Sand Casting

This is something Aarron has been working on for a while now. He still doesn’t have it down perfect but he is getting there. It’s a fairly long and drawn out process that takes about 4 hours from start to finish. Sadly most of it has to be done in order because he has found out that if he make the sand cast early, it usually falls in before the aluminum is ready to pour.

Aluminum for Sand Casting

The first thing he does is get a good hot fire going so that he can melt the aluminum down to liquid again. After he gets it close to liquid, he starts getting the mold ready. He made a couple wood frames to hold the sand for the mold.

Mold for Sand Casting

 

The sand that he uses has been mixed with bentonite clay to make it more sticky so it will hold the shape better.

Sand for Sand Casting

Once he has the mold ready, he said that he uses a powder or something to make sure the newly made piece will come out easy. Once the aluminum is ready he will pour it into the mold and let it cool. So far, he hasn’t made a perfect piece yet, but he is getting close. He keeps tweaking how he does this until finally he will get a perfect piece. The best part so far has been the picture below.

Sand casted item

As you can see, it’s not quite right yet, but he is getting there. If anyone has any suggestions on what he could do to get closer it would be greatly appreciated. I know that he is getting frustrated with the results of this sometimes.

Have a great day!

Renee

23 thoughts on “Sand Casting

  1. This is so interesting and I had no idea what sand casting was. My husband would like this….

  2. This sound so interesting and amazing to try! Can’t wait to share this with my father and my husband!

  3. I’ve honestly never even heard of this before. This is so interesting though. I wouldn’t mind giving it a try.

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