Welcome to the forum, just north of you in Greely. Very nice work, please continue to amaze me/us with your creativity. The Jack o lamp is a great idea made from something so simple very nice stuff.
Those patterns are a combination of wood and 3D printed bits. They were for the Pneumatic Power Drawbar that just didn't work to my satisfaction. Life has gotten in the way for casting my 4th axis mount. It's 3D printed as several pieces, glued together and then fixed up with bondo, primer and paint.Interesting patterns jcdammeyer, looks good, whatcha making? Are those 3D printed? My 3D printer hates me for trying to make it poop out foundry patterns.
Speaking of patternmaking, I saw what has to be one of the most incredible collection of flawlessly beyond restored antique English patternmaking machine tools on the planet this past Saturday at the Great Canadian Rust Junkie Fest here in Ottawa at Jack Forsberg's workshop, aka the Wadkin Temple. Which actually belongs in an elvish village in Middle Earth or something. It's almost too much awesome to bear. Only my 2nd year attending, but I'll be there every year I can going forward.
Greely eh? Small world, wow, in the.few hours I've been here I've found multiple local contacts already. Combustible herbage here who's a 20 minutes drive from my place, plus slow-poke who's apparently about 3 blocks from my mother in law's house! Surprising.
Hello & thanks to all the rest who've popped in to say hi as well!
Jeff
Welcome from the Okanagan.Pics of some stuff I brought to show off when I did a casting demo for the National Capital Network of Sculptors a couple months ago with a friend and former.student who's in tight with the network's current president.
Some examples of wooden and cast aluminum patterns, and some finished castings made from them...
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Cast aluminum matchplate patterns with masters and castings, sand rammer patterns and completed "pound sand" rammer, belt buckles and a brass marking gauge with pattern...
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Original vintage brass foundryman buckle on the left. Middle is an aluminum copy I cast from the original and modified to make a pattern. Right is a bronze one I made for me to wear.
The small bronze castings on top are 1918 Alan Herschel carousel horse stirrup strap holders. Leaning up against the world's least used permanent matchplate pattern for casting wooden horse stirrup strap holders.
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I made another aluminum buckle pattern off the original that I then milled the foundryman detail off of to get a customizable buckle blank pattern. I was working at the blacksmithing school at the time and we were supposed to be able to sell some swag at the school's Comicon booth (which sadly happened a few weeks after they laid me off). Our leather teacher assured us we could get away with selling up to 5 of an item with unlicensed corporate branding on it (not a lawyer don't quote me on that), so I came up with this. Oh well, it went to my neighbour in the end, he is a great neighbour and puts punisher skull on all his cars and bikes, so he loves this thing.
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Lost foam bunny rabbit castings. Just messing around really, but I do kind of like the bronze coat hook bunny head with the tusks and horns.
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More lost foam casting experiments. The pear shaped man is actually a lost Cheetos casting.
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Jack-o-lamp. Definitely not CSA approved. Pattern was glued up from the cut out face sections of 3 styrofoam jack o lanterns purchased at Michels on November 1.
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I really don't mess with the lost foam casting on more than a for fun level, I'm really a sand caster. But it's absolutely possible to make very high quality castings (machine parts etc) using that method, as well as this kinda goofy stuff.
Cast aluminum very small production run matchplates for pattern rappers, sprue covers, and the wooden horse parts I still don't know why I put that much work into. The shoe is just a 3d printed pattern from a 2-off job that came through a couple years ago. Dude was building a custom fancy wooden display shoebox for his client and needed shiny metal shoe silhouettes to inset into the top and bottom of the lid. I never got to see a pic of the finished box.
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I have recent pics from the sculpture project too, will come back with some of those in a while but I gotta pop away for a bit now.
Later,
Jeff
Hey Jeff. I'm new to this forum, and also hoping to get started with some casting. I seem unable to locate on Ontario source for casting material (ingots), not scrap. I see aluminum and silicon bronze at Sculpture Supply in TO but not much else. Where do you source your metal?Hello all,
Just found this forum, not sure how I missed it before! Looking forward to checking out what's already been posted, sharing info, and making a few new friends maybe.
Ottawa area hobbyist metal caster since 2013. I specialize in nonferrous sand casting, but plan to add cast iron soon. And lost wax casting eventually. All my gear (that I actually.have room to use) is shop built, with the exception of my crucibles. I've built furnaces that run on charcoal, wood, propane, and waste oil. Plus all the flasks and molding tools and tongs and shanks, even a sand muller.
For the first several years I was at the mercy of the weather, having to lay down molds outside when the weather allowed and roll my furnaces out and back inside the shed with each use. But a few years back I added better ventilation and fireproofing, allowing for all year metal casting under a roof and out of the weather.
Still definitely 95% hobbyist, but I do take on a few small runs and one off commissions here and there, mainly to pay for melting stock and new crucibles. And to help save up for a bigger casting shed, hopefully by the time I can retire from my day job... I acquired all of Bill Jurgenson's equipment when he closed up his art foundry in Niagara Falls and retired several years ago, and my 12x16 shed is just too small to be slinging around #200 of bronze at a time in!
Mainly those one off jobs tend to be reproducing antique parts that are missing from someone's restoration hobby project. Probably my favourite type of casting work.
However most recently I've been working with a local artist on a large sculpture project. And what a blast that's been!
I also equipped and taught a casting class at the blacksmithing school here in Ottawa for several months, which was the entire duration of that class being offered. Technically the school is in Hawkesbury now, but I was at the west Ottawa location that has since closed.
Also currently a mod at thehomefoundry dot org forums.
Again, very much looking forward to poking around the site and participating here!
Jeff
I've bought Everdur (silicon bronze) from Sculpture Supply in the past. I still have a little. I see it's a lot more expensive now. Tempting to try alloying some myself if I can find the silicon and manganese... Bill Jurgenson told me he used to buy everdur ingots from a company called Alloy Metals, also in/near Toronto.Hey Jeff. I'm new to this forum, and also hoping to get started with some casting. I seem unable to locate on Ontario source for casting material (ingots), not scrap. I see aluminum and silicon bronze at Sculpture Supply in TO but not much else. Where do you source your metal?
welcome from Toronto.Hello all,
Just found this forum, not sure how I missed it before! Looking forward to checking out what's already been posted, sharing info, and making a few new friends maybe.
Ottawa area hobbyist metal caster since 2013. I specialize in nonferrous sand casting, but plan to add cast iron soon. And lost wax casting eventually. All my gear (that I actually.have room to use) is shop built, with the exception of my crucibles. I've built furnaces that run on charcoal, wood, propane, and waste oil. Plus all the flasks and molding tools and tongs and shanks, even a sand muller.
For the first several years I was at the mercy of the weather, having to lay down molds outside when the weather allowed and roll my furnaces out and back inside the shed with each use. But a few years back I added better ventilation and fireproofing, allowing for all year metal casting under a roof and out of the weather.
Still definitely 95% hobbyist, but I do take on a few small runs and one off commissions here and there, mainly to pay for melting stock and new crucibles. And to help save up for a bigger casting shed, hopefully by the time I can retire from my day job... I acquired all of Bill Jurgenson's equipment when he closed up his art foundry in Niagara Falls and retired several years ago, and my 12x16 shed is just too small to be slinging around #200 of bronze at a time in!
Mainly those one off jobs tend to be reproducing antique parts that are missing from someone's restoration hobby project. Probably my favourite type of casting work.
However most recently I've been working with a local artist on a large sculpture project. And what a blast that's been!
I also equipped and taught a casting class at the blacksmithing school here in Ottawa for several months, which was the entire duration of that class being offered. Technically the school is in Hawkesbury now, but I was at the west Ottawa location that has since closed.
Also currently a mod at thehomefoundry dot org forums.
Again, very much looking forward to poking around the site and participating here!
Jeff
Msg #25 in this thread has a damaged photo attachment. Too bad we can't edit our old postings. I'd just replace it.
Ah. I was looking at the top right. What's interesting is I can delete the broken photo. Insert the small thumbnail but when saved the link to the original larger one is still toast.As a premium member you should be able to edit msg #25.
Hi! Sounds like a great setup for cast aluminum, have you got a lot of heats on that lining yet? Should last a good while for aluminum casting. Maybe we can check out each other's casting setups some day (once I get my mess tidied up).Hello Jeff. Welcome from Ottawa. I am toying with casting myself - have propane cylinder made foundry with perlite+cement insulation. Works for aluminium quite well. I always wanted to have iron smelting foundry - not sure if I will be able to reach needed temperature.
Thanks Jeff.you could probably do copper alloys