Hand made Stuff

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engybenjy
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Hand made Stuff

Post by engybenjy »

Hey I am always keen to make stuff I was wondering if people wanted to take pics of their homemade mods or porting jobs etc. that they are proud of and post them on this thread we can share ideas and skills and maybe get some enjoyment out of it
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VX L67 Getrag
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Re: Hand made Stuff

Post by VX L67 Getrag »

Thats way too skilled for me, it's not nice you calling it a dipstick & writing it's name on it in case it forgets! LOL
engybenjy
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Re: Hand made Stuff

Post by engybenjy »

thats because i have made a few and installed the engine only to find the dipstick fouls on the job and you have to pull the whole lot out and fix it :sad2:
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festy
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Re: Hand made Stuff

Post by festy »

I noticed a bit of slop in my Alfa's Watts link bushes a few months ago, so thought I'd try and tighten it up a bit but ended up making a whole new watts from scratch. There's no bushes in the new setup, only bearings so it's nice and tight :twisted:
It took me 2 weeks of an hour here and there to get it finished, but ended up costing less than new rubber bushes would have ;)
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VX L67 Getrag
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Re: Hand made Stuff

Post by VX L67 Getrag »

Nice & tidy work Festy!
engybenjy
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Re: Hand made Stuff

Post by engybenjy »

Nice work Festy, that is exactly the sort of stuff I love to see. Did you teach yourself to cast the alloy or are you trained?
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Jayme
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Re: Hand made Stuff

Post by Jayme »

ok, for the n00bs like me wondering how the whole casting thing worked... can I guess that you buried the polystyrene in the sand, with the can leading to it, then when you pour the molten alloy into it, it melts the polystyrene away as it goes and takes the shape?
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festy
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Re: Hand made Stuff

Post by festy »

@engybenjy: nothing professional about my casting - google was my teacher, with lots of trial and error for good measure :roll:

@Jayme: Spot on, it's called 'lost foam' greensand casting, because you don't get the foam pattern back.
Except I wouldn't say it melts the foam - more like ferociously vapourises it - the metal is around 750*C when it hits the foam :shock:
The more traditional sand casting involves making a wood pattern of the object, making a mold using a 2 piece box (flask) and removing the pattern from the middle before you pour molten metal into the void that it's left. You can use the pattern over and over, but you're limited to the shapes you can cast because you have to be able to pull the pattern out of the sand mold.
With loast foam, you can cast any shape part because you don't have to worry about separating the mold - but every part needs a new pattern.
I made a hot wire cutter for shaping the foam using nichrome wire, that's the wooden board the foam is sitting on. The smalll hole in the middle is where the wire runs up to an arm above, and it's used like a tiny vertical bandsaw.
As you can see from the pic it's like a hot knife through butter... err.. foam even ;)
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vlad01
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Re: Hand made Stuff

Post by vlad01 »

festy wrote:@engybenjy: nothing professional about my casting - google was my teacher, with lots of trial and error for good measure :roll:

@Jayme: Spot on, it's called 'lost foam' greensand casting, because you don't get the foam pattern back.
Except I wouldn't say it melts the foam - more like ferociously vapourises it - the metal is around 750*C when it hits the foam :shock:
The more traditional sand casting involves making a wood pattern of the object, making a mold using a 2 piece box (flask) and removing the pattern from the middle before you pour molten metal into the void that it's left. You can use the pattern over and over, but you're limited to the shapes you can cast because you have to be able to pull the pattern out of the sand mold.
With loast foam, you can cast any shape part because you don't have to worry about separating the mold - but every part needs a new pattern.
I made a hot wire cutter for shaping the foam using nichrome wire, that's the wooden board the foam is sitting on. The smalll hole in the middle is where the wire runs up to an arm above, and it's used like a tiny vertical bandsaw.
As you can see from the pic it's like a hot knife through butter... err.. foam even ;)

I could cut foam shapes at work on our Zund cutter. its basically a CNC machine but designed for materials like this, foam, packaging, graphics, signage etc...

hmmm this gives me some ideas :twisted:


have you used zircon sand before. I recon normal sand is a bit rough for the job.
I'm the director of VSH (Vlad's Spec Holden), because HSV were doing it ass about.
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festy
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Re: Hand made Stuff

Post by festy »

My greensand is a mix of 'sydney river sand', bentonite and water. Apparently it's the sand of choice for sand pits because of the small, smooth granules.
It's not nearly as good as petrobond etc, but it shows up all the bead outlines in the foam if I do it right.
I googled zircon sand, and saw it's 1/3 silica (and expensive). Silica is used as a mold coating to improve surface finish, it's painted on in a slurry to form a shell between the foam and the sand - so any old rough sand will still give a great finish.

This casting didn't turn out nearly as smooth as it could have, I hadn't used my foundry for about a year before this so I was out of practice and my greensand badly needed rejuvinating - and the result was a pretty rough casting.
It's like painting a car - it's all in the preparation...
When I moved to suburbia recently I didn't bring my foundry with me - it was made from an old washing machine and wood fired - it looked and sounded like a jet engine when it got going and belched smoke every time I got off the throttle, so it was not very civilised.
But I've been missing the abillity to cast, so I'm working on a small gas fueled 'stealth' foundry that won't scare the neighbors as much :twisted:

I also built a CNC router for making patterns, but had to scrap it when I moved too :(
3D printing is a good for patterns too, for parts that need to be stronger than plastic.
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