Fixture plate

[finsruskw]

Hogged this out of an ingot of scrap aluminum from my son.
He reclaims the stuff from aluminum cylinder heads, carbs, pistons and what not and sells it to the scrap yard.
There was quite a bit of slag in the center where his smelter drain dumps, some of which went pretty deep that was to be expected I guess.

Got it down to about 1 x 6.25 x 14.
It's about as done as it's going to be for now till I get time to drill all the holes.
My arm's about cranked off for a while!!
Was quite a learning experience.

 

[benmychree]

Aluminum from scrap that was cast from permanent mold castings such as pistons is not too good for source material for projects, the addition of iron into the alloy to prevent sticking of aluminum onto the molds narrows the solidification range of the metal, requiring the melt to be raised temperature to avoid freezing in the gates on the molds, so that if that is done, there is a marked tendency to porosity in the castings produced; been there, done that.

 

[Dhal22]

Lots of chips!

 

[cathead]

Aluminum from scrap that was cast from permanent mold castings such as pistons is not too good for source material for projects, the addition of iron into the alloy to prevent sticking of aluminum onto the molds narrows the solidification range of the metal, requiring the melt to be raised temperature to avoid freezing in the gates on the molds, so that if that is done, there is a marked tendency to porosity in the castings produced; been there, done that.

John,


What sort of aluminum scrap would be relatively pure and not have the slag and associated porosity? I'm thinking
extruded materials might be good to try.

 

[Lo-Fi]

John,


What sort of aluminum scrap would be relatively pure and not have the slag and associated porosity? I'm thinking
extruded materials might be good to try.

Myfordboy uses alloy wheels for casting materiel with great success

 

[finsruskw]

I kind of wondered about that but I'm sure it will be good enough for what limited use I will put it to.
Appreciate the comments!

 

[Cadillac]

I used a lot of aluminum that had already been cast. Engine heads, wheels, blocks. My job supplies endless amounts of scrap aluminum. Which is nice. I’ve heard that extruded is not a good material to melt. Idk. With precasted material I believe their is zinc added with helps with surface finish.

 

[rgray]

That is pretty nice cast aluminum there. I've done some of that and if I'm lucky enough that my casting looks that good I'm happy.
That's a large piece. Your son must have a large set up to do that.
I know that is no where near as easy as it might look.

I cast with soda cans so I'm probably making thing harder than they need to be as they are known to not be a great alloy to work with. I get better results if I add a piece of "real" cast aluminum and a small amount of copper to each melt.

 

[finsruskw]

I'm happy with the outcome.
At least I had a chance to try out my flycutter for the first time and was amazed at the results.
Even with a newly ground (first try by me) HSS bit which is, more than likely, not to the demanding spec's it should have been according to Mikey!!

Sure makes a heck of a mess for sure!

Would like to do another plate with a pivot of sorts to do angles but will probably spring for a store bought piece of extrusion for that endeavor.