Whose done at home metal casting?

[Jcary85]

Hey,
I’ve really been considering getting into casting aluminum parts at home lately. I’m looking at lost PLA with 3D printed forms (or bucks or whatever they are called). Struggling to figure out what size furnace/foundry/whatever to buy. Thinking this would give me the excuse I need to buy a mill haha

lmk what you guys have done!

-Jordan

 

[Big Kahuna]

surprised OCD has not done this yet!!!!!!!!!!

 

[DAG]

Not 100% sure but pretty certain Jet Dynamics does based on part quality

 

[Harbor]

I think I remember it can be explosive casting aluminum

 

[OCD Solutions]

surprised OCD has not done this yet!!!!!!!!!!

We had a metal casting studio in my high school so I'm familiar enough to know it's not something I'm interest in doing.
It's a whole new ballgame these days with lost PLA and 3D printers though.

 

[Jcary85]

We had a metal casting studio in my high school so I'm familiar enough to know it's not something I'm interest in doing.
It's a whole new ballgame these days with lost PLA and 3D printers though.

Whole new ball game in the sense you can more easily make good quality parts now?

 

[OCD Solutions]

Mold development is digital now so if you can draw it and then print or carve it, you can cast it. That's a game changer!
I'm sure that the available alloys have improved too but I still think there is a healthy learning curve in the casting end if things.
I forget where I read it but the ratio of failures for each successful part was quite astounding and very discouraging.

I jumped into casting urethanes and rubbers and even that was way more in-depth than I ever imagined.
My very first "marketable" ebox grommet cost me close to $800 in R&D.
Technique counts for a lot but material selection, proper tooling and equipment and then mold development is not cheap.

Roto-casting and injection forming plastics were good research topics at some point as well.

 

[Jcary85]

thanks for the info!! Ya it’s probably way more involved then I realize. Not trying to make money making parts or anything just mostly want to screw around and justify a mill. There’s a small furnace on Amazon for like $300. Seems like a reasonable gamble to try it out. Mold making sand or plaster can’t be that expensive and I think aluminum ingots aren’t too bad either. Thanks for the input as always!

 

[OCD Solutions]

Go price out getting some custom products made by somebody else.

When I was building my test bench, the local shop wanted $800 to build the dummy drive shaft.
I bought my lathe for $1000 with tooling and another $80 got me enough material to build three of the shafts.

Mills are awesome too, especially CNC mills! Mine is only a hobby class unit and somewhat limited but still great to own.

 

[Storbeck]

I had a roommate that was into casting, definitely there is a lot too it, but also definitely a resourceful guy in his garage can do it with good results.