Well the idea for my first casting was to make some aluminum sides I could use for the moulding boxes. It seemed a good idea and I thought I would add the website name to see how easy it was to produce cast in letters.  In the end it didn't work out too well. There was sand stuck between some of the letters and I put this down to the closeness between some of the characters. I did try to mould it again but without success so since this was a trial, first casting and non critical, I went on and made a melt.

The results were both good and bad. Good that the whole process went (other than the lettering) as it should. The calculator for estimating the amount of metal to melt ( produced in excel) I made proved very accurate on this first occasion and the finish on the casting was as good as the pattern allowed!. Download a copy here.

The letter failure will be explored further and I may well try just spacing them out or make a new set, perhaps from wood.

I do need to make an aide memoir since I keep forgetting to talc up! Also I need to produce 8 for each box and each different size and where and I going to get that much metal! It would seem to be more efficient to just use wood and make the set up to size as and when. If you have a large stock of scrap alloy then perhaps it may be worthwhile.

I intend to have a go at using foam for a pattern which is burnt away by the incoming metal.

Well the idea was to make some aluminum sides I could use for the moulding boxes. It seemed a good idea and I thought I would add the website name to see how easy it was to produce cast in letters.  In the end it didn't work out too well. There was sand stuck between some of the letters and I put this down to the closeness between some of the characters. I did try to mould it again but without success so since this was a trial, first casting and non critical, I went on and made a melt.

The results were both good and bad. Good that the whole process went (other than the lettering) as it should. The calculator I produced in excel proved very accurate on this first occasion and the finish on the casting was as good as the pattern allowed!.

The letter failure will be explored further and I may well try just spacing them out or make a new set, perhaps from wood.I do need to make an aide memoir since I keep forgetting to talc up! Also I need to produce 8 for each box and each different size and where and I going to get that much metal! It would seem to be more efficient to just use wood and make the set up to size as and when. If you have a large stock of scrap alloy then perhaps it may be worthwhile.

I intend to have a go at using foam for a pattern which is burnt away by the incoming metal.