Does anyone do aluminum casting?

D

Dixie Gunsmithing

Moderator Emeritus
I'm looking for someone who does green sand aluminum casting at their shop or home. I'm in need of a few cast parts, one a 6" dia. wheel with a hub, a connecting rod around 10" long, and a few other parts for a piece of shop tooling I'm working on. If you are interested in doing this, please message me. It will be several months before everything is done, as far as drawings, so I am in no hurry.
 
Is IRAC still in business? They used to cast solid machinegun receivers for display guns. Don't know if they are still around or not.
 
Q from the (ignorant) peanut gallery...being largely unfamiliar with casting...

Why cast, instead of CNC?
 
Casting saves a lot of time and material. Once you get the rough shape/casting, just a shade oversize, it doesn't take long to turn and bore it, plus you don't waste as much material that way. If worse came to worst, I could buy a piece of 6" aluminum round, about 2" thick, then turn and bore it, but that would waste a lot of material and time, just to turn down a 2" dia. x 1-1/2" long hub on one side. The aluminum round, cut, would run about $31.00 plus S&H, but there is all the excess machining I'd have to do.

The connecting rod will mostly be to shape, as cast, and it just needs to be drilled for the two shoulder bolt bushings, with a few set screws added to hold two bronze bushings. I could buy 1/2 x 1-1/2" flat cheap, and not cut any profile in it, but I'd like to get the shape I want, without all the extra machining with using a bandsaw or mill to get it. I don't have a CNC, so I do my machining the old way.

Green sand or lost foam casting would work for either, and I would make the two wooden molds to send to them. I plan on offering these as a kit, for others who want to build the project, so castings it is.

I know a few who does casting, but want to offer the job to my Gunsmith friends, who may want to do it, first.
 
A Google search turned up a lot of companies, some of which do one-offs and low volume. I am not aware of any gunsmiths who do aluminum casting; I would think you will need a shop that specialized in casting, but, as others have said, it won't be cheap. I would call or e-mail a couple of companies and get estimates.

You might find that machining will be the best and most economical route when only one or two are required.

Jim
 
Searching ohio aluminum foundry, I would get quotes from all of them and figure out if it would be more practical to machine it than to produce a one off cast part.

I bet I could have an aluminum part cast and delivered to me inside two weeks from china as fast or faster and cheaper than I could in the states, especially if it had been rendered in cad. There's a factory in china you can send that cad file to, it'll be carved out of foam shortly after payment, then cast, and put in the mail. At your door about a week later. You'll probably even talk to someone who speaks perfect English, some of the thousands of competitive foundries probably do free one off parts in hopes you'll buy a thousand or a million, even if not it makes things probably cost not a lot more than the aluminum and shipping.
 
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I have several places to get the castings, but was hoping to give the business to my fellow gunsmiths, if they did it, since backyard casting is getting more popular these days. Thanks guys.
 
Long ago I worked in a small foundry.I never worked with the sand,though.
I just kept the crucible cooking,poured,cut sprue,etc.
Aluminum is pretty much melt it and pour it.
Not to rain on your parade...the machinability of small shop sand castings may raise issues for you.
Plenty of aluminumoxide and sand in the skin.Hard on cutters.
In your patterns,realize they must pull easily from the sand.You must draft(taper) the pattern.
A very smooth surface is required.
Try to achieve uniform wall thickness.Use coring to avoid a large mass of material.
Put a generous radius on corners,especially inside corners.(on the part)
Look in your Machinery Handbook for casting shrink.
Depending on your part size,and the mold frame sizes your foundry has,you may be able to arrange your parts as a family on a flat piece of plywood.
Then only one sand mold and pour is necessary
 
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HiBC, Thanks for that info. Yes, I used to design rock drill castings, when I worked in the engineering dept. of a local mining machine manufacturer. One has to put a draft angle on the surfaces, around 2 to 5 degrees, so that they will separate and part from the sand, plus you need to specify where you want the sprue and vent to be placed, etc., if you don't want something that is way out of balance which you have to grind too much on.

You have to design aluminum parts at 1.3% as large as they need to be, over shrinkage. I add 1/8" onto each side of that, or a 1/4" bigger size, to all areas to be machined on both sides.

On the wood molds that we made and kept, the radius on inside corners was formed with Bondo, and then everything was sanded before we primed and painted the form.

Neither of these parts are complicated at all. One will be a 6" dia. solid wheel, with the disc 1/2" thick, along with a 1-1/2" long, by 2" dia. hub on one side of it, when finished. The link is a dogbone type, but not complicated. Both molds, really, could be made with foam, but green sand generally comes out much better. I might try either way.

I have a member on here who wants to give it a go, as he is new to home casting, so I'm going to work with him on it. Since both are simple parts, it'll give him experience.
 
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