Hello Damon, just found your channel. For plaques use a knife gate on the long side, tilt the flask slightly so the metal flows uphill, vent on the far corner. Seed-slik from a farm store, 80% talc 20% graphite for parting powder. And make yourself a lost foam ramming tool.
Hey thanks for the heads up about the seed-slik. Also, I will try a tilt on the next casting. I do have another large kind of flat piece to cast. Thank you.
Parting powder warning label: "Every warning imaginable ... Don't get it in your house, your food, or in your nose" ... Well, at least it didn't say "and be sure not to get it in your mold." LOL. Air blasting is a really important, but subtle step a lot of beginners don't know about. Nice work! Thank you. - HP
Yeah when I got the parting powder package and read the warning on it, I am surprised I didn't have to be in a level A hazmat suit. I think in one of my next videos I should post a picture of it. Thanks for checking out my video and taking time to post a comment!
@AnunnakiAaron yeah I have looked a little. To electroplate aluminum a zincate solution is needed. I am not sure if it would be easier just to cast in zinc or if an alloy called zamak would work. I have a bar of zamak but haven't tried it yet. Thanks for checking out my video and leaving something for me to think about doing.
Thanks for all your videos on casting. I’m learning a lot about the process from your trials and errors and improvements. All are extremely helpful. I hope to eventually make a proper casting instead of just pouring hot metal into a hole.
This casting was pretty humbling for me, with all the issues. I am glad that this video was insightful, no sense in not sharing my failures so other people can learn from them. I agree with you for the goal of making proper castings. I am still striving to learn too and maybe try more different casting techniques. (sand cores, investment casting, foam casting etc...) Thanks again for watching and leaving a comment, its much appreciated. Good Luck!
Mounting on a matchplate is good. I use a matchplate on most of my patterns. A simple change in your gating system could have eliminated the flaw in the casting and the added material that you had to machine off. Casting looks 👍
Hey I am open to criticism. What was your idea of a better gating system? Maybe something that went around the pattern and fed into it? Thanks for watching.
@DamonsMetalCasting The first patternshop I worked in used a ratio gating system. Basically anywhere from a 1:2:2 to 1:4:4 ratio. Sprue is 1, runner and ingate is 4. Example if your sprue is a 5/8 diam or 1/2 square. That's .25 square inches. Your runner and ingate .5 or 1 square in. So your runner would be .75" sq. or 1" sq. Assuming your pattern is .25 thick a 3/16" high ingate will work. Ingate would be 3" to 5" wide. Without pictures it's harder to describe with just words. But pretty easy once you see it.
Might save you a bit of time if you tried welding some of the minor holes, then chase them with a Dremel or die grinder. Since you already have an air compressor die grinder might be the way to go. Either way looks good, casting is not an intuitive art.
I appreciate the feed back. I agree with you 100 percent. I just don't have a TIG that can do aluminum, maybe something to evaluate in the future. Thank you for checking out the video!
@@DamonsMetalCasting tig/mig is one way to go but if you're only working with aluminum or copper/bronze that becomes approachable with certain kinds of blow torches. Again I stress the might as you should only do what makes financial sense for you, not everything needs to be big and expensive.
What are you suggesting something like the aluminum brazing rods with a torch similar to a benzomatic and mapp gas? I have used those rods for non casting work before. I don't know if the filler rod will polish or oxidize the same as aluminum so the fix doesn't stand out. Guess its something to try before going all out on a TIG.
@@DamonsMetalCasting Something similar to that yes but I'd have a gander at my hardware store and what was available from there(personally I'd lean towards mapp gas or hotter, but it should be possible to get away with propane). As long as your using a similar enough alloy to what your casting it should be possible to polish away any blemishes from blasting "it" with a torch and for the love of Christ FLUX flux use the right flux please. Bit of an art to blasting any of the copper or aluminum alloys but once you get the hang of it its not that hard, just a bit different from doing plumbing. And lastly but not least you're going to have a very hard time beating a TIG/MIG machine but have you considered a not super expensive arc welder? And lastly there are things that welding will and will not be able to do for you like for example those 2 massive holes you had in the first casting you had just forget it, weld line's would show no matter what you do. But fixing the minor blemishes and holes like on the part you decided to send out are absolutely possible. Do what makes sense to you and remember we are all just guys on the internet any advice we give may or may not be helpful to the gorilla out in the jungle banging rocks together, no matter how "right" we are.
I didn't realize I was yelling, maybe I am old and can't hear my self. What part of the video? This was the most difficult casting I had so far. I packed this 10-12 times in different ways before it finally gave me a mold cavity that wasn't too messed up. Thanks for watching!
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Hello Damon, just found your channel. For plaques use a knife gate on the long side, tilt the flask slightly so the metal flows uphill, vent on the far corner. Seed-slik from a farm store, 80% talc 20% graphite for parting powder. And make yourself a lost foam ramming tool.
Hey thanks for the heads up about the seed-slik. Also, I will try a tilt on the next casting. I do have another large kind of flat piece to cast. Thank you.
Parting powder warning label: "Every warning imaginable ... Don't get it in your house, your food, or in your nose" ...
Well, at least it didn't say "and be sure not to get it in your mold." LOL.
Air blasting is a really important, but subtle step a lot of beginners don't know about.
Nice work! Thank you.
- HP
Yeah when I got the parting powder package and read the warning on it, I am surprised I didn't have to be in a level A hazmat suit. I think in one of my next videos I should post a picture of it. Thanks for checking out my video and taking time to post a comment!
Persistence for the win!
Hey thanks again for watching!!
now you can look into electroplating. Cool video, thanks.
@AnunnakiAaron yeah I have looked a little. To electroplate aluminum a zincate solution is needed. I am not sure if it would be easier just to cast in zinc or if an alloy called zamak would work. I have a bar of zamak but haven't tried it yet. Thanks for checking out my video and leaving something for me to think about doing.
Thanks for all your videos on casting. I’m learning a lot about the process from your trials and errors and improvements. All are extremely helpful. I hope to eventually make a proper casting instead of just pouring hot metal into a hole.
This casting was pretty humbling for me, with all the issues. I am glad that this video was insightful, no sense in not sharing my failures so other people can learn from them. I agree with you for the goal of making proper castings. I am still striving to learn too and maybe try more different casting techniques. (sand cores, investment casting, foam casting etc...) Thanks again for watching and leaving a comment, its much appreciated. Good Luck!
Mounting on a matchplate is good. I use a matchplate on most of my patterns. A simple change in your gating system could have eliminated the flaw in the casting and the added material that you had to machine off. Casting looks 👍
Hey I am open to criticism. What was your idea of a better gating system? Maybe something that went around the pattern and fed into it? Thanks for watching.
@DamonsMetalCasting The first patternshop I worked in used a ratio gating system. Basically anywhere from a 1:2:2 to 1:4:4 ratio. Sprue is 1, runner and ingate is 4. Example if your sprue is a 5/8 diam or 1/2 square. That's
.25 square inches. Your runner and ingate .5 or 1 square in. So your runner would be .75" sq. or 1" sq. Assuming your pattern is .25 thick a 3/16" high ingate will work. Ingate would be 3" to 5" wide. Without pictures it's harder to describe with just words. But pretty easy once you see it.
@@roscoepatternworks3471 thanks
Might save you a bit of time if you tried welding some of the minor holes, then chase them with a Dremel or die grinder. Since you already have an air compressor die grinder might be the way to go.
Either way looks good, casting is not an intuitive art.
I appreciate the feed back. I agree with you 100 percent. I just don't have a TIG that can do aluminum, maybe something to evaluate in the future. Thank you for checking out the video!
@@DamonsMetalCasting tig/mig is one way to go but if you're only working with aluminum or copper/bronze that becomes approachable with certain kinds of blow torches. Again I stress the might as you should only do what makes financial sense for you, not everything needs to be big and expensive.
What are you suggesting something like the aluminum brazing rods with a torch similar to a benzomatic and mapp gas? I have used those rods for non casting work before. I don't know if the filler rod will polish or oxidize the same as aluminum so the fix doesn't stand out. Guess its something to try before going all out on a TIG.
@@DamonsMetalCasting Something similar to that yes but I'd have a gander at my hardware store and what was available from there(personally I'd lean towards mapp gas or hotter, but it should be possible to get away with propane).
As long as your using a similar enough alloy to what your casting it should be possible to polish away any blemishes from blasting "it" with a torch and for the love of Christ FLUX flux use the right flux please. Bit of an art to blasting any of the copper or aluminum alloys but once you get the hang of it its not that hard, just a bit different from doing plumbing.
And lastly but not least you're going to have a very hard time beating a TIG/MIG machine but have you considered a not super expensive arc welder? And lastly there are things that welding will and will not be able to do for you like for example those 2 massive holes you had in the first casting you had just forget it, weld line's would show no matter what you do. But fixing the minor blemishes and holes like on the part you decided to send out are absolutely possible.
Do what makes sense to you and remember we are all just guys on the internet any advice we give may or may not be helpful to the gorilla out in the jungle banging rocks together, no matter how "right" we are.
Why are you yelling?and dont pack it that much,it sticks
I didn't realize I was yelling, maybe I am old and can't hear my self. What part of the video? This was the most difficult casting I had so far. I packed this 10-12 times in different ways before it finally gave me a mold cavity that wasn't too messed up. Thanks for watching!
@DamonsMetalCasting ❤️❤️❤️