CAST BRASS MACHINIST HAMMERS - PART 1, THE CASTING

How to cast a useful machinist hammer from scrap brass. In this video I demonstrate how I used 3D printed patterns with removable pieces to cast some personalised parts. I also show my method for making epoxy resin and sand cores using 3D printed core boxes with built in flexures which makes it easier to remove the cores. I will 'fess up now.... mistakes were made but I make some attempt to show where I could have done better.

[@wrstew1272]

Mark- your showing possible mistakes is a great thing, it is a warning to others. That just shows that you are human and making videos alters your state of concentration, affecting the outcome. Had a boss that had the common sense to not disturb me while using power equipment. Saved lost product and kept the insurance billing to a minimum.

[@BravoCharleses]

Yet another excellent vid, Mr. Presling. A note for beginners: Brass is made of zinc and copper. Zinc boils at a lower temperature than copper, as Mark touched on when he mentioned losing zinc. Zinc fumes are potentially hazardous to breathe so whenever you're casting brass you need to do it in a well ventilated area. Metal fume fever is no joke!

[@mrpete222]

This is a wonderful application of 3d printing

[@Preso58]

I always find my most creative thoughts come to me when walking or in the shower. I remember seeing the creator of the Sony Walkman would swim underwater and carry a waterproof pen and whiteboard with him. He would jot down new ideas as they came to him! The little monogram discs worked great and I resent the time it takes to 3D print parts so any way of speeding it up is a bonus. Regards, Mark

[@WARRANTW3]

I learned this process in the 60’s in Middle school, never forgotten. We only worked with aluminum though.

[@mrc1539]

It’s always best to get all the mistakes out of the way on the first one , it makes it so much easier to do the second one.😉😉 ! LOL ! Thanks for the video .

[@mce1919A4]

Nicely done, thanks for all the videos.

[@CraigConnors]

Freaking beautiful hammer!!! Always enjoyable watching you make anything whether you make mistakes or not because you always come out ahead with a fantastic final product.

[@swanvalleymachineshop]

Cool , i love casting videos . Cheers .

[@guye7763]

The most efficient way of getting uneven volumes mixed is geometric dilution. If you have say ten grams of the smaller volume add ten grams or an equal volume of the larger and combine. Then add equal volume on the larger to the already combined. Very quickly you will have it all combined and free from discrepancies. Beautifully explained in Turorial Pharmacy circa 1975.🤣. It makes me feel sick remembering that book but the technique sure works.

[@Preso58]

Hats off to pharmacists! 😁 Regards, Mark

[@swdweeb]

Good Job Mark, I expect Martin has already "spoken" to you regarding the metal going over the ridge and into the sprue.

[@Preso58]

Absolutely. I have his email address now and I suspect he will get sick of me asking noob questions. I did a second batch of two hammers and used the tapered sprue and the style of pouring basin that he prefers. He sent me an STL file so I could get a better idea of the shape. So much to learn!

[@lv_woodturner3899]

Very good video as usual. The final hammers look terrific. Well done Mark. Glad you showed the end result up front. So many details to keep track of, and so easy to miss one like the letter orientation. Looking forward to the later episodes. Dave.

[@AmateurRedneckWorkshop]

Great work on the casting.

[@GregorShapiro]

Great to hear all your comments; for a novice it is most informing!

[@34k5]

Brilliant, love it. Thank you for sharing.

[@kmcwhq]

In a recent video, Tom Lipton was talking about hammers, and made the point that Brass is a bit hard and can cause damage to steel parts. Copper was his answer for a better mark free hammer material.

[@Preso58]

Yes, I watched that video just after I had printed the patterns for my brass hammers. I would love to have a supply of copper stock like he has. I am guessing he just goes through the skip out the back of Berkeley Labs to find enough to make a whole batch. I saw one of his posts on Instagram where they broke up a HUGE granite surface plate with sledge hammers because they couldn't sell it at auction. It was about the size of my bathroom floor. I nearly cried!

[@Kevin-gx8lc]

Love your vids Prezza! The hammers look great, even straight out of the mould. Very well done, greetings from Southport UK

[@Preso58]

Kevin, thanks for that. We came so close to Southport on our UK road trip. We stayed in Liverpool and then drove to Windemere. We were debating whether to go into Blackpool but decided against it. All our accommodation was prebooked so we had to hustle. It was certainly "interesting" negotiating the narrow lanes. Our rental car didn't have a reversing camera and more than once we had to back up quite a long way with the proximity alarms going off on both sides as we scraped along the hedges! 😧 I badly wanted to paint a big sign on our car saying "Tourist - have pity". Regards, Preso

[@yambo59]

Love watching these brass hammers being made from scratch, dont let mistakes bother you in the least. You have the strength of character to own up to them and try again, and thats an admirable trait in anyone - were all human and imperfect by design. The best thing about mistakes is what we learn from them, and what we learn makes our end products better and better. This was how Rolls and Royce designed built and tested the earliest Rolls Royces, they built a car tested it until something broke then redesigned it and tested again repeating the process until the result was arguably the most reliable and high crafted car make in the world just after the turn of the century, youre in pretty good company.

[@Preso58]

Not to mention their Trent turbine engines. It's nice to look out the window on a jet and see the RR on the engine cowlings. Regards, Mark

[@yambo59]

Oh you said it, sad to say ive only flown once in my entire life, but as you said it felt comforting to look out the window and see that RR logo, I knew it didnt get much better than that.

[@windyhillfoundry5940]

Really nice👌

[@roylucas1027]

Great video. Take care.

[@afpienaar4604]

Thank you for sharing People who laugh at blunders are the ones that never perform themselves

[@Tule54]

Nice hammers Mark! I want one 😉. Looking forward to the rest of the series. I like Your approach to things and that you also shares Your mistakes with us. You always learn from mistakes, I know that the hard way 😒. Cheers from a cold Sweden!

[@Preso58]

Tule54, thanks for that. I can't say I like learning the hard way but it is an inevitable part of learning new skills. Foundry work in particular seems to be one of those skills that requires a lifetime of learning. No matter how meticulous I get with preparing patterns and moulds, the outcomes are never predictable. What goes on inside the mould is violent and dynamic so there is plenty of scope for things to go wrong. It is so frustrating when it goes wrong but equally it is quite rewarding when you end up with a usable part. My wife and I hope to visit your part of the world some time soon. So different to where I live! Regards, Mark

[@peterpeterson7665]

The resin that went off was probably a polyurethane casting resin, which in my experience usually have a shelf life of 6-12 months once opened. And hate any exposure to moisture. Epoxy resins usually last longer. Great video btw. Have been planning to do something similar. Love making my own tools. My favorite hammer Is one I turned down from a piece of 38mm brass hex stock. Cheers

[@Preso58]

Yes, it was a surprise to me when it went off. I just won't be buying that type again. Regards, Mark

[@nikond90ful1]

Thanks for the video.

[@CraigsWorkshop]

Nice work Mark! I don't have any casting facilities, but I like the size and agility and weight of those small ball pein hammers - so this gives me an idea to modify an existing ball pein hammer: Cut off half the cylindrical part, drill and tap the new face, loctite in a stud, and then cut off a few discs of round material (brass or aluminium or delrin or whatever) that can now screw on in place of the original steel face. When it gets dinged up, either reface it on the lathe, or make a new one!

[@Preso58]

Well you have a stinking big milling machine and a nice lathe so you're already half way there. Check out my video on making a copper face drawbar hammer. kzbin.info/www/bejne/hGbJapqdeJppr5Y It's a bit like what you are considering. Regards, Mark

[@luckygen1001]

Have a look at 26:35, you scrape all the slag off but left some on the lip of the crucible and it falls in your pouring basin.

[@Preso58]

Yes, that stuff was hard to get rid of and I was very conscious of getting it in the mould as quickly as I could before it started to cool. I ended up with a cold shut on one of the hammers but I was able to silver solder it back together again. I had to warn my friend Macca, (a former boilermaker) that it wasn't a hammer designed for flogging inch thick steel but rather, for light tapping of delicate setups. The muller works great! Regards, Mark Presling

[@luckygen1001]

@@Preso58 Good to see that the muller is a useful tool in your workshop.

[@crazyfeller5704]

Thanks for sharing.

[@casevideo9880]

Nice job. Reminds me of high school metal shop, but we casted in aluminum.

[@Preso58]

You are lucky then. When I was teaching shop classes at school we were forbidden from teaching metal casting. This was in the days when the Education Department set policy for workplace health and safety. About 15 years ago they transferred the risk assessment and risk management to schools and individual teachers. We were then told we could teach anything we wanted but if there was an accident we would be personally responsible. So, not much metal casting was taught then either. Regards, Mark

[@ianbertenshaw4350]

Excellent video Mark ! Thanks for being so candid with your mistakes and for showing the corrections you needed to make. You could have added an alignment spigot in behind the monogram so it can only go in one way - but that's easy for me to say after watching the video !

[@Preso58]

Yes, you are correct. A triangular spigot would ensure that it was presoproof!

[@RRINTHESHOP]

Very nice.

[@jonnafry]

Great Vid! I'm sure Rick wouldn't have minded the 'R' especially if he lives down under.

[@johnnyjorgenlarsen]

Like your style

[@camatbattler2233]

G'Day Mark, love the vids. When I ran my foundry (hopefully I'll get it up and going on a much smaller scale) I made up my own 'K-Bond' which is very similar to Petrobond. Use it over and over and just need to add some Isopropyl alcohol or metho with some smokeless 2 stroke oil when re-mulling and its ready to go again. Gives beautiful definition (even thumb prints on the pattern) and is more like working bread dough than sand. Also worked very well on cast iron. Cam

[@Preso58]

Cam, I now have a recipe for Kbond and I am looking for a supply of bentone. Stay tuned! Regards, Preso

[@camatbattler2233]

@@Preso58 G'Day Mark, try Brenntag in Brisbane. I purchased from their Melbourne facility, this is the price I got a couple of days ago - "We do have product in stock. TDS and SDS attached. Price for 25kg of Bentone 34 is $22.31 per kg plus GST. Total cost $557.75 plus GST. Delivery Melbourne Metro". Not cheap I'll admit but if you do a quantity of casting its worth it for the superb finish you get on castings. Bronze comes out with a near mirror finish. I live down in Geelong south of Melbourne and they will deliver for free to my address. Cam

[@Preso58]

@@camatbattler2233 I am definitely interested in trying some KBond but $500 plus is a big investment for a backyard foundry. I will need to run this by the finance department (spouse). I may buy the whole 25kg and try to sell it on with gumtree or Ebay but I did see a post on the alloy avenue site where a poster was looking for partners to defray the cost of a whole bag purchase. Thanks for the info. Regards, Mark Presling

[@michaelclark2840]

Nice video Mark. Your casting skills are really improving. Just a word on hammer handles (and any other wooden handles for that matter). Always try to buy or make handles where the plane of the grain is in the same longitudinal plane of the hammer head or tool. In this way the handles last so much longer and don't delaminate as they do when the gain is at right angles to the plane of the hammer head. It amazes me that so many handles are made the wrong way these days.

[@Preso58]

Don't get me started on hammer handles. I went to four hardware stores and three tool suppliers and guess what? Not a single one stocked a replacement hammer handle of the size I wanted. It seems that hammers are sold as disposable items now. I ended up buying a job lot of five handles on Ebay from the UK. So, I had to pay for shipping and they were purchased sight unseen. I understand what you are saying and one handle did start to split beyond the lower edge of the hammer head. I had to soak the grain with some thin cyanoacrylate to stabilise the wood. The only good thing is that a machinist hammer has a fairly easy life since they are not designed for heavy blows. Oh for the good old days when you could pop down to the local hardware and purchase from a wide selection of replacement handles of all descriptions! Regards, Mark

[@michaelclark2840]

Ahh yes. That is an issue. Fortunately our local hardware stocks quite a number. However I am a bit of a hammer collector of all things. With some I have had to cave my own handles. It's really not that hard and quite rewarding. You should try it.

[@blfstk1]

Good show Mate. I always look forward to your vids. People that do things make mistakes. No mistakes means you ain't doing anything. I make bunches because almost everything I'm doing is a prototype. Seems you are in the same boat. I may be using processes I've used hundreds of times, but I'm making something I have never made before. You always learn more from your mistakes than you ever learn from you successes. Your successes just look better. Multi-tasking? I do real well to get up to semi-tasking.

[@Preso58]

I like that. Semi tasking..... I must add that to my list of excuses.

[@blfstk1]

@@Preso58 Excuses. I have hundreds. People that do stuff need excuses to why it didn't turn out like they planned. I've always liked "The Sun was in my eyes."

[@blfstk1]

I forgot to ask. If you would like to cast up one of those brass hammers and send it to me, I would not mind. Could you put an S on it?

[@wilsonlaidlaw]

At my father's foundry, when they were casting brass for bearing shells and valve bodies, they used to blow oxygen gently through the molten metal with a lance before pouring, to get rid of dissolved hydrogen which can cause surface bubbles and even voids in the cast. This was 50 years ago and I don't know if that is still foundry practice. They did the same thing with silicon aluminium.

[@Preso58]

Wilson, according to my mentor Olfoundryman the gas he uses in argon. Apparently degassing molten metal is just as complex as every other aspect of foundry work. I don't bother trying to degas any more. The advice I was given was to melt the metal as quickly as possible and don't go stirring it too much. Regards, Mark

[@pgs8597]

G’day Presso. I would have kept the “R” makes for a talking point and an everlasting question “hey Presso when ya gonna fix it” Cheers Peter

[@rallymax2]

Entertaining as always Mark. Is brass harder to cast with vs aluminum?

[@Preso58]

Brass just takes way longer to melt and it's hard to judge just how hot it is. Most of the fails I have had with brass are due to having the metal freeze before it has filled the mould. Otherwise the mould making process is the same. Regards, Mark

[@yeagerxp]

Nicely done 👍👍👍Thanks for sharing. U R being too hard on yourself

[@turningpoint6643]

Nice job Mark and leaving the mistakes in is a good learning lesson for the rest of us. Fwiw if you end up making anymore hammer heads? There should be at least one online scan around somewhere from the South Bend published projects book of there fully machined ball pein hammer. I know Randy Richards found one online some where when I mentioned it to him.In my opinion it has the very best proportions out of any design I've seen so far. Printing the pattern to there dimensions would be easy enough.

[@Preso58]

I did go looking for a 3D model of a machinist hammer head but came up short. I ended up measuring one that I already had (shown in the first shot of the video) however it was a really difficult thing to model. I had to use lofted profiles to get the transitions from the head and the ball pein to the central body of the hammer. I guess I didn't look hard enough for published drawings. I ended up putting the model on Thingiverse if anyone else wants to use it. Regards, Mark Presling

[@turningpoint6643]

@@Preso58 This might be where Randy found his Mark. vintagemachinery.org/pubs/detail.aspx?id=16819 it's on page 36 of this PDF.

[@billbaggins]

I should try casting one day, got heaps of brass odds. Just need to make a furnace, find some sand and do much more research on this voodoo....... item 874 on the list of things to get round to

[@keithnicklin8819]

Mark, they are not mistakes, they are practice runs!.

[@Preso58]

Ha ha, I am going to use that! Regards, Preso

[@jmunozar]

hello Mr Presling!, thanks for these videos!, quite curious how did you made your homebrew casting sand?, it would be really nice to see a video of that!

[@Preso58]

The only ingredient that might be hard to get is the bentonite clay. I was able to buy a 20kg bag from a rural supplier. It is sold as a sealer for earth dams. I also used some fine white beach sand but it is better to buy the "play sand' from a hardware store and sieve out the larger lumps. My greensand is a bit coarse but otherwise it's easy to make. The ratio is about 8-12% bentonite and the rest is sand. Regards, Mark

[@jmunozar]

@@Preso58 thanks a lot for your reply! I will give it a look

[@unclebobsbees4899]

Nice job Mark. Upside-down letter means it's hand made! Would have kept it.. Multitasking the bane of male existence.

[@IBWatchinUrVids]

Exactly. Accept the mistake and live with it. I recently made an arbor for a slitting saw, it's beautiful, but I put the 3 in 3/4 upside down. It just makes it more "me".

[@bobengelhardt856]

I once built a cedar strip canoe using West System epoxy. I was using left-over epoxy for at least 15 years - yours should not go bad on you. Regarding the zinc boiling off the brass: how do you know how much zinc to add to make up for the boiling-off?

[@Preso58]

Bob, I too like the West system epoxy. It has never failed on me. With regard to the quantity of zinc, it is a bit of a judgement call but I was told by Olfoundryman that 1% added just before the pour is about right. I used some old roof flashing. It melts almost immediately. Regards, Mark

[@mclem4u]

👍

[@billdoodson4232]

Hi Mark, just a thought on those printed patterns for the cores. Could you print tabs on the sides so that you can use a screwdriver or similar to prise the patterns open, rather than risk the Stanley knife blade going through your thumb. Print them slightly offset from the face so when the 2 are put together there is a 2mm gap. You could use them as lugs to hold the two parts together and put the locating dowels in for when you are doing the mouldings.

[@Preso58]

Bill, I do print in some chamfers and other details to make separating the cores from the 3D prints now. Mostly I just leave thin slits in the core boxes so they flex open readily. The slits are so thin that the sand grains don't really get into the gaps. What would we do without 3D printers? Regards, Mark

[@billdoodson4232]

@@Preso58 Trouble with your channel, Clough42, Stefans and others is you do use 3D printers. Just something I have not got into (yet). For one thats going to be useful it looks as if I need to spend north of £1K which is money I can put towards something else for the workshop. I maybe need to reassess.

[@theNebinator]

What is the material you use to make the core with to allow a hole for handle?

[@Preso58]

I use a sand and epoxy mixture. Around 8% epoxy and just fine beach sand. It sets overnight and makes a strong core which holds together well in the mould. Regards, Mark

[@sparksupthere]

Hi Mark. Great work and thanks for sharing your videos. Question... your "REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT" tag doesn't happen to have a LIF127 Hawk aircraft on the reverse side does it? If so, we may have mutual friends in common. 👍

[@Preso58]

No, I picked that up at the Farnborough Air Show in 2016, on a trade stand, not from an aircraft on the taxi way. 😁

[@sparksupthere]

@@Preso58 Excellent. I like it. 👍

[@tilek1983]

How about the one with an o. Was it the right side up?

[@Preso58]

Well, at least that one was symmetrical so I couldn't mess it up. Regards, Mark

[@stephensimpson5283]

I'll have the buggered one :)

[@Preso58]

Sorry but it went back into the furnace. I subscribe to the theory that it's best to destroy the evidence. Regards, Preso

[@stephensimpson5283]

@@Preso58 It was worth a try haha

[@Cyruscosmo]

No laughing here. I have a mountain of scrap iron, brass, copper, aluminium, and bronze I have collected over the years. I just finished building my shop a couple summers ago, have a new old mill I am restoring and lathe and am looking forward to jumping into casting very soon so any information you bring to light is much appreciated.

[@Preso58]

Cyrus, I recently purchased some new ingots of aluminium on the advice of my mentor Olfoundryman. He told me that if I approached a foundry and offered them $5 per kilo for good quality ingots and paid cash they would take it. He was absolutely correct and I now have about 30 kilos of stock for my next aluminium casting job. I have had some spectacular failures when using pressure die cast aluminium as my melting stock. The casting was brittle, hard to machine and the surface quality was rubbish. However, I started out using old car cylinder heads and pistons and those materials served me well. I guess you just have to find out what to avoid. I have only been doing home casting for the last 7 years or so and I initially thought it was just too difficult to do at home. It turns out that it is way easier than I first thought. As you have seen though, I still get failures. I am thinking the failure rate is about 5%. I would suggest that anyone with a half decent home workshop should give it a go. It provides so much more scope for projects that can be achieved without a whole lot of tooling. Regards, Mark

[@MrJohnnaz]

Why not use sodium silicate(also known as water glass, used as sealant for boilers), it cures with co2 very fast.

[@Preso58]

Here in Australia it is very costly to rent a cylinder of CO2. I have used sodium silicate sand before but I had access to CO2 mig welding gas at work. Now that I am retired that particular access has dried up. I know it is possible to use soda stream type cylinders but it is just an added cost. I find that the epoxy sand method suits the way I do things. The only down side is that you have to wait overnight for the epoxy to cure. Regards, Mark

[@SharkyMoto]

can you upload the STL files to thingiverse? i'd like to give that a shot myself, that would make a nice winter project

[@Preso58]

OK, will do!

[@chrischapel9165]

Well Presso...Bobs your Uncle! 😄

[@coyzee1]

Hello Mark, great video. About 5 years ago I purchased some Petrobond Powder from Cast Metal Services. They're still operational it seems and in your part of the State. I use the powder as a substitute for bentonite clay in an oil sand recipe I got from the net. The original page is down but here is a link to a forum, the 7th comment down gives full details for the recipe. www.chaski.org/homemachinist/viewtopic.php?t=41623

[@Preso58]

Thanks for the link. I have bookmarked it and will have to go back and read it thoroughly. I have googled recipes for petrobond like mixtures before without much luck but this link seems to be promising. Regards, Preso

[@coyzee1]

@@Preso58 No worries Mate. Apart from the foul smelling smoke, it works well.

[@josiahburckhartt1293]

Hey mark, I am needing several ball-peen and cobbler hammer heads for my business, could you give me a quote on a large quantity? Thanks!

[@gotyaa8527]

Hi Mark if your still looking for a supply of green sand in Australia, link from bigstackD Casting in Oz i think he's near Perth Petrobond sand bought from my Good Mate Bruce he is located in Australia and sells petrobond to Australian Casters his link here. www.greensand.com.au

[@Preso58]

Thanks, I just had a look at the greensand site. I had been there some time ago but he wasn't stocking petrobond at that time. I sent him an email to find out what ratios I will need.

[@dizzolve]

your playlist runs backwards

[@Preso58]

Fixed it. Thanks for letting me know. Regards, Mark

[@GregorShapiro]

"Ball peen hammer" (I assume you are an Aussie but nonetheless the hammer is used to 'peen' rivets. eeeeeee :-)

[@Preso58]

My text book that I used at college shows the spelling as pein. Must be one of those never ending "who spells it right" issues like colour/color, aluminium/aluminum etc. etc. And don't get me started on solder/sodder.... 😁

[@GregorShapiro]

@@Preso58 to-may-to to-mah-to. (Google does not recognize "pein"...)

[@IBWatchinUrVids]

Petrobond is good stuff, but, first of all, getting a package here (in the US) without it tearing open and losing half of it is the first part of the battle. The other thing, when you pour into it, it smokes, A LOT. Even doing it outside makes the whole house smell like an oil fire, to the point that the neighbors ask what's going on. Besides that, once it's been used a lot, reconstituting it back to a usable state can be a bit of a hit and miss project. As usual, love your videos, stop touching your monitor :D

[@Preso58]

I had heard that petrobond can be a smelly beast but I would like to give it a try just the same. With regards to the monitor poking, I had not noticed that but now that I am aware I will avoid it with extreme prejudice. 😁