Bigger Permanent Molding Press pt.1/3 - Casting The Platen Plates

When designing my newer, bigger molding press, I decided to make the 3 platen plates from cast aluminum. This would be cheaper, easier to machine, and result in a press that I wouldn't need a crane to lift. In this foundry session, I set a personal record for most metal cast in one day! While I managed to pour 3 platens, the second one turned out ugly due to the sand being too dry, falling apart, and me trying to reconstruct the mold by hand with a spoon. I ended up remelting that one and pouring a replacement at a later time.
Check out the build of the first molding press here: • Building a Permanent "...
Subscribe to Greens and Machines for more Gardening, Machining, and other DIY videos.
Credits to DJ Petesake for the music in this video. Visit his Soundcloud to download the soundtrack:
/ greens-and-machines-so...
Visit www.greensandm... for more

[@Engineerd3d]

Those castings came out pretty good. Your foundry can handle quite a bit of metal. Would love some more details about it.

[@greensnmachines]

You can check out the history of the foundry here on the blog: www.greensandmachines.com/p/the-foundry.html

[@Engineerd3d]

@@greensnmachines checking it.

[@bootsowen]

These castings were pretty big. They 2/3 turned out very well. I suspect that you could use construction caulk to build up the filets. Do you use lacquer or shellac to finish the pattern? Might make it easier to release. That and damper sand as you say.

[@dilbertfirestorm4851]

what made you decide to go with open cast? also, why didn't you not make all the holes in the original mold? I see that in #2, you drilled/buffed a whole bunch of holes.

[@greensnmachines]

Only one side of the platens had features and the other was flat, and I typically have much greater success with open face molds. If the holes were cast, they'd still need to be machined to size, also molding the holes would be more difficult.