it before we start, the pencil lines are the interior of a 12X12 flask this way as I affix the pattern and gating, I dont accidentally get too close to the side of the flask , I will often add a diagonal line through the center of the flask lines, as that is often where the runner ends up ( you will see many examples in upcoming patterns) next thing is to seal the wood with a coat of shellac, this is just so the wood wont absorb anything, and will take later coatings evenly, (wood does weird stuff occasionally) So repair blemishes with wood filler sand 220 with orbital sander mark up flask local shellac , sand to 220 with orbital sander ( may have to repeat this ) now you have a blank matchplate ready to start working on Ok alot going on here we already talked about shellac to seal the matchplate everything else is associated with a "finished" pattern first is auto body filler, this is my goto for pattern finish , i prefer the red as it contrast to used sand, auto body filler comes in two varieties for filling light scratches and filling deep scratches, remeber anything you spray on your pattern will cause you to loose detail, and the deep scratch filler really does this , but it is very valuable where you have a tiny bit of backdraft to get rid of on lettering, in a pinch any flat paint works well in place of autobody filler, the camouflage used to be my go to, I prefer the olive drab (flat green) but it is more expensive then the autobody filler ( it contasts with new petrobond and burnt sand both) why am I concerned about the pattern color contrasting with the sand, so you can easily see if sand has gotten stuck in your pattern , and exactly where it is so you can repair the associated backdraft so after a pattern is completed and coated , allow to COMPLETELY dry then EVERY pattern gets steel wooled with graphite yes, get some 00 or higher steel wool , coat the pattern with a little graphite and gently but firmly steel wool the entire pattern pay special attention to wax fillets, two things are happening here, the steel wool is taking of high spots, and rounding over edges, the graphite is filling in lows, this give the pattern an extremely smooth surface that allows it to pull easily, and of course graphite is a great parting but pricy. ok to save graphite use it in a muslin parts bag (google parts bag) they are cheat, and also make much better paring bags then an old sock, graphite is rubbed onto the pattern using the bag every few uses, grapite bormally stays with the pattern, or partially stays with the pattern, and partially goes to the sand the center bag is graphite, the left one is parting compound. I use de pool filter medium,( just google search that, it's about a $/Lb at home depot, and a 25lb box is a lifetime supply) talc also works if you can locate it. I would stay away from corn starch baby powder, but what ever you do it gets sprinkled from a parting bag, you need a fine even coat, parting compound separates from the pattern and stays with the sand, if you get lumps and clumps they will affect the surface finish of your castings, and brushing it on just smears it about , light even coat pictured is three graphite brushes, you dont want to blow off graphite , you want it to stay with the pattern, the large paint brush is pretty much useless save on really large patterns ( yes graphite has some sort of interaction with the plastic brush bristles) , the parts cleaning brush is good for working graphite into tight places on the pattern, remember graphite stays with the pattern, finally is a camel hair artist brush for dusting off excess graphite, DONT borrow your wife's makeup brushes DONT !!! go spend $10 , also do not blow off excess graphite, again you want graphite to stay with the pattern, making it smoother, you will only have to graphite a pattern ever few uses if you are also using a parting compound, if you are only using graphite, it gets a sprinkling with the graphite parting bag , at the very top is the screws i use for removing runners and loose patterns, I use a Torx wood screw, and a 10-32 machine screw on all of my patterns. you can weld permanent cross handles on the screws if you prefer, I find the cross handle gets in the way, if you move up to larger patterns, you may have to use a slide hammer (dent puller) to get patterns out if you get there you will be using rapping plates https://www.freemansupply.com/produ...oundry-supplies/malleable-iron-rapping-plates Hope this helps some of you out V/r HT1 P.S. I almost forgot , make sure your coating over the pattern covers the entire matchplate, especially if you make several coats, believe it or not, if you dont, and you are working with a really liquidly metal ( Like yellow brass,) the area where you coat, will be thicker, and you will get flashing and fins, that you will have to sand off, I saw this effect just get silly on a very old pattern that had been repaired may times, and each time it was repaired, it just got a coat of lacquer over the pattern not the entire matchplate, eventually it had to be completely redone as clean up was out of control, if you finish the pattern off the matchplate coat however you want, but once it goes on the matchplate, it all gets coated
something a little simpler today anytime I need to make something "matching" I ry to make just one and replicate it or my ADD will play pure living hell with me , I used to use rubber molds alot stuff works great, but the shelf life makes it an insanely expensive option if you are not using alot of it . I made the upper pattern first, and insanely over gated it, I hate doing them because it is such a metal hog , I went much more reasonable in the lower one, note the splash well is lined up so if I had to I could have added the second runner and ingate, I have never had one not fill so it has stayed this way V/r HT1
Today we cover a simple Plaque one of my earliest and favorites, I even think I did a build thread over on AA , but could not find it or the pics so: this like most of my pieces are flat back matchplates, meaning the opposite side of the matchplate is blank and unused this is of course a helium atom , I used TON's of ingenuity on this on, first off I never try to make stars, the ADD will cause me to redo them over and over, they never look straight so I bought a pair of general collar devices, so metal stars! https://www.ebay.com/itm/402962443492?hash=item5dd26eece4:g:nRUAAOSwZYRg3jW- the neutrons are brass pan head screws, with the Philips drive filled with wax. shop around, some pan heads are more hemispherical than others The background is one of my favorite things , football leather, plain backgrounds look wrong, and if the wood grain comes out, it will in good sand, it looks WRONG! so I like to use 99 cent embossed paper, football leather is may favorite, it comes through well, and if you flip it over you get a hammered finish, glue it down with a complete layer of PVA glue, and it rigidizes perfectly, it is subtle enough you can glue letters on it , and still pops on the finished piece https://www.hobbylobby.com/Scrapboo...hOit8YJCE7ToPge2xrfFmSpD2zZbCpkgaAgm2EALw_wcB the orbit is hand carved from one piece of 3/16 poplar Here is a finished piece with the associated banner on an 8X10 wooden back the way I sell them V/r HT1
Today we have a Double I'm adding a second pattern to the Matchplate for The Seabee Equipment Operator Rating badge "Natasha" this of course is a well used Pattern a couple of years old, above I'm adding the Seabee Steel worker Rating badge, with hopes of testing it later today the steel worker Rating badge caused me tons of heartache , sometimes it's insanely difficult to make something from a drawing and bring it out into the third dimension, while also keeping draft , the center of the girder needs to "look" 6 inches deep, while being little more then 1/32 deep here is a finished EO on an 8X10 Back V/r HT1
again I'm adding a second piece to a Matchplate , it's pretty obvious this doubles your output for exactly the same effort This is the US Navy petty officer first class insignia , it's often addeed to other pieces and very popular that way here is a common piece including the above pattern on a 10.5X13 Mahogany back this is HT1(SW) yes this is a plaque that accurately represents me near the end of My Navy Career V/r HT1
here is a video of the full making of my 2021 FWTTT Plaque, the video has no sound so just mute it to kill the static V/r HT1
It’s summer and I don’t cast when it’s this hot so I can get back to the pattern library, this is the very popular No Dogs plaque. It’s done in aluminum note the wide shallow runner with knife gates. This one also breaks from the normal and requires a 13x13 flask. And even that is not the 1 inch of sand that is absolutely required between the pattern and the flask… this would not work In brass and would have runouts regularly. In aluminum it works well… sells good to my audience this pattern was originally made from a rubber stamp by village impressions (Google search) Anna-Mae is wonderful just let her know you want a foundry pattern most of my signs are through her I even use her stamps as a starting point for more complicated pieces by using clay to build up areas adding true 3D or casting one in aluminum and going at it with a carbide burr V/r HT1
today my newest piece, this is BT Belt Buckles 4 on a match plate sized for 12X12 in flasks, you will notice I did not step the runner , in larger pieces this is critical to maintain the pressure throughout the entire gating system, but i put down 9 molds this morning with no failures so these are probably oK if not it is easy enough to step the runner with a belt sander by just taking 1/3 of the height of the runner off after the first two ingates
The maker belt buckle pattern and a finished buckle front and back. this is another village impressions pattern from artwork by Handmade by Vincent Ferrari. I had one rubber pattern made and cast it 4 times to get the four patterns on the matchplate. One little note the buckles are flat I bend them in the vice after casting to get the belly V/r HT1
this is a pattern for a reproduction Of The USS Prairie AD-15 s decommissioning plaque, it pulls very poorly because it does not have enough draft, I suspect some Primer and a lot iof work with some steel wool and I could get about every other one to pull, V/r HT1 P.S. gonna be another conversation about this pattern