Lost Foam
Lost foam casting is COOL!
Until you do it, you don't quite beleive it will work, but it does.
In it's simplest form, the foam is shaped as desired (including a
sprue), placed in firmly packed dry, loose sand, and poured with molten
metal. The hot metal vaporizes the foam and hardens before the sand has
a chance to move. The resulting casting (if done correctly) is a
faithful reproduction of the foam pattern right down to any bead
structure and fingerprints left in the glue.
Of course there are variations and details not yet explained, but you
get the idea.
Some advantages of Lost Foam Casting are
- speed
- relative ease of obtaining the
required items
You can quickly throw together a simple pattern
or just use a piece
of scrap foam to pour an ingot or to make a billet to be machined.
Some disadvantages are
- one use patterns
- smoke
- odor
CAUTION!
When you pour the metal in a lost foam
mold, there will be a great plume of hot smoke and noxious gases that
will probably light on fire. Do NOT bend over the mold as you pour!
Make every effort not to breath these fumes. A small fan blowing from
your back across the mold will help a lot.
Subjects yet to be covered:
Shaping the foam
Optional investment
Embedding the foam in the sand
Pouring the mold
Back to Table of Contents
Introduction + Superlinks
Page + FAQ + Safety + Casting
Requirements + Furnaces + Crucibles
Sand
molding + Molding
sand + K-bond + Flasks + Sprues,
gates and risers
Other
molding methods + Lost
Foam Casting + PatternMaking + Hot
wire cutter
Casting Defects + Foundry Tools + Other
equipment + Metals + Aluminum + MatchPlates
Glossary + Other Resources + Suppliers
Some sections are yet to be written.
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