Foundry sand?

A

alinwa

oft dis'd member
I'm getting ready to cast some butt-weights for a 600yd setup. My intention is to hollow out the buttstock behind the aluminum buttplate, whittle a wooden plug which is a nice slip fit and use this whittled plug to punch a hole in some foundry sand for a mould.

I hope to mill 3-4 steel plates, all identical, and after pouring the mould full of molten lead I'll set the steel plate with it's screws into the lead and let it harden. Ill run some wires or screws or something into the back of the plates to bite into the lead.

I'm running in tonight to see if I can find some 10-32 or so threaded sleeve material to hold the screws.

I've never cast lead into sand....... any tricks I need to know? I'm a little leery of just pouring molten lead into wet beach sand.........


al
 
Lead

Water and melted hot lead DO NOT MIX!!
I make my own fishing jigs and found out---had my lee furnace full of melted hot lead in my garage---water pipe overhead had a lot of condensation on it--a couple of big drops fell of the pipe and directly into the lead---WOW!! scared the crap out of me.
I would be VERY careful dumping hot lead in wet sand---I never did it but after my experience, I don't think I would try it.
I would go to plan B LOL!

Rich
 
copper tubing may work fond the appropiate dia., tubing, flux it and pour away.
 
White Powder

Al,

Talcum powder works perfectly and you can get it in the super market or drug store. Use it as a parting dust.

Bob
 
Al,

When I wanted to add butt weight to my 11# and 16.5# rifles, I first drilled and tapped blind 10-32 holes on the inside of my aluminum "butt pads". I then used some lead ingots that I had from bullet casting days for the weights. I sawed the lead on my wood bandsaw to get the wgt. that I wanted. A hole drilled through the desired weight allowed it to be screwed to the alum butt plate.
My thought was that having the weight at the extreme rear of the stock acted like a lever and used the lead to maximum advantage.

Jay
 
Al,

You want "Petro-bond" foundry sand. It's available from LaGrand Industrial Supply in Portland. It is not tempered with water, and is intended for non-ferrous metals.

Steve Kostanich
 
Dipper,

THAT's why I posted ;) I've had similar experiences with liquid water and sturgeon weights.

Speedpro,

THAT was my first idea'r and a good one, I've got the tubing and I've got the hole drilled....... problem is it's not enough and the single screw scares me a little.

Lynn,

Yours is a good way but I've got reason not to do it this way. I've used Accra-glass to do this.


Bob Pastor,


Done and done, thank you!


Jay,

And HOW did you drill the hole? I once tried to drill holes in lead casting weights......What a freakin' NIGHTMARE! I tried twist drills, spade bits, and flattened piano wire to no avail........clue me in man! I WAS using a hand drill :( maybe a drill press is no big deal?

Steve Kostanich,


Now that's some good info right thar :) as I need to cast some copper parts too. Have you ever watched the video from Colonial Williamsburg, "Gunsmith Of Williamsburg"? You'd live every minute of it......... I could feel the heat from the forge and the wood peeling....... GREAT stuff.


Thank you guys........ I've got some great ideas now and at least I won't be exploding beach sand and water tomorrow :)


LOL


al
 
Just a little FYI...

I was a foundry superintendent for years. There is virtually no danger of pouring liquid metal into water or a mold containing "green" sand. It is done millions of times every day around the world. The moisture will be driven off by the hot metal and will exit as steam.

There is a tremendous danger of allowing water to enter a liquid metal bath. If a partially filled soda can, bottle of water, etc becomes submerged in a liquid metal bath, the liquid turns instantly to steam and the expanding gases cause the metal to splash out.

Always wear eye and face protection when casting metal, but you do not have to be afraid of green sand molds.

SteveM.
 
Thats Strange...............................

I work at a foundry owned by the largest auto manufacture in the world. The last thing we want to see is moisture in our sand........................... including the aluminum heads we cast using the green sand process. YMMV
 
No-Bake or Green Sand?

If there is no moisture in the sand, then it's not Green Sand. It might be dry sand, but not green. The term "green" means that it contains moisture.

I understand that all the "No Bake" sand systems use dry sand and any one of a bunch of binder systems.

However, green sand casting requires moisture. The recipe will typically include some portion of new sand, some portion of recycled sand, water, clay, and a number of other additives depending on the application.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molding_sand

SteveM.
 
Al

maybe consider making a mold out of aluminum or steel. Drill the desired size hole and bore a taper of 1-1 1/2 degrees per side. Then you can spray the inside with silicone mold release and make as many as you like.
 
rflshootr you must be reading my mail :D


I've got my rifle set up in a jig as we speak, gonna' be pouring a lead shot/epoxy matrix into it in about a half hour, this will be my initial fitting jig...... and then I'm going to weld up a mold that's 'way overlong so's I can trim to length for weight.....my problem is that to get the 3+ pounds that I need it's taking quite a bit more lead than a bored hole is capable of. I've got the stock hollowed out nearly to the edges already and am fighting for room.


Maybe I'll post some pictures.


al
 
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