My first attempt at casting aluminium round stock

Another backyard casting adventure down under.
Camera: Nikon Coolpix L820

[@sneakystaffie]

G'day again Robby, mate I'm stoked to see you using my idea I sent you of using vacuum cleaner pipe. The results you're getting are exactly the same as mine. Well done champ :) I'd suggest the reason its not machining as well as everyday aluminium is because that material or some of it could well be duralumin which is often used to make castings for many things such as, electric motor housings, car water pumps etc, etc It machines exactly how that bar you made did and it sometimes will have tiny pinholes but yet still has good tensile strength. As I mentioned a while back a slit down the length of the pipe and closed back up with hose clamps will allow easy removal of the metal, particularly with brass. IT STICKS to the pipe real well. Stainless steel pipe works heaps better than chrome plated pipe.Take care champ :) Love the vids too :) Cheers, Bill.

[@Xynudu]

You may be right regarding the duralium aspect. I made a reverse tumbler gear out of some electric motor case end castings and man is that tough stuff. There is absolutely no sign of wear on the gear. It's has a matt/dull finish when machined and is as hard as nails. Very good gear material. Bit wet to do any casting at the moment, but looking forward to summer and get back into it. Cheers Rob

[@Xynudu]

I saw a YT video from Romania where they cast alloy into a short hollow tube resting on a metal plate. The round metal cylinder of alloy came out of the tube quite easily. So I wondered how it would go with a longer length of uniform tube. No problem. I have seen the results using green sand casting and they are nowhere near as good. So overall I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and if I can find some good quality metal the results should be good. Rob

[@sneakystaffie]

Yeah its tough, you can find duralumin/dural almost any where and its just so easy to work with.Tends to leave a deposit on lathe tools like ally does if you take big cuts but all in all I use it for many applications and it has not let me down yet. as well as vacuum cleaner pipe I find that stainless steel bollards and the cheapy toilet roll storage pipe thingo's from the supermarket work a treat for bigger diameter castings. By the way I now have a toilet roll dispenser in my workshop thanks to your great idea of using dunny rolls for rags n stuff, how absolutely handy. Also robby, you'll find if you preheat the vacuum pipe to somewhere around bright reddish before pouring it will help with those pesky little pinholes and give a cleaner casting. Cheers bud :)

[@TheOwenGiles]

Thanks for sharing that. I found that very interesting. On thinking about it, it may also be that by using Stainless Steel and as a result a sealed form, maybe the Al did not have the opportunity to gas out in the mold as with sand, and that the SS caused it cool to rapidly also not allowing time for the gas to escape. It would be interesting to see if you remelted the same Al and used a sand mold to see if the inner mass quality had improved. Would you are doing is very cool. Thanks again.

[@Xynudu]

You could be right, but theoretically most gasout occurs in the crucible - I think. I will try casting into sand. My next cast experiment will be using the lost styro foam method where you make a shape out of old packing foam, coat it lightly with plaster slop, bury in sand when dryed, and cast into that. Sounds great eh :) Cheers Rob

[@TheWreckingYard]

Interesting for sure, I didn't know you could degass with baking soda, alot easier to get than the commercial stuff

[@FredMiller]

Great video. I have watched dozens of home foundry videos and I think this one has tipped me over the edge to give home foundry casting a try. I like the simplicity of your foundry and I think I can build one now with the pieces I have around the shop. thank you-

[@Xynudu]

This furnace is a simple set up, costs almost nothing to make and run, makes no smoke, and using the shop vacuum as a blower makes plenty of heat. Maybe later I wil try sand casting, but this is a good easy way to get started. Have a go Fred. Cheers Rob.

[@AmateurRedneckWorkshop]

That was a great video. I never thought of casting into a pipe. I did a small amount of sand casting about 35 years ago and I just may start up again. Thanks for the video.

[@Xynudu]

Thanks. The aluminium will always pull away from the pipe due to the alloy's approximately 3% shrinkage factor when cool. The pipe has to be uniform and NO internal seam. I will have another go at this when I get time. The alloy I used was pretty crappy, and I think it may have been the type they cast with a centrifuge. Rob

[@ShaneGadsby]

Came for the casting; stayed for the Internatinal Roast tin!

[@cooldog60]

Could you cast a piece of pipe with internal threads?

[@Xynudu]

It would depend where the threads are located.

[@bam1314]

Nice job you make it look easy.

[@Xynudu]

Hi Bill. That's because it really is quite easy. Just be careful. A lot to learn doing this, and I'm only a beginner, so you can only get better at it. To cast really big stuff would require a much more sophisticatd set up, but for small scale stuff this works fine. Cheers Rob.

[@DSCKy]

What would happen if you melted it in the casting tube instead of a separate container?

[@Xynudu]

You could do that. It's important that the tube is perfectly cylindrical or you will have problems knocking out the alloy. Heating steel to these sort of temperatures causes it to flake and rust which makes extraction difficult. The other way to do it is melt the alloy in a suitable shape/size tin can and let it cool, then peel away the tin. Rob

[@iiianydayiii]

It's like a simple die casting. I wonder what results you'd get if you heated the pipe with a torch right before you poured. I've found lead molds need to be heated prior to pouring or you get a wrinkled effect in the cast lead. Thanks for posting this btw, I was curious about this too.

[@Gkuljian]

Fantastic. What I've learned is that I'm not using my brain to think outside of the standard concepts. This is the benefit of not having the resources immediately at hand. You improvise. You're shaming me with my mechanical engineering degree. I normally operate like you do, but learned through ease of consumerism to forget that I have the resources to do far more than it appears. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[@Xynudu]

+Gkuljian It comes down to mindset. and everyone is different. When I look at something I always think why do it that way, is there another way to do it with less? I guess I am never satisfied with the process. People just accept that the existing way is the only way. It may well be the best way currently, but that doesn't mean another way isn't possible - it's just that someone hasn't thought of it yet. This is why I have a severe dislike of skeptics. They are useless people that never think past given concepts. If we were all like that, the world would never progress. Cheers Rob.