Autobus Prime steamage Here is my White Metal / Zinc casting setup. Be prepared to spend a bundle on this equipment nowadays. Best to get someone else to do it or Bowser if you want brass parts. All this so I can make some three axle Buckeye sprung trucks for my military flat car tank carriers. sa: WOW! I am floored. That is awesome!
steamage Here is my White Metal / Zinc casting setup. Be prepared to spend a bundle on this equipment nowadays. Best to get someone else to do it or Bowser if you want brass parts. All this so I can make some three axle Buckeye sprung trucks for my military flat car tank carriers.
Here is my White Metal / Zinc casting setup. Be prepared to spend a bundle on this equipment nowadays. Best to get someone else to do it or Bowser if you want brass parts. All this so I can make some three axle Buckeye sprung trucks for my military flat car tank carriers.
sa:
WOW!
I am floored. That is awesome!
My sister, who is a potter, had to do some castings for some sculptural pieces. She has most of that set up now! Now, if only----- Thanks for the kick to do these things!!
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
Here is my White Metal / Zinc casting setup. Be prepared to spend a bundle on this equipment nowadays. Best to get someone else to do it or Bowser if you want brass parts. All this so I can make some three axle Buckeye sprung trucks for my military flat car tank carriers.<p> Danger. . . Danger. . . Will Robinson. . . You are going off the deep end!<p>
If you are going to do these yourself, you might consider casting zinc rather than brass. It is a lower melting temp metal than brass and is quite durable.
You can make an RTV mold of the pattern and cast the wax forms in it.
The wax form is then encased in special plaster used for this purpose. Study the lost wax casting process and the rest is fairly simple.
You would need to have a spinning mold box which throws the molten mteal into the mold cavity using centrifugual force.
I need 60 pairs of unusual HO baggage car trucks, so I am planning to take the plunge mself.
If it would be likely I'd make lots of different castings in the future, I would consider acquiring the necessary equipment. Otherwise, I'd subcontract.
Mark
Do you need brass for strength or electical conductivity? If no, it might be a lot simpler to do it in resin.
I think the idea of contacting Bowser is a good one. If you can make the master for them, they might be happy to run off a few sets for you in exchange for a good master they could later use themselves. Worth a shot, anyway.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
West Coast S Good day all: I am in need of several dozen Pacific Fruit Express specific Bettendorf T section trucks in S scale. I am capable of producing the master. I just can't decide to attempt the final product myself or leave it to a pro. Ideally, these would be brass castings which would have to be assembled and capable of accepting NWSL P64 or standard wheelsets. Dave
Good day all:
I am in need of several dozen Pacific Fruit Express specific Bettendorf T section trucks in S scale. I am capable of producing the master. I just can't decide to attempt the final product myself or leave it to a pro. Ideally, these would be brass castings which would have to be assembled and capable of accepting NWSL P64 or standard wheelsets.
Dave
WCS:
I remember reading something online by a backyard metalcaster. He asked "If primitive early man could do it...why can't primitive modern man do it?" Well, why not?
MR had a little writeup, back in the 90s, about a young Japanese man who had a fine little narrow-gauge logging road. He had a little casting factory, built on a piece of plywood, using a burner to melt white metal, which was pressure-cast in rubber molds.
If you're feeling adventurous, go to your library and read books, the older the better. Go to Google Books and look at Popular Mechanics from the 1930s. You'll find lots of information there. The question to ask is this: do I want to "have" it or do I want to "do" it? We're in an age that insists that the "having" is the only goal, but this will never satisfy the "doers".
Model Craftsman had some articles on metalcasting.
For just a couple of dozen, I think I'd just make them individually. Cut the parts out in multiple and build some simple jigs to save time. Put some cheapy trucks on the cars until you're done with the real ones. If you're going to have parts cast, don't make a couple dozen. Make a few hundred and sell the ones you don't use to other S scalers.
Well, you certainly live in a good place for taking my next piece of advice. Keep in mind that, should you decided to cast these items yourself, this is not going to be a cheap proposition. At a minimum you are going to need a furnace for melting your wax--this is lost-wax casting, of course--and melting your brass. Plans are available on the internet for building a home grown one of these using firebrick; store-bought ones can cost beaucoup bucks! You are also going to need various tools for handling your liquified brass prior to pouring it into your mold. All of these add price to the process.
You will need to find a large--perhaps WELL-STOCKED would be a better expression here--jewelry supply house. You are looking for one that handles a large supply of books on jewelry making. Get a book--or books--on casting--there are several on the market; browsing will give you a pretty good idea of a good one. I have several that are currently on the market but they are boxed up next door and I don't have immediate access to their title. One of these is called Practical Casting by someone named McCreight or something like that. All of these books will cover either sand casting or investment casting. Invest will be available at this jewelry supply store; they also sell what is called Green Sand should you decide to go the sand casting route but a cheaper source is what is termed Playground Sand and this can be bought at Home Despot and probably Lowe's and they also carry VERY FINE screen which you are going to need for use as a strainer.
If all I needed was a couple of dozen castings and I was capable of doing the model work myself--keep in mind that your model has to be about 3% oversize to compensate for shrinkage--NOVICES FREQUENTLY OVERLOOK THIS POINT BUT IT IS CRITICAL--and I was going to have no further use of my equipment--then I think I would probably search around for a professional who will be already set up for operations.
In case you might be wondering I still have entrepreneurial aspirations for developing a line of brass N-Scale passenger cars!!! With that in mind I have done some reading on the lost-wax casting process.
From the far, far reaches of the wild, wild west I am: rtpoteet
Dave,
Give the people at Bowser a call. They make the CalScale and Cary brass castings. They should be able to produce some lost wax copies of your master.