Welcome to my FlamingFurnace, backyard metal casting blog.

Hi everyone, I mainly focus on metal casting projects using recycled scrap aluminum and other accessories in the pattern creations.
Aluminum is a very versatile material and I would like to promote the awareness of aluminum recycling via different metal casting projects.

Feel free to check my YouTube channel where I provide detailed explanations, tips & tutorials for best backyard aluminum casting methods, homemade foundry equipment & of course the importance of safety when working with molten aluminum.

So remember recycle and Enjoy my blog ;-)

December 09, 2014

Aluminum star casting using a homemade foundry + tutorials

It has been some time since my last post as I was very occupied for the past year. In this post I will share with you how I have created a solid aluminum star from scrap aluminum.
For the sand mould I used a plastic star pattern and oil bonded sand to create the sand mould.
All  the homemade foundry and foundry equipment that I used is D.I.Y.

Using this type of pattern is very easy to sand mould, one disadvantage is its not a split pattern so the sand mould process  takes a bit longer.
All that you need to start is to construct the foundry flask to hold the sand and either use foundry green sand or foundry oil bonded sand, and of course to construct a foundry ;-)...

So in the next set of images you can see the sand mould preparation process before and after removing the star pattern.

In the next images you can see the sand mould after separating the cope from the drag part of the foundry flask. The sand mould turned out very well so the next step was to create the gating system for the molten aluminum to fill the inner cavity and that will form the solid aluminum star casting.
In the next set of images you can see the aluminum casting "shakeout process", in other words to open the flask and either have a nice casting surprise or a  flop.....
foundry flask after aluminum pour
Well the casting turned out very well so all that was left to do is clean all the access aluminum and give the aluminum star a semi polish finish.
aluminum star casting and foundry patternAluminum star casting using homemade foundry
In this post I wrote a bit less then I usual do.... :-) as I have created a 2 part aluminum casting tutorial so feel free to view, like, subscribe.
Aluminum star casting part 1 (sand mould preparation):



Aluminum star casting part 2 (pouring the aluminum):