Found Dreaming

My name is Jeff Clark and I just found this site, Im new to casting very new as in I have not cast one part yet.. I have made quite a few patterns and had one of the local foundries cast my parts for me, I have now decided to cast my parts myself and found this forum looking for some of the better methods, supplies and some general info. Im in to old cars go karts and mini bikes, I have been a hobby builder and restorer for years and started making my patterns for items I needed and selling a few as well here are a couple of my patterns and parts these are clutch covers for Vintage Mini Bikes,

Hi and welcome Jeff, those patterns and castings look fanbloodytastic

Mike

Are those patterns thermoformed plastic? They do look very nice.

You could certainly cast those yourself without much trouble.

Thanks for the compliments on my patterns, I have made quite a few they are just glass and bondo im a bit of a bondo artist.... on the two white ones above I started with some really bad fiberglass repop covers that had shrunk in the mold and lost draft. On a side cover I can usually have one done in a few nights after work. I have a small shop I call my toy box I spend a few hours at every night after work building and fabricating things, I think the addition of doing my own foundry work will be a great addition to my parts.

Here is the very bad glass cover I used for a start point on one of the patterns.

couple more



First coat







Now most would be happy with that, but I usually fallow up with a final wet sand and coating

Final coat

welcome to the forum, and those are some really nice patterns...

I hope I get my casting skills down as well as my pattern making, as time goes on I will post up some pics of new patterns in the appropriate area. Im a bit of a anal sort when it comes to building or fabricating it will take a little time but im sure I will get my casting skills down, I have a area in my toy box I started getting ready for my casting room I hope to have it up and runnimg mid Jan. On my patterns I usually make a pattern and in the past had one part cast, I go over that part and polish it and make any repairs needed then save that first part for my dedicated pattern, I keep my first hand made patterns stored safe away just in case. Thanks all for the good words this far, I hope to lern alot from the members here and glad to be a new guy here on a newish site I hope to grow togeather!!

I was going to suggest doing the patterns for double shrink because of how thin and fragile those look. Seems you are ahead of the curve Jeff as you are already using them as a master pattern. I have a few parts I make that I wish I had done this from the beginning as they are beginning to show some wear and aluminum patterns would have held up much longer.

This site is kind of new but most of the folks here hung out on the BYMC forum for a few years and many still do. If you have not found that forum yet you will probably want to take a look at it as it has a great archive of information.

Welcome to the forum!!

Great looking patterns, could you show us some of your restorations?

welcome Jeff, one word of wisdom. when you build your furnace and other tools that you will need to aquire, build em to last, and as far as a furnace goes if you think that your only going to pour say an A6 crucible build the furnace so and A10 will fit, and don't skimp on the materials do it right the first time. otherwise your going to be redoing it again.

Happy Holidays.