Balanced Arm build (part 2)

I'm trying to build a giant balanced arm camera mount for my workshop. In this video, I do some more aluminum casting for the hinges, and spend a lot of time trying (struggling) to improve my casting technique. I also show how I use my CNC router to make a split pattern.
Paul's Garage, Improving Metal Castings Through Better Gating: • Improving Metal Castin...
If you like what I'm doing here and find some value in it, consider supporting my work on Patreon: / jeremymakesthings
I promise I'll still mostly make stuff out of rusty junk and not just buy shiny things with your money.

[@stewartfrye]

Experience is the best teacher, rarely does perfection happen on the first try. I'll guess 10 years from now, you will still be perfecting your casting skills. Life is an adventure of experience. An umbrella was invented from the experience of getting wet. I bet the first umbrella was a miserable disaster. Keep your desire to better yourself, it's an admirable trait.

[@Dellpodder]

Dude, your dedication to the learning process and willingness to share your mistakes and what you changed are an inspiration. Thanks for another great video!

[@Watchyn_Yarwood]

100% agree!

[@wibblywobblyidiotvision]

Excellent video. Mistakes and near successes are far more interesting to watch than "Ta-daah! Perfect!"

[@marvinpybus4599]

Old Foundryman ( Martin) has a KZbin channel with an entire video dedicated to sprues and pouring basins. He gives thorough explanations about his choice of sprues and pouring basins, why your ladle or crucible should be close to your mold, etc. . The castings that Martin pours are the equal of commercial castings, because of his decades of experience.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

I watched that one it was a good one, and I tried to follow his advice on the final pour.

[@thomasreynolds1530]

Nice, the best tutorial videos are videos like this where the mistakes are out in the open.

[@RB-yq7qv]

The extra clay was a winner

[@bhoiiii]

Friend, don’t worry about the comments. I’m watching because I enjoy following your process. As an expert in everything, you’re doing it wrong. :) cheers man.

[@LittleAussieRockets]

I love your approach. Trial and error is the best way of gaining understanding and learning.

[@CraigsWorkshop]

Loved the machinist level scene 😂 Edit: (and now I have seen the whole vid, that casting is looking great!) Very cool. Makes me want to try it 👍

[@frogdavw9699]

I could not agree more with your attitude on mistakes. They are the root of all learning. Thanks for sharing them with us. Good job, good video, good day

[@TradeWorks_Construction]

😅 just as I was about comment on a couple things you could try to make your casting turn out better you referenced another channel who gives a better explanation and advice than I was going to give. Thanks for the heads up to Paul’s Garage 👍. And a BIG THANK YOU for being one of the creators who is willing to add their trial and error process for others to see. If more people were willing to publish the footage of their early attempts along with their thought process and reasoning It could save 100s of people working on similar projects from needless trial and error. More recently I’ve come to believe that including the results of the trial and error can be just as important as the final process used for anyone trying their hand at new skills for the first time. So 🍻 to you for stepping up and saving us viewers from having to learn all that the hard way🫡.

[@zachaliles]

It looked like a little city when you had all those castings on the bench.

[@gustavogiorno3122]

I never casted anything, but I've watched a lot of videos on the subject. Your first videos were making me cry, cause you didn't understand the concept yet 😂😂😂. It was very satisfying watching this last video and see you figuring out all the things I wished you had done on the others castings!!! 😂😂😂

[@5tr41ghtGuy]

Thanks for showing what casting aluminum looks like when a person doesn't have much previous experience. Now I know to plan on ruining several pours when I give it a try ;-)

[@karlh6700]

I've never tried to cast anything but I do watch Sand Rammer, Windy Hill Foundry, and Myfordboy.

[@Glurgi]

Interesting to see the learning progress, and I appreciate the point about the comments as you are not the only one learning from reading them :) I would suggest putting hardened washers in the hinges, as there will be a lot of pressure rubbing on a small area once everything is assembled. This will take care of the wear and tear better then aluminium would. TBH you could probably get away with any sort of washer if you are willing to swap them out when needed. Just my thoughts, you probably already had that covered :)

[@rickpalechuk4411]

Great that you are sharing your failures, like yourself this will aid others as they try their hand at casting. Enjoyable series, thanks for sharing. Cheers

[@jimsvideos7201]

Your casting improved remarkably quickly, kudos to you.

[@RotarySMP]

I really enjoyed this video. Nice to see that iterative learning process. I hope "Olfoundryman" picks up on your channel and starts commenting your castings. His critique based on a lifetime as a foundryman has been really helpful to me.

[@charliemyres5450]

I have been casting aluminium for 37 years and only recently worked out why some of my castings failed. Here is a list of good-practice; 1. Use good quality aluminium from pistons, engine parts, wheel rims. These all machine well and resist shrinking. 2. Hot melt-temperatures are needed for thin castings to help it flow. Cooler temperatures can be used for heavy castings, such as yours, to help reduce shrinking. 3.Definitely use a pouring-basin and tapered sprue to limit turbulence, wash and gas induction. 4. If you use a pattern-plate, or match-plate, you can use a pattern for the runners and in-gates. This eliminates wash from sand disturbed by cutting a runner afterwards. 5. The in-gate should be as least as thick as the casting, so that it doesn't solidify first. 6. Risers (feeders) must always be the last part to solidify, so that the casting can be fed as it shrinks. i.e. the riser is the largest cross section in the mould. 7. Sometimes the runners and in-gate can be used as the feeder. 8. For long thin castings a bigger tapered sprue is needed to get the metal in quicker. 9. Too much velocity on some moulds causes wash and turbulence, so using an aluminium filter such as those made by Foseco, slows the filling process and makes for a nicer casting. Everything I have mentioned here, is equally as important as the design and effort put into the pattern for the casting. I noticed that you have some trouble extracting your pattern halves. Place a pointy metal spike into the holes on the back of the pattern and rap it with a rod to free the pattern slightly in the sand. Drill two small holes in the back of each half first, or use the dowel holes and screw in a wood screw so that it grips the wood. Then lift the pattern free, Cheers Charlie

[@benmodel5745]

Best way to not get shrinkage is to design your parts without large areas that will shrink. If you look at most castings, you'll see walls only as thick as necessary, and consistent thicknesses to adjacent areas whenever possible. Love the iterative learning, remember you're catching up to hundreds of years of development!

[@JeremyMakesThings]

That makes a lot of sense, now that I understand the problem, I can design around the solution.

[@ADBBuild]

Coring out the center section on both sides would remove little strength and lots of aluminum. Basically make it like an I-beam.

[@osgeld]

I have never cast anything in my life, but what youtube has taught me is I probably don't have the patience for it

[@julias-shed]

That sand looks loads better. Really interesting to see the progression with more sophisticated gating 😀

[@RyJones]

The only way to learn is to try!

[@EDesigns_FL]

A pouring basin might resolve some of the problems that you're having. It will even out the flow of metal being feed into the mold, help to trap impurities, and it makes it a little easier to pour (larger target). Though he's not a big YT star, I've found the videos published by Windy Hill Foundry to be some of the most informative for metal casting. He details why he does something and he shows his mistakes and explains what went wrong. You will likely pickup some useful tips from him.

[@krolu]

Hi Jeremy. First of all big thank you for sharing this cause your mistakes and explanations of them are so much more help than just lessons on how others do it with great results and no feedback on that so keep those mistakes coming please. Now will be the "but" part :). I will point out that this would be maybe even cheaper to buy just perfect block of aluminum and machine those part from it. Of course we will not learn anything from that but still its just a though I wanted to share. One more time keep those videos coming. I like your machining way better than others with new great machines cause yours are way closer to my heart. When I see what you are making from just rusty old junk taken from the river I am just full of new ideas of my own what can I do without spending fortune for parts. Cheers

[@jdmccorful]

Can't offer any suggestions but would say from my experience of learning something new you're on the right track for success. Love the burn for more. Thanks for the look, enjoyed.

[@Justins_shed]

Good stuff, Jeremy. This project may have escalated but the extra lessons and skills acquisition will pay off in future projects.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

That was the plan all along.

[@SRHacksaw]

Jeremy, your bottom board of thin low quality plywood bounces, and messes up your parting line when you're ramming. It's also too large to turn easily. Use good quality 3/4" birch plywood the same size as your molding box, and you'll find things go a lot easier, and it will give a clean parting plane.

[@robertschmidt6383]

I was just struck with genious idea. Try one of those vibrating/muscle punching devices to pack the sand. That might give you a better molded surface.

[@toteu00000]

Although it probably is frustrating for you, it makes for good content in my opinion. Thank you for your effort!

[@ferb7452]

S O P all projects end up beyond where you think they will end I was told it is fun 🤪

[@bobvines00]

Jeremy, that's _great_ progress! "Olfoundryman" recently released a video about a lot of _incorrect_ things that have been posted on KZbin -- some of what he said ought to be helpful to your future casting projects. I'm really looking forward to your next video(s) on this and other projects!

[@glennburrow4364]

That looks like it will be extremely handy. I don't know how big of a camera you plan on putting on there, but it seems to me that it will be a pretty big lever with pretty small screws in the wood stud. You may want to go to lags. Also, I see that you put the ball head and camera mount on the top of the end of the arm. That will work fine, but you can probably get more range of motion and get the camera out of your way better if you mount the ball head and camera upside-down on the bottom of the end of the arm and then flip the video in the edit. Not something you would need to do all the time, but it may be a useful feature to have the option to mount it on either side. Shoot, while you are at it, you could probably put a thread to mount it vertically. That would give you the option to shoot straight down, I don't think your ball head has the range of motion to do that while mounted horizontally.

[@Rustinox]

Very interesting indeed. A lot of work, but that's of course part of the fun.

[@lucasandri5462]

Very interesting seeing the learning process and for someone who's thinking about trying some casting is a occasion to learn something. In the hinges i would put some brass or bronze washers as a bearing material to have a smooth motion.

[@RB-yq7qv]

Hi Jeremy I paint my molds with gloss paint and then I wax them. I repeat the waxing three to four times to ensure the parts have a good cover.

[@kendingsor]

Your tenacity in this pursuit was admirable!

[@mumblbeebee6546]

Great video, I love your style and also the learning journey. I mean, there’s only that much perfect chips falling in the sunset, perfect casts emerging from copes etc. that I can watch before I get itchy. I have no workshop so living vicariously through you - and the learning is fun! I can’t offer any advice here, other than that the casting videos that I found most instructive were the SV Seeker ones (but the content is not catalogued so you’ll be scrubbing through timelines _forever_ ). But you have clearly watched enough, I thought that your last cast was really very good!

[@ronnybe7994]

The feeder needs to be the last to solidify If you had covered the feeder with some kaowool, you'd probably escaped the shrinkage

[@steejans]

I love seeing the learning process.

[@JETHO321]

Very cool process to watch. Thanks for posting it!

[@ChristophLehner]

I was about to comment, you should use a pouring basin, but it seems on the last pours, you did already use it.

[@camillosteuss]

Around 15m, it seems that the new mixture is quite good, from my very limited experience... Also, do more voluminous gates and runners... My experience with casting is similar to welding(a lot more experience)... I prefer using higher amperage and run faster and add more filler to regulate temp, and with casting, i prefer to use metal as hot as possible and use wider passages as that seems to encapsulate what little oxides form and allow for better feeding(less shrinkage) during the cooling... Any and all waste can be cut and molten again after finishing the parts, and hotter metal always flows better and joins cleaner... Of course you dont want to blast holes with tig or vaporize 20kg of molten metal due to overheating it, but closer to the upper boundaries is where i am comfortable and more trusting that the end product will be as solid and stable as possible... `edit-oh yeah, i just resumed and seen the mould... yup, that sure is a superior mixture... and very hot metal, that seems more close to red hot than any other crucible you prepared in this vid... nice

[@kentuckytrapper780]

Great video man, keep'um coming..

[@philipps00]

cool nice work !!!

[@matts_shed]

Great video. Thanks for sharing

[@scroungasworkshop4663]

Just brilliant 👍👍👍

[@yeagerxp]

Good job 👍👍👍Thank you for sharing.

[@peter360adventures9]

Awesome

[@Sodabowski]

You should check out Oldfoundyman's videos, he does it the proper (professional) way and explains everything.

[@leepanter4639]

just curious...can something be more/less mediocre? Is that like having an "Extra Medium" sized t-shirt? If "less mediocre" is better, wouldn't "not-mediocre" be equivalent to perfection? If that's the case, then this video is completely lacking mediocrity. Thank you for your wonderful content Jeremy!

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Perhaps the quantity of mediocre casting has been reduced? Or the level of mediocrity of the castings has been reduced? The world may never know.

[@guy_b]

There is a channel called oldfoundryman. That dude will teach you everything you could possibly learn from a yt channel about metal casting.

[@MatthewTinker-au-pont-blanc]

Have you looked at "Olfoundryman"'s youtube channel? He uses e feeding basin to pour! Cheers, Matthew

[@ironhead65]

What kind of project would it be without spiraling out of control? I thought you did a great job showing progression and appreciate the reminders to metal casting process. Oh and your sand was both too wet and too dry and had too much clay and not enough all at the same time! As you said the comments are well meaning but…geesh!

[@JeremyMakesThings]

It was also too fine and too coarse. After watching a lot of people doing a good job casting in various different ways, I think the best advice I’ve gotten was “you just have to put in the time to figure out what works for you.”

[@chrislee7817]

I watched some Indian guy casting a complex bell housing on an earth floor workshop. I don't know how those guys do it.

[@sigurasg]

Have you seen oldfoundryman’s videos? Here’s one on sprue, poring basin and gating: kzbin.info/www/bejne/o2e6aGSpYsiXlZI. Caveat, I know nothing of casting, but Martin (oldfoundryman) does seem to know his stuff.

[@camojoe2]

You may already know of this channel kzbin.infovideos He was a caster in the USN. Regards, Duck

[@HansWeberHimself]

Cool. Just asking for my learning. Did you consider getting a slab of aluminum from McMaster Carr and just mashing the whole thing? Why didn’t you consider it OR why didn’t you do it. Love the process.

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Really, this project is an excuse to cast things to learn the process. The pieces don’t need to look particularly pretty, nor do they need to be real high quality, so there’s room for error and room for improvement on each one. It’s a kills expansion really.

[@HansWeberHimself]

@@JeremyMakesThings Best reason ever!

[@ericmorriscompany9648]

I find that Perry does an excellent job explaining how and why to do things. This series is very specific. Check his channel out. I think you will like what he has. kzbin.info/aero/PLU1QP34Dv8Y70lJsPZDGnnW2n0A_fhF0w

[@JeremyMakesThings]

Yup, he’s one I’ve been watching.

[@CraigAndera]

As always, great stuff. You are a few steps ahead of me on the same curve, although I definitely believe I moved forward a few just from watching this. If you haven't already, consider heat treating the aluminum. Not for strength, but because it seems to help with machinability. And it's easy. At least, that's what I learned from this Flowering Elbow video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sGbIm5uYZtlreLs Flowering Elbow in general is great. Recommended. In any event, keep up the great work!

[@robertschmidt6383]

I have a suspicion that your not packing it tight enough all the way through.

[@joeo6378]

Sir, your sprue is too big. Good day. I SAID GOOD DAY.

[@CarnivoreCurin]

I recommend swdeeb on KZbin. Pay attention to how he cuts his pouring basins

[@OuroborosArmory]

A great channel for casting is @Swdweeb he does a lot of this type of casting.