Casting aluminum parts in the garage

Homemade cars / Metal crafts 27 422 0

Aluminum is a fairly low-melting metal from which the necessary parts can be successfully cast at home. Let's look at casting technology using the example of manufacturing a car spacer for the A-pillar.

Materials:

aluminum scrap;
construction sand;
bentonite clay (cat litter);
talc or baby powder;
wooden slats or boards.

Aluminum casting technology at home

To cast a part, you must first make a mold using the original spare part. If the original is damaged, it should be restored. In this case, the split old spacer is glued together with superglue. The holes on it are sealed with plasticine. In this case, they should leave 2 mm indentations, along which drilling can then be carried out.
Next, the molding mixture is prepared. To do this, sifted sand and crushed cat litter, which is bentonite clay, are mixed. The proportion of mixing the components depends on the properties of the sand. It is necessary that the slightly moistened mixture does not disintegrate during pressing.

A frame is made from slats or boards. It is installed on a flat base and the casting prototype is placed in it.Apply talc or baby powder to the part and the bottom of the frame to prevent the molding mixture from sticking.
The molding mixture is sifted into the frame from above the part. Having reached the upper boundary of the mold, the sand is compacted with the end of a wide block or lath.
After compaction, excess molding sand is removed and the frame is turned over. The part is lightly tapped with a metal object so that it moves away from the compacted sand and clay. Next, the original is carefully removed.

If crumbling sand appears, you can shake it out by turning the mold over.

Aluminum scrap is melted in a furnace.

As soon as it becomes liquid, slag will float to the surface and must be removed. It is collected with a twig, spoon or other convenient object. The result should be pure metal.

Molten aluminum is quickly poured into a mold that is level and level. Liquid metal has a strong surface tension, so it spreads poorly and has a convex surface. To even it out, you need to shake the mold slightly.

After the metal has cooled, the part is removed from the mold.

It has a fairly rough surface, so it needs to be refined with sandpaper, a file and sandpaper. Holes are drilled in it where they are needed.

Casting really comes in handy when you need a rare or overly expensive part that is cheaper or easier to make than to look for and buy. Of course, this will require building a forge and a crucible. But once you have such equipment, you can do many interesting and useful projects.