Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Great stuff, and jolly good fun making your own parts.

Anyone looked into making their own aluminium sand castings ? I have been doing a bit of a net search on this, and it looks to be a bit of an interesting new challenge, and not very expensive to try either.

Golly, people have been sand casting stuff for thousands of years, it is not high tech. Should not be hard to DIY in the garage either.

Check out google "sand casting" absolutely fascinating. I had no idea it would be so easy to build a furnace using natural gas and a hair dryer used as an air blower. Plenty of scrap aluminium car parts around to melt down as well.

Anyone here actually done this ?

Ally has some troubling properties when melting/casting so I have left the whole idea alone, particularly the after roughing effort required...artificially ageing, solid solutions and binary phase diagrams. Not something I would be getting too far into in the garage.

i toyed with casting some time ago.....i started to make a wooden plug for a set of engine cases to take two CR500 motorcross bike cylinders...the aim was to acheive a V twin 1000cc twostroke engine to fit into a RGV250 ...i shelved the project and fitted an RG500 4cylinder twostroke instead...my plan was to cast a mould off the wooden plug and pull a product out....but i ran out of time and it got shelved...the tunnels need to pour the molten ally would have to have been quite intricate

Ally has some troubling properties when melting/casting so I have left the whole idea alone, particularly the after roughing effort required...artificially ageing, solid solutions and binary phase diagrams. Not something I would be getting too far into in the garage.

Oh on another note....take a look at Brittan.....the man did all his stuff himself in his shed...cast his own wheels in a garbage bin ect....he was a kiwi but we cant hold that against him :) but he was intelligent

Some people have had a fair bit of success, the main thing being to de-gas the molten aluminium just before the pour. Otherwise you end up with porosity and other problems.

Yes you must know all about metallurgy, heat treatment, ageing, and so on. A person can learn to weld without knowing anything about eutectic states and binary phase diagrams.

Its like driving a car. You cannot learn to drive unless you have ten years experience in combustion chemistry, thermodynamics, mechanical engineering, oil refining, and bearing technology. Without a very deep understanding of all the technology, just turning the ignition key can kill you. I don't think so.

People have been successfully casting metal for at least five thousand years. It is basically a very simple process.

Hobbyists are doing it at home all over the world. Check the internet.

yeah its a pretty simple procedure if you can get the alloy in a clean molten state. If would be particually helpfull to make inlet a nice inet manifold or some cooler end tanks where the strength is not important rather the shape required.

Exactly. I am thinking of non stressed, non structural parts. Things like plenums, pipework elbows and reducers for intercooler pipework, intercooler end tanks and so on. Things that do not require precision machining, but can be hand finished.

I think it is the sort of thing you would need to practice at to get your technique spot on. I guess it is like spray painting or welding, you can only learn so much from books. You must actually do it yourself and get the technique right.

The beauty is, that the metal, and the casting sand is very cheap and can be re-used. Its not like it is going to cost a fortune every time you try it.

I would love to try a custom plenum.

you could take a copy of a greddy plenum, then mod them to suit RB20 - you would make a killing. sounds like fun, even if you do fark it.

still chuckling about the thought of an RG250 being converted to a two stroke Vtwin 1000cc - a shame you never completed that one ylwgtr2 - I would pay money to see that:)

you could take a copy of a greddy plenum, then mod them to suit RB20 - you would make a killing.  sounds like fun, even if you do fark it.

still chuckling about the thought of an RG250 being converted to a two stroke Vtwin 1000cc - a shame you never completed that one ylwgtr2 - I would pay money to see that:)

" copped a rush at 1 in the morning and decided to make them"

Copped a rush and decided to make a pulley. Geez.. Most guys I know that cop a rush at 1 in the morning will either take the car out for a squirt or rip out the old fella and give it a beating. LOL

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • For these last 7 years of ownership, I've always had to use a small scissor jack under one of the front tow hooks to raise the front just enough so my low-profile jack fits under to reach my subframe jack point. I'm beginning to get annoyed of always having to do this. Are there any lower low-profile jacks that fit under the gtr lip on a dropped car?
    • Seat of the pants assessment of the new intake: The car is way less "doughy" when hitting the loud pedal, especially off idle when stopped or in traffic, I did use a cheapo lazer thermal thingo to measure the temp around where the pod filter got its air, it was between 55 - 60°C, in saying this the car was shut off and not moving, so the OEM intake pipe was not supplying any fresh air to where the pod was when the car was at least moving A weird bonus was induction noise on the throttle in the cabin increased a bit,  I was worried that I was actually going to lose some of that induction noise I love so much, outside though, when I got the daughter to do a WOT drive by pass for me, the induction noise has increased alot when on the throttle, not quite ITB doort, but well up there I'm extremely happy with the results and have been exploring the country roads in the region  As for house mods: 1.New front fence is up and is awesome, it really upgraded how the joint looks from the street, and the added security is nice 2. Electricians have replace some interior lights, and with more lighting in the garage, a few new motion detecting lights out the front above the garage, front room, and at the front door, which I have already found heaps helpful coming and going, also now has fancy pants CCTV all round the house The only hold point for power though is the solar and batteries due to supply issues, although this will happen over the next few weeks 3. I have done a heap of landscaping out the front and I'm almost ready to do a new small retaining wall with some nice blocks to replace the brick and cemented in rocks around the raised garden beds cemented in river stone "was the fashion at the time" the house was built. I currently have a pallet of retaining wall blocks and 2 bulka bags of 20mm blue metal to replace the wood chip that is in the raised garden beds around the house 4. I now have 3 big raised garden beds for out the back to grow some vegetables, about 70cm high, 200cm long and 100cm wide 5. My 2 compost bins are already pretty full with brown, green and kitchen waste from the landscaping I'vedone so far, but they will probably take a few months to break down, so anything else that gets chopped, trimmed, and kitchen waste will just start filling the base of the raised garden beds to about 30cm before I start throwing 40cm of good compost, and stuff, for the vegetables to grow in, I'll need a few ton of compost and soil, but the local supplier can sent me bulka bags of the stuff Basically the logs, wood chips and a few strategically placed rocks for drainage, will give the beds some good organic materials down low to break down over time, and they will hold moisture during the warmer months to save the water in my big arse water tank if we don't get alot of rain So, all in all, the car and house mods are going well, and I'm really enjoying being retired, I sleep in too 0700 and slowly plod around inside until I feel like actually doing anything, and only work in the yard for as long as want, which has actually been alot over the last few weeks,  although when you look at it, it seems that not a huge amount of work has been done,  until I look at the before I started the work pics Happy days and good times indeed 
    • hahaha yeah. Plan is to get side skirts and probably just rear pods. But going to do them one-by-one. I've got a set that I really like from RHDJapen, but that one isn't shipped to AU. So need to find someone who can get it for me
    • Here's an idea, answer the questions I asked you as they are trying to work out WHY the LSD will be binding up in a straight line.
×
×
  • Create New...