Pouring aluminium in a plaster mold

[@FrankvanCaspel]

Thanks - this is definitely a troublesome omission from my post. Apart from letting it sit for more than a week we've also had the mold in the oven at 250C for several hours as well, in order to ensure we wouldn't get blasted with steam.

[@kommodorez24]

so??? how did it end up?? i wanna see the finished part dam it!

[@FrankvanCaspel]

I think the mold was completely dry, we let it dry for over a week. However, we had used the same mold just before with Nordic Gold, some of that might still have been in there. In the end we managed to make something that was good enough as a graduation gift :)

[@FrankvanCaspel]

The result was the best we managed to produce, but still not quite fabulous. A lot of dents and airbubbles remained.

[@frankreynolds7095]

Hi guys, im looking to do a plaster mold. I have a few questions if anyone can give me some advice, would be much appreciated. As i understand it, the mold isnt totally gypsum? did you add anything else to make the mold strong/resistant to heat? i also understand that the plaster has to be totally dry, does it matter if you have a riser pipe so that the steam could rise, i know you would want to have it as dry as possible so that minimal steam is produced. Thanks

[@FrankvanCaspel]

Good luck with the project! We've learned everything we know about casting from Lionel Oliver II at www.backyardmetalcasting.com/, he has a very nice guide as well: www.backyardmetalcasting.com/book_fp.html. You're best off directing your questions at him, we're no specialists at all...