Enjoyable video as always. I think if you're starting with a propane furnace that melting scrap is a good way to learn your furnace's quirks and get a little experience with handling a burny-death-hot crucibles of melted metal.
That's a great point. That's how I started for sure. I only suggest electric and purchased metal grain here because it's the fastest way to get to good end results, but I probably went 4 years before I purchased any metal. Lots of my early castings were pretty bad though lol
THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN UPDATED! CLICK HERE: ua-cam.com/video/Iu8h4SwPfmg/v-deo.html Want to learn sand casting using your 3D printer? I can teach you!: paulsmakeracademy.mykajabi.com/joinus
Thanks so much for sharing this! I've always been obsessed with metal casting and watched several of your other videos, and it's always helpful to see different people's "getting started" videos on the subject. I think you do an excellent job of explaining and have a great on camera demeanor. I look forward to seeing more hot metal action!
AAaaaagh Paul. I am waiting for my Elegoo printer to arrive so I can print and cast signs just like you are. Please don't think I am copying you (I started a month ago making my signs by hand and creating videos of me doing such.) This is the first dedicated video of 3d sign casting that I have seen. I was hoping to be the first but I bet many have done it already. I just haven't seen the vids. Great vids, love your channel. B
To make a ceramic tool with high hardness, the mixture was compressed and baked at high density, but it was damaged due to repeated impact. Is there a way to reinforce it?
Vibrate and settle the casting sand by tapping the casing form, the heavier the casting blank the better it will settle, and the deeper the pouring and relief channels the less shrinkage of the cast part during cooling, the pressure from the weight of the relief and pour columns against the molten inner core of the part, keeps it from imploding as much (research this I definitely only scratched the surface of the concepts)
Love the makers academy idea dude, that's a brill idea! I really need to engage in your discord so I can help contribute ideas and such for your stuff :)
We machine a lot of bronze at work`. We must have 10-55 gal drums of bronze chips. Do you think these would work for casting? We probably have 3 or 4 tons of it.
yes definitely. From melting and mixing all of it together you will probably have oxides and gasses in the melt, be sure to add a little phosphor copper shot to help clean the metal up a bit and it should work fine.
Another method is using joint compound to coat a print with 0% infill, an open bottom/riser and thin walls. Let it dry and ram it up in sand. Gives surprisingly good results but there are still some issues with porosity and pitting.
i've seen people do that, but you're right on the porosity and bad surface finish. It's the reason I don't want to do lost-foam either. Sometimes the metal comes out like swiss cheese. I'd rather have nicer finished projects.
I would advise against that. The furnace is probably safe on its own, but metals can give off fumes you do not want to breathe. Even "clean" casting grain contains fluxes designed to burn off and take gasses and other impurities with it.
Good question. I would suggest picking what you want to do specifically. If you intend to primarily melt scrap into ingots, get a propane furnace, not electric. If you intend to primarily make finished castings, don't use scrap at all. Buy good clean metal in the right alloy for casting. You can make good castings with a propane furnace and do both casting and scrapping, but it's a steeper learning curve and higher failure rate when it comes to the castings. It's absolutely doable, but you will need to be able to regulate temperatures and not over/under heat metal when you are pouring molds. Hope this helps
@@PaulsGarage ok that makes sense, because in my job I get a lot of scrap metals for free, and I thought once you melted it and cleaned it you were good to go, But obviously I need to rethink that Cheers for the quick response
I did iron years ago, never again. The radiant heat is overwhelming. If a dime sized puddle of molten iron burns you while welding, imagine what a full crucible would do and you get what I mean.
You take your electric furnace up enough for copper? I've not pushed mine past zinc. I always get out the propane one for higher casting Temps, but it would be nice to have an alternative.
Yeah i've had mine at max temperature with a full 3kg crucible of bronze a couple times. Making that sign for one. I'm sure the lifespan is shortened by doing that, but it did it!
Cool video! The linked furnace says it will do around 2k deg F. As far as I know this is plenty of heat for Aluminum. Do you think this furnace would be good for casting small aluminum parts? Thanks!
It's definitely hot enough for aluminum, perhaps a little too hot. I use it for bronze. The only issue you will find is getting aluminum in chunks small enough to fit in the crucible. These are not good for melting down scrap, and really you shouldn't be casting with scrap anyway. Good casting aluminum (A356 alloy) is easy to find, but it usually comes in large single ingots.
@@PaulsGarage excellent, thanks for the reply! I do some TIG welding, so I have some aluminum I think would work, or I could cut ingots down. I'm a bit paranoid so no mystery metal for me. I've never cast any metal before, only welding so far. Looking forward to giving it a try!
Ive been playing with this for a while now, and really only have one problem. There is a lot of pitting inside the castings once they cool. Ive been making the castings slightly oversize so I can mill them down to final size, but there are always small voids, or bubbles, inside the castings. Suggestions? Im primarily pouring brass into a small 45mm coin blank made of graphite. It is open top like an ingot, not a flask type mold.
A bunch of things cause porosity like that. First off, brass can be prone to that on it's own, and it gets worse the more times you re-melt it. Copper alloys can dissolve stuff from the air into the liquid while molten, and it comes out when the metal solidifies, giving you a bubble. There are commercial fluxes that can help with that (and the boil off of the zinc), but they aren't always sold in small quantities to retail customers. Also, graphite is a good ingot mold material, but you are still pouring down into something. Pour some water into a clear glass and you'll see all the air bubbles that get sucked in. Metal does the same thing. Open top molds usually give you worse results than flask molds for this reason (and some others)
So, taking brass already cast into something (plumbing parts), melting it into an ingot, then remelting the ingot later into a piece, is about the worst way to do it? Sounds about right... This would also explain why the bottom of the coin blank, once poured, always has a thin layer of copper. @@PaulsGarage
@starhawke380 yeah brass especially doesn't do well with repeated melting. Bronze is better, so is aluminum. Different alloys have different tolerances to that.
Ive had even worse luck with aluminum. Ive been using brass for its polished appearance for coin making. I polished up a brass ingot and then engraved it with the FineGold 999.9 and managed to fool a couple people I know. Brass is fun. @@PaulsGarage
@@PaulsGarage Can be a huge pain the butt to do in CAD xD I have to do that stuff for a living and oooh boy sometimes I would like to gouge my eyes out xD
glad you asked! I started with scrap, but most people who do, end up getting the wrong alloys, and either have contaminated metal or they contaminate it themselves melting it down and casting it. This is partly why you see so many bad castings (porosity, holes, bad surface finish, won't fill the mold all the way, etc...). Because of this, I suggest you buy clean casting metal. It eliminates a variable until you get the hang of making good castings. Even then, most experience metal casters I know don't want to use scrap for this reason. The bronze casting grain I showed in the video is not only clean, but contains additives to help keep it clean and help it flow better. Those additives burn off when you use the metal, so re-melting it won't be as good. This is another reason why scrap usually results in bad castings. Hope this helps
@@PaulsGarage Thanks, for clearing it up. Well I suspected it would be something about composition and purity, but then again copper wire for example seems like it's pretty pure for the most part, or aluminium foil or cans etc.. I guess not!
I really wanna make metal game tokens so I can play poker with gold pirate coins, or replace missing board game pieces and cast them in metal. I have a resin printer and I was wondering if I could find a way to make highly detailed castings without massive and expensive machines :P
@@PaulsGarage Absolutely, but of course they do much more than that. I mean FDM and SLA 3D printing came down in price 10 fold in the last 10 years. I remember when the Form1 resin 3D printer was considered the cheapest option there is for like 2k or so. This is truly amazing. I have also discovered a new type or powder 3D printer, you got to check that out, the company is called Iro3D and is based in the US. The machines are one offs hand made by it´s inventor. Those work completely different from anything I have known. On the same note, are you familiar with "Shell molding" ? A process invented in Germany in 1944 "Maskenformen" is the German name. This could be an awesome process for home use. The sand is infused with phenolic resin which sets at about 200°C. Which means you can locally harden the sand in thin layers by a laser or IR lamp or in the oven etc. and then pour any metal into the mold you like up to steel. Please tell me what you think.
Hell yeah, now this is the video of all time... The Ender 3 v3 is only 200, and is one of the best printers for morons or people who have no idea about 3D printing at all.
if you start with a much, much larger flask and more than $60 in sand, then yes! The price of that kit also includes the sand. i think they sell flasks separate for less. That's also made of cast iron, you would want iron for that design. The funnel opening on the end would get really sketchy if you made the flask in aluminum and tried to pour a bunch of bronze in there
Enjoyable video as always. I think if you're starting with a propane furnace that melting scrap is a good way to learn your furnace's quirks and get a little experience with handling a burny-death-hot crucibles of melted metal.
That's a great point. That's how I started for sure. I only suggest electric and purchased metal grain here because it's the fastest way to get to good end results, but I probably went 4 years before I purchased any metal. Lots of my early castings were pretty bad though lol
THIS VIDEO HAS BEEN UPDATED! CLICK HERE: ua-cam.com/video/Iu8h4SwPfmg/v-deo.html
Want to learn sand casting using your 3D printer? I can teach you!: paulsmakeracademy.mykajabi.com/joinus
Thanks so much for sharing this! I've always been obsessed with metal casting and watched several of your other videos, and it's always helpful to see different people's "getting started" videos on the subject. I think you do an excellent job of explaining and have a great on camera demeanor. I look forward to seeing more hot metal action!
Groovy, Paul. I’m quite interested in your upcoming courses.
Awesome, thank you! It's gonna be fun
Thank you for the advice, with your help and a few others, I'm now doing castings. Made your sandrammer, came out very good.
Subscribed! Been wanting to do something like this with my 3d printers, I would really appreciate a detailed video. Thanks for the video!
Hellz yes, thank you Paul..always appreciate your videos, especially this one.
Glad I can help!
Yes! Just rebuilt the shop and excited to get the casting train back on track
great! good luck!
AAaaaagh Paul. I am waiting for my Elegoo printer to arrive so I can print and cast signs just like you are. Please don't think I am copying you (I started a month ago making my signs by hand and creating videos of me doing such.) This is the first dedicated video of 3d sign casting that I have seen. I was hoping to be the first but I bet many have done it already. I just haven't seen the vids. Great vids, love your channel. B
Good luck! I did mine months ago, I like swdweeb beat me by a couple years. There's always room for more people making cool stuff 👍
Another great video! Thank you! I’m excited to get some supplies and try this out!
You're welcome, and good luck!
To make a ceramic tool with high hardness, the mixture was compressed and baked at high density, but it was damaged due to repeated impact. Is there a way to reinforce it?
Merry Christmas, Paul!
I hope Santa brought you some nice casting gear! Or were you a naughty boy this year, and so got socks instead 🤣?
Straight to the good stuff
Vibrate and settle the casting sand by tapping the casing form, the heavier the casting blank the better it will settle, and the deeper the pouring and relief channels the less shrinkage of the cast part during cooling, the pressure from the weight of the relief and pour columns against the molten inner core of the part, keeps it from imploding as much (research this I definitely only scratched the surface of the concepts)
Love the makers academy idea dude, that's a brill idea! I really need to engage in your discord so I can help contribute ideas and such for your stuff :)
Great content as always..!
Appreciate it!
We machine a lot of bronze at work`. We must have 10-55 gal drums of bronze chips. Do you think these would work for casting? We probably have 3 or 4 tons of it.
yes definitely. From melting and mixing all of it together you will probably have oxides and gasses in the melt, be sure to add a little phosphor copper shot to help clean the metal up a bit and it should work fine.
Another method is using joint compound to coat a print with 0% infill, an open bottom/riser and thin walls. Let it dry and ram it up in sand. Gives surprisingly good results but there are still some issues with porosity and pitting.
i've seen people do that, but you're right on the porosity and bad surface finish. It's the reason I don't want to do lost-foam either. Sometimes the metal comes out like swiss cheese. I'd rather have nicer finished projects.
Great video! Was always wondering where to source this stuff from. Do you have a good propane set up to recommend?
Thanks for all of your help
Happy to help
Hi Paul. Is it safe to use my ToAuto electric foundry in my living space?
I would advise against that. The furnace is probably safe on its own, but metals can give off fumes you do not want to breathe. Even "clean" casting grain contains fluxes designed to burn off and take gasses and other impurities with it.
How do you suggest melting scrap, if we end up buying the electric forge?
Copper and aluminum
Good question. I would suggest picking what you want to do specifically. If you intend to primarily melt scrap into ingots, get a propane furnace, not electric. If you intend to primarily make finished castings, don't use scrap at all. Buy good clean metal in the right alloy for casting.
You can make good castings with a propane furnace and do both casting and scrapping, but it's a steeper learning curve and higher failure rate when it comes to the castings. It's absolutely doable, but you will need to be able to regulate temperatures and not over/under heat metal when you are pouring molds. Hope this helps
@@PaulsGarage ok that makes sense, because in my job I get a lot of scrap metals for free, and I thought once you melted it and cleaned it you were good to go,
But obviously I need to rethink that
Cheers for the quick response
Any info on casting iron?
I did iron years ago, never again. The radiant heat is overwhelming. If a dime sized puddle of molten iron burns you while welding, imagine what a full crucible would do and you get what I mean.
You take your electric furnace up enough for copper? I've not pushed mine past zinc. I always get out the propane one for higher casting Temps, but it would be nice to have an alternative.
Yeah i've had mine at max temperature with a full 3kg crucible of bronze a couple times. Making that sign for one. I'm sure the lifespan is shortened by doing that, but it did it!
@@PaulsGaragethen i'll give itva shot next time I need brass!
This is super useful! Thanks!
I'm glad it helped! After that comment, I realized I hadn't made an "equipment" video in like 5 years, and the old video was all wrong haha!
Thanks for sharing the info! Super helpful!
you're welcome!
Great idea Paul! If there is anything I can help with, let me know!
Thanks! will do!
Cool video! The linked furnace says it will do around 2k deg F. As far as I know this is plenty of heat for Aluminum. Do you think this furnace would be good for casting small aluminum parts? Thanks!
It's definitely hot enough for aluminum, perhaps a little too hot. I use it for bronze. The only issue you will find is getting aluminum in chunks small enough to fit in the crucible. These are not good for melting down scrap, and really you shouldn't be casting with scrap anyway. Good casting aluminum (A356 alloy) is easy to find, but it usually comes in large single ingots.
@@PaulsGarage excellent, thanks for the reply! I do some TIG welding, so I have some aluminum I think would work, or I could cut ingots down. I'm a bit paranoid so no mystery metal for me. I've never cast any metal before, only welding so far. Looking forward to giving it a try!
Ive been playing with this for a while now, and really only have one problem. There is a lot of pitting inside the castings once they cool. Ive been making the castings slightly oversize so I can mill them down to final size, but there are always small voids, or bubbles, inside the castings. Suggestions?
Im primarily pouring brass into a small 45mm coin blank made of graphite. It is open top like an ingot, not a flask type mold.
A bunch of things cause porosity like that. First off, brass can be prone to that on it's own, and it gets worse the more times you re-melt it. Copper alloys can dissolve stuff from the air into the liquid while molten, and it comes out when the metal solidifies, giving you a bubble. There are commercial fluxes that can help with that (and the boil off of the zinc), but they aren't always sold in small quantities to retail customers. Also, graphite is a good ingot mold material, but you are still pouring down into something. Pour some water into a clear glass and you'll see all the air bubbles that get sucked in. Metal does the same thing. Open top molds usually give you worse results than flask molds for this reason (and some others)
So, taking brass already cast into something (plumbing parts), melting it into an ingot, then remelting the ingot later into a piece, is about the worst way to do it? Sounds about right... This would also explain why the bottom of the coin blank, once poured, always has a thin layer of copper. @@PaulsGarage
@starhawke380 yeah brass especially doesn't do well with repeated melting. Bronze is better, so is aluminum. Different alloys have different tolerances to that.
Ive had even worse luck with aluminum. Ive been using brass for its polished appearance for coin making. I polished up a brass ingot and then engraved it with the FineGold 999.9 and managed to fool a couple people I know. Brass is fun.
@@PaulsGarage
Safety Equipment for the home caster?
Good idea! I made a safety equipment video years ago, but it's probably inaccurate. An updated one would be helpful for people I think.
Remember draft angles on lettering and stuff will allow you forms to come out better.
Yes draft is important. Fortunately most 3d modeling programs have that built it, it's pretty handy
@@PaulsGarage Can be a huge pain the butt to do in CAD xD
I have to do that stuff for a living and oooh boy sometimes I would like to gouge my eyes out xD
Why not start with melting scrap?
glad you asked! I started with scrap, but most people who do, end up getting the wrong alloys, and either have contaminated metal or they contaminate it themselves melting it down and casting it. This is partly why you see so many bad castings (porosity, holes, bad surface finish, won't fill the mold all the way, etc...). Because of this, I suggest you buy clean casting metal. It eliminates a variable until you get the hang of making good castings. Even then, most experience metal casters I know don't want to use scrap for this reason. The bronze casting grain I showed in the video is not only clean, but contains additives to help keep it clean and help it flow better. Those additives burn off when you use the metal, so re-melting it won't be as good. This is another reason why scrap usually results in bad castings. Hope this helps
@@PaulsGarage Thanks, for clearing it up. Well I suspected it would be something about composition and purity, but then again copper wire for example seems like it's pretty pure for the most part, or aluminium foil or cans etc.. I guess not!
Cool idea. I think you’ll help a lot of people. And on with the show…. 😂
That's the plan!
You can always throw the "How-to" up on google docs and post a read-only link instead of setting up an e-mail distro
hey that might just work
I really wanna make metal game tokens so I can play poker with gold pirate coins, or replace missing board game pieces and cast them in metal. I have a resin printer and I was wondering if I could find a way to make highly detailed castings without massive and expensive machines :P
I have melted down scrap for casting before.
Don't. (At least to start)
Just get clean metal like he suggested... safer and less frustrating.
Exactly. Completely agree.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
1:30 baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more.
I guess I own a vevor electric furnace now.
it's awesome, i really like it. I just wish i could buy every metal in shot form and not big ingots.
We need more videos or less time between videos
I would love to do that. Life has been busy though
3D printers are "mostly" for plastic trinkets hehe
well they are really good for that lol
@@PaulsGarage Absolutely, but of course they do much more than that. I mean FDM and SLA 3D printing came down in price 10 fold in the last 10 years. I remember when the Form1 resin 3D printer was considered the cheapest option there is for like 2k or so. This is truly amazing. I have also discovered a new type or powder 3D printer, you got to check that out, the company is called Iro3D and is based in the US. The machines are one offs hand made by it´s inventor. Those work completely different from anything I have known.
On the same note, are you familiar with "Shell molding" ? A process invented in Germany in 1944 "Maskenformen" is the German name. This could be an awesome process for home use. The sand is infused with phenolic resin which sets at about 200°C. Which means you can locally harden the sand in thin layers by a laser or IR lamp or in the oven etc. and then pour any metal into the mold you like up to steel. Please tell me what you think.
That isn't angle iron, it is aluminum angle.
your Rapper file is missing
Really? it shows up for me. Maybe myminifactory is having issues, i'll look into it
OK it should work now! I changed some stuff
@@PaulsGarage working now
Awesome thanks for letting me know 👍
Hell yeah, now this is the video of all time... The Ender 3 v3 is only 200, and is one of the best printers for morons or people who have no idea about 3D printing at all.
🤔couldn't you just cast a flask to save $60🤷♂️🤣🤣😆
if you start with a much, much larger flask and more than $60 in sand, then yes! The price of that kit also includes the sand. i think they sell flasks separate for less. That's also made of cast iron, you would want iron for that design. The funnel opening on the end would get really sketchy if you made the flask in aluminum and tried to pour a bunch of bronze in there