The Home Machinist!

Ronald, a few questions; what type of styrofoam do you use and what tool do you use to cut it, would a thin coat of plaster of Paris work in place of the ceramic slurry, would green sand work or is the sodium silicate hardened sand necessary? All of my lost foam castings (white styrofoam) have come...

That's a beautiful piece of work Chris, was that done with a 3D printer? I would make a split pattern and instead of the open interior, I would make it solid and raised as a core print,then create the open area in the mold with cores. Keep in mind that you can stack cores, file, sand, drill and saw...

2 1/2” scale switch stand. I’ll probably laser cut the target bar in steel.

I plan on pouring these in 353 aluminum.

Thanks

Chris

Corebox is done!

Next is some simple hand finishing and a quick coat of gloss paint; then off to my client. Speedy service!

Chris

Before you purchase anything from a company - strongly suggest you send them a typical sample part, have them do a time study and ask that they actually program and cut a part in front of a video cam for you. This SHOULD be the best you will ever see from the machine....since they should know progr...

COMING SOON IN 1" SCALE Release date: June/July 2022 MSRP: $1,250 Link: https://adirondackcarfoundry.square.site/product/1-scale-borden-butterdish-car/21?cs=true&cst=custom Yes folks, it's the Borden "butterdish" milk car. These cars enjoyed a surprisingly long life first carryin...

Hi folks. I'm more than a little intrigued by these machines. I wanted to know if there was any real-world feedback on them. Please don't tell me to "get a Bridgeport". These smaller machines suit my space, my needs, and my power requirements. I currently have an Emco Compact 5 CNC PC and ...

Harold_V wrote: ↑Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:42 pm This has been a good educational thread. Thanks for sharing your hard-won knowledge.

H

That's the whole point of this forum Harold. I will never hoard information.

Chris

C’est fini! . C9CB77AC-3A5C-421B-AB28-2F683B329603.jpeg That is a beautiful print! And that printer is surprisingly affordable, I might have to look into one myself….. Thanks for killing my budget lol. I’m going to be curious to see how this goes. For some reason I never thought about 3D printing a...

Thanks for the links. I was thinking that the printer might not be affordable, but it certainly is. Not fast, but neither is making a pattern from wood. How will your pattern be used? Without being split, it doesn't lend itself well to the typical sand mold. H Hi Harold. I've made several dozen whe...

Nice! I know NOTHING about 3D printers. Can you please describe what printer you used, and how long it took to make the pattern? H Thanks Harold! I used a Creality CR10s Pro printer, eSun PLA+ filament, and sliced the 3D model for printing using the Creality slicer program. The actual CAD process w...