[Chris Borge] has made (and revised) lots of his personal instruments utilizing a mix of 3D printing and customary {hardware}, and not too long ago determined to strive metallic casting. Having created his personal tapping arm, he tries his hand at aluminum casting to create a way more compact model out of metallic. His video (embedded under) actually exhibits off the entire course of, and [Chris] freely shares his studying experiences in casting his first metallic instrument.
The end result seems to be nice and is significantly smaller in stature than the 3D-printed model. Nevertheless, the workflow of casting metallic elements may be very totally different. The elements are a lot stronger, however there may be numerous preparation and post-processing concerned.
The important thing to creating good castings is mould preparation. [Chris] makes use of inexperienced sand (a mix of high quality sand and bentonite clay – one supply of the latter is ground-up kitty litter) packed tightly round 3D printed elements inside a body. The packed sand holds its form whereas nonetheless permitting the unique types to be eliminated and channels to be reduce, making a two-part mould.
His first-time castings have a tough floor texture, however are completely serviceable. After some CNC operations to easy some faces and drill some holes, the floor imperfections are nothing submitting, filler, and paint can’t deal with.
To forged molten metallic, there actually isn’t any approach round needing a forge. Or is there? We now have seen some enterprising hackers repurpose microwave ovens for this objective. One may also use a low-temperature alloy like Rose’s Metallic, or eschew molten liquid altogether and do chilly casting, which makes use of a mix of resin and metallic powder as a substitute.
The design information for [Chris]’s tapping arm can be found from hyperlinks within the video description, and he additionally helpfully supplies hyperlinks to movies and assets he discovered helpful. Watch it within the video, embedded just under.
