G'day everyone,
I'll be starting a new project on the channel, and that is going to be a power feed for the milling machine. Before I can do that I will be making a custom gearbox that will be used to drive the power feed.
In this video I will be making use of the forge again to cast the housing. The gearbox housing design lends itself to being cast as it will use the least amount of material to make.
I hope you enjoy the video
Timestamps
0:00 - Intro
0:30 - Making The Casting Pattern
8:07 - Making The Sand Mold
9:49 - Adding The Draft Angles
10:44 - Second Time Making The Mold
11:41 - Casting The Aluminium
#DIY #machining #metalcasting
I love how the auto captions interpret your mill as music and your lathe as applause
Besides draft, you should have fillets on... everything, in every direction. Essentially make it look like a kids' sand castle mould, because that's what your pattern effectively is. The should really be no sharp edges of any kind anywhere at all (except the parting line) unless they are truly critical to be that way. The way you'll get a much much cleaner pull.
Yes I forgot that bit, the curse of filming is I tend to forget stuff 😅 Take care.
@@artisanmakes I did that quite a few times, and I didn't even have filming to excuse me. Bit by bit realised everything needs a radius... inside corners, outside corners, along the XY plane, along the YZ plane, etc... basically by having had too little clay in my sand and therefore it being *very* unforgiving to work with. Teaches you fast. Not so fun.
Cheers mate thankyou for the heads up, really useful information.
One thing watching you start to make the mould, you need to sieve the sand on top of the pattern. This will give you a much better surface finish on the casting. Then😮 keep sieving sand as you ram where you expose the pattern. Once you have the pattern covered with lightly rammed sand it is then that you can start putting sand by the handful into the cope to ram to up level the box. And looking at that sand, it looks rather too wet, and it's nothing like the sand I've seen before. And I taught casting back in the days when they still did it in schools here in the UK
A gent called myfordboy has some great casting vids you should check out. He just switched to 3d printing his molds. The real trick seems to be including a draft angle on the sidewalls, bondo filler, sanding, and painting. Petrobond casting sand (190 mesh) will give you amazing results with your current setup.
That sand looks like brown sugar. 😋
Congrats on the successful casting! Looks like it came out really well. Looking forward to seeing it machined, and I'm also quite interested to see how this project goes.
wow, the end results looks surprinsingly clean
I think a 3D-printer is the tool you need to produce the casting patterns. I saw it on many other channels, they all use a 3D-printer. Its way more flexible...
People have managed for thousands of years without them, I think he'll manage. These are rough castings to be machined later anyway.
OK, fair point. But they also managed it without a gas fired forge, a dremel, a mill or a lathe. And electicity is also a quite modern thing... These are just tools, that you CAN use, you don't have to. If you wanna work medieval, no one stops you. But the most of us like to use some tools, that makes the work easier. And if it is a 3D-Printer that makes it easier, why not? So you don't have to mill hours on a block of wood.
I can but I personally prefer to machine stuff by hand, its a lot more fun and this is only a hobby to me
Cool project. We shared this video on our homemade tools forum this week 😎
That casting came out brilliantly, well done Sir.
Love the format of your channel. Your project should be a powered bandsaw or a powered hacksaw. :)
This channel wouldn't be the same without the hacksaw interludes!
Powered saws are mostly superfluous in a home shop.
Nevermind! I see this was a recommended video from a year ago and not a new one that just dropped.
As always a joy to watch your work.
could you please varnish or paint the pattern and do infills in the corners? unless it is a diecast sharp edges will never come out well due to sand particulat size you can add sharp corners in post processing while machining the part
My experience with casting by is, like me, ancient of days, but I think you might have done without the deemed tapering treatment if you had prepared the wood model better. Sanding it smooth and then wax and wax and more wax. That is not to say the tapering isn’t a good idea. It is just that it is easy to solve a problem on the backside of an operation when some front side prep might have sufficed.
Is the project on hold or just taking a bit longer than other projects? I am quite excited to see how you make it all work in the end
That was oddly satisfying when you brought in the vacuum to clear the wood chips.
If you want to make packing the sand and spreading it easier on yourself, you need a sift. Put the sand in the sift then shake it into the mold box. Your molds will have better and smoother contour.
Like I said in the video, I'm working through issues with the sand. One being is that it's too wet to sift. I didn't have a choice in the sand I had access to and in still drying it out before I can sift it
@@artisanmakes mix talcom powder in it. Help make the sand finer and dry faster.
@@artisanmakes if it is too wet then take approximately a quarter of the sand that will fill the boxes and lay it out on a flat board out in the sun to dry out, when it's too dry to hold together, (but only just) then thoroughly mix it into the wetter sand and you should have the correct moisture content for the sand to hold together when gripped in your fist. Then it should cast ok without having too much steam being produced inside the cavities of the mould.
ive never seen anyone fly cut wood. What a world we live in
I've seen a few people fo it, mostly metal workers that need to do some wood working
Came out pretty spot on. I've got access to a couple of old mag rims I'm going to try to cut up and use for casting with. See how they go. Bloke I know has had some good success with them.
Aluminum rims, pistons, old engine parts that were cast, etc. all still seem to have a bit of flux in the metal from it's original casting. Makes for really good sand castings.
If you like reading then I suggest The Backyard Foundry by Terry Aspin, if you prefer to watch, then Olfoundryman is a fellow aussie KZheadr, both with great pointers.
Very cool. Looking forward to seeing it come together!
Very cool project! 👍 Thanks for sharing.
You definitely must obtain a 3d printer for master model. It can reduce efforts tremendously.
I could, but I enjoy machining by hand, this is a hobby after all :)
Looking forward to seeing how it machines 👍.
Thanks for saving my shop, time, money, mini lathe with your yt of a/c motor. Great for what l use it for.
Wouldnt it make more sense to 3d print the pattern? Great video, as always.
Wooden patterns have been the go-to for thousands of years, and they work very well.
@@TheIntermont True, but to be fair 3D printers didn't exist for most of those years! 3D printing patterns can be equally effective and much faster, if you know what you're doing. I guess it depends a bit on why you're casting - if it's for the enjoyment of the process, wooden patterns are traditional and the way to go. If it's just to get a finished part, why not choose the fastest method?
@@cooperised The next step would be a metal 3D printer, then you don't have to cast anything. But that's a quite expensive machine.
Dowel = wooden extrusion ! I love it!
Cool. Loving your videos bud, well done. I feel for you every time you have to cut something by hand
you really should get some POM or a 3d printer. all that would on those machine tools breaks my heart ^^
When you run out of that high silicone aluminium stock you could try getting an old quality alloy wheel and go at with a hacksaw until you can fit into your crusible.
I have a feeling it will be hard to remove the pattern from the sand. Patterns need 2 to 3 degrees of draft and a radius to be removed from the sand.
I initially did forgot to do that so I had to add them later. Bit sloppy on my part 😅
Easiest way to put draft on patterns would be to use tapered end mills. There are some 1/4 inch carbide ones with 2 - 5 degrees taper per side. I’ve used ~ 3 degrees successfully. You want your patterns to be glass-smooth. I’ve used lacquer, or more recently, shellac. Finish them up with a waxing, followed by a dusting with graphite before you put the sand to them.
Nicely done. It turned out better than I was expecting. Did you naturally dry the mold or heat it to dry it. i. e. assuming it was using water as a binder or is some other liquid used to bind the sand?
I love these videos. I've watched almost all of them
Thankyou, I'm glad you enjoy them
0:52 I "saw that coming". LOL
hi .. try not to have the sand so wet..?? ok .. turns to steam .. hence air bubble's .. but if you put pressure on the mould.. ie build higher feed points.( air will leave and metal will replace it.. you can use two old bean cans to make it happen. ok all the best.. Tone UK
Yes I am aware of this. Like I said in the video I'm working through issues with the sand. I didn't have a choice in the sand that I could use and the only sand I could obtain was this. We have had non stop rain for the past few months so the sand came soaked. I do dry out the mold before I use it and that helps mitigate the steam and that will have to do until the sand gets dry enough
Great job, that casting is looking rather fabulous! I should finally get around to try that as well... I was wondering, have you been made aware of iHSV servo motors at all? They're an almost-all-in-one package, and I used them to convert my CNC6040 fairly easily - the hardest part was me trying to figure out what I needed. Of course, the mounting points being nearly the same helped a lot. While I'm not sure how compatible they would be with the CNC controller you already have, they would be the power feed of your dreams! (Plus also enabling CNC on your big milling machine, potentially) I'm currently toying with the idea of buying a milling machine similar to yours and slapping my servos on that. Edit: Ah nevermind, I just saw a comment further down saying that you like machining by hand. Cheers anyway!
Is it possible to use your small cnc router to make the molds? Great video again💪
I see you changed out the WMNG for a WOOD insert on the fly cutter
I dont use WMNG, this is just a dcmt holder with aluminium cutting inserts
It would be better if the mold is painted and sanded sooth it will release better.
That seems to be something that I overlooked, cheers
I didn't understand why you made the wooden form first and then the casting. Didn't you previously take (or create) an aluminum block and machining it?
For one I am making 4 of these so it does.lend itself to casting, plus machining it from solid aluminium would be extremely expensive and in any event it is quite difficult for me to get large pieces of aluminium at the moment.
have you considered lost PLA casting or just 3d printing the casting form?
Looks like you got a part in the end, but there's a few things you could do to improve, without too much effort. Your pattern-making needs a bit of work, get rid of those sharp edges and corners, as that's where the sand will like to break-out first. and paint the thing after hand-sanding everything, it's amazing the difference a bit of paint will make, the sand will slip right off! alternatively, machine your patterns from plastic such as abs or hdpe, as long as the surface-finish is good, it works well and machines so easily even a cheapo 3018 cnc will cut them! Your sand looks to be really clumpy, maybe let it dry out a bit so it'll pass through a fine kitchen sieve, throw out or grind-up the lumpy bits then re-water as required. you need the sand to be as homogenous as possible, with no big lumpy bits to ruin your surface and cause unintended breakouts. Cut a proper pouring basin into your mould, use your spoon to dig a circular-ish depression, 50-75mm across and 30mmish deep close tou the edge of the flask (for easier pouring) and connect it with the sprue by cutting a channel to around half the depth of the basin, make sure all the edges are nice smooth rounded shapes to avoid frothing up the metal, and use a tapered sprue while your at it, they're a little harder to work around as you have to ram the sand around them rather than cutting after, but are worth it for the result. check out "oldfoundryman" on the tube for more details, by paying attention to his techniques, my own casting has improved dramatically, and seemingly insignificant details can make a huge difference! But whatever you do, keep doing it!
Yes I am aware of this. Like I said in the video I'm working through issues with the sand. I didn't have a choice in the sand that I could use and the only sand I could obtain was this. We have had non stop rain for the past few weeks so the sand came soaked. Its slowly drying but it's still too wet to properly sieve . Willl have to try out painting the patterns although leaving sharp corners is on me and I should have known better. Cheers
@@artisanmakes this side of the planet is roasting hot at the mo, so my sand needs it's water topped up constantly! spread it out as thin as you can on a big sheet overnight (a fan will help too) if you can. or just bake it in the oven if you can get away with it! the sand is probably the most important bit to get right, but it takes a while to get the feel for how it should be. good luck dude!
Cheers, you can certainly take our rain, everyone over here is sick of it :)
Blondehacks is doing a video series right now about building a kit steam engine which involves a lot of machining on casted parts. Might be some useful tips in there if that's your next step!
Joe pie, shaper
👏👏👏👏👏
Hi Silicon aluminium alloy can be finded on pistons fron cars and motorcycle
That 2:20 is some square wood.. I wonder how flat you got it.
Very interesting project , I'm interested in trying some small castings but i have encountered difficulties with the green sand, I've tried both with water and oil. Do you have a video to suggest that i can watch and maybe find out a good mixture . Also what have you used as degasser and flux in order to remove dross from the liquid aluminum ?
Have you considered a lost-wax plaster mould? I don't see why use sand for a single nonferrous casting. If you insist on sand, check out olfoundryman and vegoilguy's older videos, one of them probably have what you're looking for.
Mix thy sand 10:1 with liquid glass (water glass), after the form is filled let it dry. As flux - teaspoon of kitchens salt (NaCl) and teaspoon of washing soda (KCl)
Idk which kind of motor are u planing to use but i would suggest 2 types Bldc (because the speed won't sag under load) And stepper motor( because u have some decent control and accuracy) DC motors aren't a good idea because they spin very fast with little torque and in order to keep the thing moving, they drop the speed Same goes for universal motors
For no more complicated than your part was, I'd suggest building up your pattern out of foam and doing a lost foam cast. You don't need to disturb your mold once the pattern is embedded, the foam gets vaporized out during the pour.
Yeah but I had to make 4 of these so a wood pattern was needed. Cheers
Do you have a reverse on your mill? Is that a custom modification, or standard for that model?
Reverse is a standard function on this mill
Having read through the comments there is some good advice, and some not so good. I hope you can tell the difference. You had The olfoundryman channel is one you would benefit from. kzhead.info/tools/90RoN_IjSRF18jAG0HIA6g.html On your casting you had what I expect you thought was a feeder. (opposite from the sprue) Based on where you could use an explanation of its use. First you must understand that the metal does not solidify/freeze all at once. As the metal solidifies it also shrinks and it will pull metal from still fluid areas if it can. The feeder is to be a supply of molten metal to the part of the mold that is still liquid. You need to think of the direction of solidification. What the temperature of the metal is as it enters the mold and fills the available space. As a simpler example, assume you are casting a single metal bar, 10mm round by 200mm long, and if the sprue is feeding metal into one end. The temperature of the metal will be highest at the sprue end rather than the far end. As the metal moves away from the sprue side it is cooled by the sand. At the sprue side the sand is getting more heat pumped into it from the new fresh metal as the pour continues. Based on this the far side (being cooler) will freeze first, and in this simple case, the direction of solidification will continue toward the sprue, where it will freeze last. As the metal solidifies it shrinks. And this will pull metal from where ever it is still present. In this case, from the metal still fluid at the sprue end. In this case there is no need for a riser because there is a desirable path of solidification. Now take the above example and place a larger volume feature at one end. Like a hammer. The shaft is still 10mm round, still 200mm long, but with a simple hammer head on the end, 30mm diameter and 50mm long with a junction at the center of the long section to the 10mm diameter shaft. If you had the hammer head at the far end, opposite from the sprue, you have a situation where the larger cylinder of the hammer head will be solidifying from the outside in. The outside in contact with the sand will freeze first, with the center still yet to solidify. But as it is shrinking when it is solidifying it will try and pull metal from what has yet to freeze. And in this case it will not be able to pull metal from the hotter sprue side because the 10mm shaft has already froze in the center and is preventing and metal to be pulled from the still to freeze hammer head. What will happen is you will get a shrinkage defect at the head end. Now it is possible to add a sufficiently large riser at the head. But this is only marginally better. What would be better is to put the hammer head at the sprue end since the molten metal for the head, and the riser, do not have to flow through the 10mm shaft to fill those cavities. This will allow the shaft to solidify first toward the direction of the sprue. The head will not be drawing metal from the shaft. In your mold the thickest material happens to be at the sprue end. Whether by design, or by accident, this happens to be preferable. The riser you have is the equivalent of a read herring. It is there but it is only providing confusion. It is not feeding a larger slower solidifying mass. It isn't very large so it may not have any detrimental effect. It has the possibility of causing a shrinkage defect at that end if it were a significant volume. There are a lot of bad casting videos on KZhead that unfortunately providing bad information to those who are interest in it. Even some casters that have been at it for many years, with many videos, also are not always doing things right. Keep at it. Take a look for good examples and think of how they are doing things. Consider the theory and how it is being implemented. You might find this video interesting. kzhead.info/sun/kpFrYZeDhqOte40/bejne.html The riser on the right is not intended to feed the part. It is to slow the rate at which the part is filled. There are a number of things going on in this test but it would take a while to explain it all. Without all that, it is just cool to see.
Cheers, I always appreciate people taking time to comment. You explain it a lot nicer than my engineering textbook does. which has been my go to. With that said it needed the riser. I tried doing it without and I couldn't get it to work well, granted there are probably other variables at hand including my skill at doing this. I have a few casting specific books on the way which should be batter aimed at sand casting in particular. Cheers
👍👍😎👍👍
where's part two?
Did you ever release a continuation video for this? :)
I am setting up a hobby foundry in Brisbane. Where did you buy your aluminium ingots from?
I bought my casting aluminium off eBay. If you keep your eye out for them you can find listings for large ingots for reasonable prices
@@artisanmakes thanks
Ive never cast anything before but isn’t your sand a bit too gritty? Have a look at windy hill foundry his green sand looks more like a play dough type keep up the good work tho 👌
I know that the sand I'm using has issues and it's not optimal. I didn't have much choice in the sand I had access too when making the green sand mix so I used sand from the hardware store. In any event it's too wet and it's making it look coarser than it is. I am working through its sissies and I am conithat it will get better.
@@artisanmakes I seen a video of someone using the kids magic sand stuff casting aluminium and it worked perfectly might be worth a try?
It's something to consider but I'm not sure about the longevity and reusability of that type of sand. Cheers
@@artisanmakes true
What happened with this project?
can we start a go fund me to buy the man a portaband bandsaw lol
What kind of wood is that?
Once upon a time I made a gear box for the carriage of my Atlas lathe not knowing I could buy parts for it. I made it out of a chunk of steel at work on my day off.
Can you use a metal lathe for wood?
I certainly do without much trouble
Take a look at the teeth on your hacksaw blade. You might want to spring for some good bi-metallic blades, Starret are amazing if you can afford them. Sharp blades cut through aluminum and steel so fast it'll make you feel stupid for using dull blades.
I use full hss hacksaw blades from suttons. These were a little dull from going through a chunck of stainless
This might be a silly question, but why not just machine the part out of aluminium stock?
Quite expensive and difficult to get large dimensions of aluminium or any metal really, for a hobbyist. Those round protrusions would have to be machined out of a very big bit of stock.
Mmmm muffins
Been nine months ago and still no part 2 on gear box
St Mary's sand and soil western Sydney have fine play sand it might be out of your way But it's very fine
I'm sorry but I had to laugh when you said 'wood extrusions' In wood, it would be a moulding I trained as a machinist but play with 'dead tree carcass' sometimes
It was just a slip of the tongue. This is all modeled in CATIA and in CAD it would be an extrusion :)
11:20 The key word is Should. js
Is that bubinga wood?
To be honest, I'm really not too sure what wood this is
Electric drive for mill x and y I bet is what the gearbox is for
That is the plan, however I am making a revision to the design to fit a change of motors that I'll be using
Did you ever follow up on this project?
I did but I personally was not happy with the outcome of the video. I have all of the patterns ready, to go and make a follow up to this when I have the time
@@artisanmakesAmazing project we all waiting for the second part ~ (or a reboot)
where is part 2 ? 🥲
Check out the makercise channel. He got into lost foam casting aluminum with good results and not having to extract your pattern from the mold will save you time and effort.
Lost foam is not particularly useful for me as im making 4 of these. Cheers
This is really SOMETHING! Thx so much for your sharing. If you still need services like CNC, 3D Printing, Sheet metal Fabrication, PCB-relative stuff, PCBWay is here at your service anytime
Why not just machine a pattern out of wax and make a mould out of plaster? Sand is too finnicky IMO, it's only good for "mass producing" (in hobbyist terms) a single large design, because you can quickly prepare a dozen moulds from the same master and cast them in sequence.
I'm making 4 of these so sand molding suits. Plus it's good practice for me doing sand casting. In any event this is a hobby so what is most efficient doesn't matter as much to me, I enjoy casting so I did this. Cheers
@@artisanmakes Fair enough. I enjoy casting too, just not sand. As a wise man once said, it's course, rough, irritating, and gets everywhere.
Why do you want to cast the gearbox casing? If I look at the effort that goes into machining the pattern why not machine it directly into solid metal. I can only see the casting process as advantageous if you need multiples. If you need only one it is just a waste of time.
(Not intended as criticism, just wondering)
saves on material and a chance to try out casting. Plus I suppose it might save a bit of cutters and so on. Besides there's every chance he'll stuff up the machining and ends making multiples anyway ;)
wouldn't it be very expensive to buy that big of a block of aluminum just to remove most of the material.
It isn't about making a gear box case. It is about learning how to cast metal. He needs the practice and learn for bigger and better things.
The design is very conducive to being cast with those extrusion's at the back which will later become a bearing housing and rail guide. Its easier and cheaper for me to cast it as a feature like this than to try and braze an extrusion on to a piece of billet. Plus I am making 4 of these parts, so casting was the clear way to go.
why didnt you just machine it?
More material efficient and getting large chunks of aluminium is quite expensive at the moment
@@artisanmakes i see. and that wouldnt be as fun anyway!
If you can make a pattern out of wood, why not just make the part out of aluminum ? Instead of casting.
Cheaper and more efficient than buying a big slab of aluminium and removing a bulk of the material