Custom Cast Iron castings - any rec’s?

[tdmidget]

. They pour the best iron to be found using all new material, they do not use any old iron since the stove burners they pour can't have any hard spots since they get hundreds of holes drilled in them for the flame.

No such thing as "all new material." Even a blast furnace producing pig iron from ore use scrap in the charge.

 

[Milland]

Keep in mind the heater you have might have been made from castings, so it already has 1% shrinkage. Add another 1% shrinkage this time around, and that's 2% shrinkage - but it's compound shrinkage because it's 1% less of 1% less. Then, factor in that you'll only be able to heat water to 98% (roughly) as hot as you used to could, and you'll come to realize just what happened. Let me know if you need any more help.

No, you forgot it's a cube scaling, so it's closer to 90% maximum water heating. Clearly, too much mulled wine has dulled your senses...

 

[Bill D]

The Starrett thread says that they stopped making shrink rules for measuring forms several years ago. No demand. They still have some on the shelf but will not make any new ones once those are sold.
Bill D

 

[Mtndew]

You could give these guys a call, they're about an hour North of Detroit.
I have no experience with them so I can't comment on their pricing or quality.
https://www.barron-industries.com/

 

[triumph406]

The Starrett thread says that they stopped making shrink rules for measuring forms several years ago. No demand. They still have some on the shelf but will not make any new ones once those are sold.
Bill D

I still have some shrinkage rules, (not Starrett), used to write along the length "DO NOT USE"

There has to be a pyscholigcal reason why somebody would ignore that, or at least ask why can't I use the rule?

At least it was used for cutting material on the saw, so only wasted a small amount of material.

I had to hide them eventually

 

[M.B. Naegle]

In regards to the 3D printed lost wax method of casting. I have a project trying to reproduce a casting with nothing but the original drawing, and have drawn in in CAD. I got a quote a couple years ago to send that CAD file to a foundry that specialized in doing this kind of low volume, no pattern casting, and the quote was approx. $1500.00 per casting. This was for a simple lathe bed bracket about 14" long. (I'm going a different route now!)

 

[dgfoster]

In regards to the 3D printed lost wax method of casting. I have a project trying to reproduce a casting with nothing but the original drawing, and have drawn in in CAD. I got a quote a couple years ago to send that CAD file to a foundry that specialized in doing this kind of low volume, no pattern casting, and the quote was approx. $1500.00 per casting. This was for a simple lathe bed bracket about 14" long. (I'm going a different route now!)
View attachment 382564

You did a nice job on the drawing----it looks a lot like an Onshape drawing---software I really like using. What I do not see is a part line and draft.

Denis

 

[M.B. Naegle]

You did a nice job on the drawing----it looks a lot like an Onshape drawing---software I really like using. What I do not see is a part line and draft.

Denis

Thanks and yes it's Onshape. I started using it because it was free and the idea of using it out on the floor with a touch screen tablet seemed fantastic. Then I realized how hard it is to select tiny features on a little screen with my fat fingers. Now I mainly use it via desktop.

I was thinking about parting it down the middle parallel with the "right" side pictured (the hollow collar on the back would either be cored, or solid and drilled out later. I did the model as close as I could to the drawing with the intent on adding draft and other features to it once I either had a 3D print in my hand to physically play with, or had a foundry point out what they needed me to change.

I think we had talked about this project a couple years ago. My hope is to produce a loose plastic pattern via 3D printing that I can then pass to a foundry to use, or split the model and attach the halves to a mold-board, adding a sprue and vents as well. In the past my dealings with foundries lead me to leave all the pattern building and modification to them, but stuff like this it isn't really financially feasible to do that, so you either need to work closely with the foundry or know your stuff enough to do it all yourself without their help. In some ways, DIYing patterns feels like counterfeiting money, trying to see if the foundry will take your results or call you out as a fraud. For this project I hope to get three castings made, however it's a part that could potentially see later use to other users, so having a pattern (however rough and tumble it is) could be useful in the future. It's just the classic struggle of trying to avoid putting too much time and energy into something that might only get used once.

 

[triumph406]

You did a nice job on the drawing----it looks a lot like an Onshape drawing---software I really like using. What I do not see is a part line and draft.

Denis

You need neither draft or parting lines for lost wax casting

 

[dgfoster]

You need neither draft or parting lines for lost wax casting

Thanks and yes it's Onshape. I started using it because it was free and the idea of using it out on the floor with a touch screen tablet seemed fantastic. Then I realized how hard it is to select tiny features on a little screen with my fat fingers. Now I mainly use it via desktop.

I was thinking about parting it down the middle parallel with the "right" side pictured (the hollow collar on the back would either be cored, or solid and drilled out later. I did the model as close as I could to the drawing with the intent on adding draft and other features to it once I either had a 3D print in my hand to physically play with, or had a foundry point out what they needed me to change.

I think we had talked about this project a couple years ago. My hope is to produce a loose plastic pattern via 3D printing that I can then pass to a foundry to use, or split the model and attach the halves to a mold-board, adding a sprue and vents as well. In the past my dealings with foundries lead me to leave all the pattern building and modification to them, but stuff like this it isn't really financially feasible to do that, so you either need to work closely with the foundry or know your stuff enough to do it all yourself without their help. In some ways, DIYing patterns feels like counterfeiting money, trying to see if the foundry will take your results or call you out as a fraud. For this project I hope to get three castings made, however it's a part that could potentially see later use to other users, so having a pattern (however rough and tumble it is) could be useful in the future. It's just the classic struggle of trying to avoid putting too much time and energy into something that might only get used once.

You will need to suppress all those nice filets when you split the part and add draft as I have painfully found in the past. After the draft is established new filets can be applied. I do almost all my drawing on a PC, as well, for reasons of display, convenience, and because some functionality is not fully supported on my iPad or phone.

You need neither draft or parting lines for lost wax casting

You don’t say? I kinda doubt this part will be done in lost wax.


Denis

 

[triumph406]

You don’t say? I kinda doubt this part will be done in lost wax.


Denis

What I meant to say was you don't need draft or parting lines for lost wax casting if using a 3D print.

If your making waxes from a mold, then you'll need draft and parting lines

 

[L Vanice]

You need neither draft or parting lines for lost wax casting

Same goes for lost plastic casting. I have done lost wax casting at home, starting in 1962 when my dentist gave me his equipment. I am familiar with making wax models, filling a flask with investment and vaporizing the wax and pouring the metal with centrifugal force into the red hot mold. I have machined lost wax steel and bronze castings that had draft and parting lines because the wax patterns were themselves cast in metal molds. Those parts were mass produced. My own work was hand carved in wax to make unique objects.

I have read that 3D printed special grade plastic parts can be embedded in a mold and the poured metal will vaporize the plastic. I have seen large iron truck parts made from consumable Styrofoam patterns, which would be a similar process. I do not know the specifics of the processes, but the plastic patterns themselves, like the lost wax patterns, would not need draft or a parting line because they are left in the mold prior to the pour.

Larry

 

[50BMG DUDE]

Try Windy hill foundry - they have a you tube channel and do a lot of small batch and oddball castings.

 

[dgfoster]

Lost wax casting has been done for at least 6500 years. It is used almost exclusively for jewelry and art casting like bronzes and so on. Small steel lost wax has been in common use for things like the lugs used for joining steel tube bike frames for 70 or 80 years---I used my first set in 1982. Lost foam is also in relatively common use for smallish runs of medium-sized parts especially aluminum parts. I regularly communicate with a guy in Iowa who makes custom aluminum valve covers, carburetor mounts and similar sized items using lost foam aluminum casting. He does fantastic work. There are likely a few foundries doing lost foam iron castings in the US. But 99+% of iron castings are done with resin-bound sand as the process is well-suited to small to very large runs of parts weighing .5 pounds to 5000 pounds. The OP might possibly find someone to do his iron castings in foam or lost wax, but it is not at all likely and it is not necessarily cheaper for short runs than sand.

So, yes, lost wax can be very practically used for very small (1-2 oz bike lugs) or even smaller dental gold work. But there is a reason it is used only on the rarest of occasions for anything weighing even a few pounds in iron. BTW, I declined MY dentist's offer of his centrifugal casting lost-wax equipment on his retirement about 6 years ago as it was just too small for anything I would want to make for my shop use. I was very tempted to take it and make a few centrifugal lost-wax castings, but I knew that ultimately it would just gather dust.

Making 3-D printed molds for casting is definitely a work saver for me. But there is still a fair bit of careful hand work involved as the printed parts have striations due to the printing process, they often warp a bit and, for match plates, have to be carefully fitted to the plates and then you have to make a tiny fillet all the way around the junction line, fair the striations, apply a lustrous paint coating and then make accurate, jam-free, and robust registration pins in the cope and drag flasks and in the plate. The plate itself has to be smoothly painted after gates and runners are also fabricated and just as carefully attached to the plate. (I just spent a few hours today on a flask/matchplate set fairing the printed patterns and finishing the junction fillets---careful detailed work.) So, just 3-D printing the pattern pieces does not make pattern making simple or quick. It does make accuracy easier to achieve and CAD drawing (also time consuming) allows for more elegant and more "organic" designs. As an example of some very recent 3-d pattern work, here is a wheel and its corresponding pattern that I cast in iron. It is one of 8 similar wheels that I made. Making those nice sweeping arms and corresponding fillets would have been possible in traditional wood work, but it would have been challenging.

Denis

 

[cyanidekid]

Hi All,

I was wondering if there are any foundries to recommend for making castings for an old Humphrey water heater I have? Nothing is broken, and I could send the parts in to be reproduced, but have never done this before. Just 2 or 3 sets is all I would need.

I am in the process of cleaning up the original one I have (see pic, was taken out of a spaghetti factory in Chicago), and when that’s done, I thought I would try to build a “new” one myself using new castings but original plumbing and hardware I gathered over the years.

Thanks!

figure out how much north of 20K you have the stomach for, now. if that's not in the cards for you, just skip it and enjoy this one. looks really cool, but it can't be up to code anywhere, so it could only be used in a detached non residential building im guessing.

 

[Shaybuilder]

No such thing as "all new material." Even a blast furnace producing pig iron from ore use scrap in the charge.

Sorry but I have to disagree with you. They use all drops from fabricators who are using NEW material from the steel suppliers. If you go to your local steel supplier are you going to convince them that you are buying used material when they pull it off the rack of NEW material? I don't think so.

 

[Servicar rider]

My nephew restores antique steam engines and has had quite a few castings made by the Cattail foundry in Gordonsville Pennsylvania. They do one of or small runs of iron castings. Amish family run.

 

[adammil1]

I have long since thought in my head there would be a big market for a "shapeways" of castings. One guy on the Live Steam forum does some beautiful 3D printing with a really cheap resin printer. He's using a particular resin that burns out with no ash which he uses to investment cast off of. I am not sure how well it would work on Iron but for bronze it's perfect. Now I just want to upload a 3D model have someone 3D print the "wax" or whatever you call it and pour/send me a finished part. Why is this so hard and expensive in this day and age to get done?

 

[stephen thomas]

I've never used them, but several friends including Dave Richards routinely use Cattail Foundry.
They seem to be responsive & relatively fast, and will cast from existing parts.

All points made by OP's in this thread about you cleaning them up, filling holes, smoothing/blending surfaces, etc, before sending will apply.

From your place in PA it should be easy to plan a visit if only for information gathering.

smt

 

[michiganbuck]

For some parts, it might be best to fudge up a tracer arm and just mill a part out of steel.
I had a friend who made ball nose probes for his trace arm and with the same ball end mill could match most any part by just using a Bridgeport. No print or anything..just the existing part.
Yes, a rotary table for some parts.

That is a beautiful water heater. I once saw a similar one in a Cheboygan Mi thrift store but it was a wood or coal burner.