The complete guide on casting parts

[chippievw]

Quote, originally posted by PeOpLeG60T »

..... im just blown away . like having hard time just breathing ... this thread is so full of AWESOME!!!! man i thought you were nuts when i saw you make the water neck, now it turned out to be a totally other game O_o all of this made with relatively low technology and stuff hangin in most garages/shops. it's truly amazing. wood , rulers , chisels , i really like how you use the router and jigs/stencils to cut tje contours and shave the stuff , wow im kinda even feeling weird seeing all of this been done this way , then now just like it wasnt sick enought you are pulling out some mad trumpets and plenum.... woah never seen someone work this well . i mean there is alot of good fabricators on this website but it's just not the same arena congratulations for the man you are , mad skills

Well be sure and breathe anyway LOL at your whole reply actually
Ah its handy enough, just a matter of putting your mind too it

Onto fitting the throttle stops>

Trimmed the plate to length first>

The fixing hole for spring pillar>

Fibre bored fine...

Tapping>

I have to get washers and nyloc nuts for everything in general but Ill mock it up with normal nuts for the time being. Some bolts are too long also, I have to size these once done...

Sizing the phosphor bushes>

These locate snug in spring eyes, even though they(springs) will be pre-loaded in the rest position I do not want anything rattling(ever), this is a major point throughout all the design with everything>

I know what your thinking, its very near the edge!! I tested an off-cut of carbon, there's no way in hell thats going to pull out of there, its fantastic stuff>

Bored also>

Bolted>(Ignore the overly big nut for the time being)>

Time for the idle stop>

Bored>

Counter-bored>

The lower part is off a racer bike(pushbike), 316 stainless>

I based the stop(s) design around them>

The bush is there so I can get a spanner on the small nut in order to adjust it, and lock it off without spanner snagging cast stop tab>

Tightened up, end of bolt bearing fully on brass throttle tab>

Quick end view>(Plenum form needs final finishing)>

And from the front>

Time for the full throttle stop and cable guides>

Bored>

And counter-bored, I counter drilled to the same depth as Idle stop as drill press was still set, but used a washer to bring height to where it needs to be>

You can see the outer diameter of ferrule bears on throttle plate. This ferrule does two things, acts as an adjustable stop, and also acts as the cable guide>

Cable passed through, it comes in just at the correct height under brass throttle plate>

Bored for cable grip, the nut on the grip is being replaced with a nyloc>

Hole drilled for cable sheath stop, tapped also>

The holder widens in diameter after the threaded portion, I had to counter-bore down this depth removing the threads in alloy so it would seat on its shoulders>

Bored>

In and cable guided through>

Getting there with this now at last. Once I get my throttle pot ill deal with that also.

Stay ''Tuned''!

Brian.



Modified by chippievw at 4:46 PM 4-23-2010

[chippievw]

Got the reamer for the scavenge pump. These are used by hand to accurately ream out an undersized hole to the correct size, and very precise too.
Got an extremely good deal also, its a Dormer reamer, the normal price was 68euro, I got it for 25euro as I got other stuff too off the same guy.
You could get one for a tenner but they tend to be crap.

Onto mounting the throttle potentiometer(pot) and link arm...
The ecu uses this sender to gauge throttle opening in order to calculate how much fuel is required. This senders range is I think 80 degrees, or just under a quarter turn from idle to wide open throttle. This can be all calibrated with the ecu software but the linkage still has to be near right.
It works similar to a volume knob on a radio.
I have no idea what this is off as I found it in my parts bin, its the same as many generic Pot senders and its new.

You can see the shape my spindle needs to be to fit into it and turn it internally>

The sender also has slotted mounting holes to enable it to be clocked if its a touch out of range.

Onto the link bar to fit onto throttle tab and attach to the crank arm which will turn sender>
6mm aluminium plate, spec, 6061>

Although this link bar has no real load on it it needs to be stout enough so that it does not vibrate, something I saw once where a guy had used some 2.5mm wire as a link from his butterfly throttles to a remote mount sender, at around 2200rpm the wire started to vibrate much like a bonnet stay does sometimes. This vibration could be seen when looking at the pot input values while the engine was running, I made a better linkage setup for him and he had no probs after that. I don't want that happening with my setup.

Marking out>

Drilled out and reamed to 9.80mm>

Pressing in the bushes>

In>

End radius cut and linnished>

Bending, first bend>

Second bend, checked and adjusted>

Lightening hole centres marked and centre punched>

Drilled, ready for clean-up>

Ends reduced down to bush width>

Water-papered>

Buffed>

Link is very light and extremely strong.

Ill be mounting the pot sender next and making the second crank style link to attach to the link above.

Brian.

[chippievw]

Mounting the pot>

Bush pressed in either side as with link>

Finished ready for ream>

Reamed to 6mm>

Holes drilled for the m4 fixing screws, tapping>

Tapped>

The spindle below, this is from a 20v head, its pretty hard get a bolt with a 6mm shank, any bolts I had here had m6 threads alright, but the shank was just 5mm, due to how the threads are formed. So I had to go another route that left me with a 6mm shank, and m6 threads also. Hence the stud.

Screwed a nut on there and tightened it until it bottomed out, rounded nut after>

Down to 8mm>

Because Ill be cutting off a 1/3 of nut I had to tack it on there>

Cut>

Now fits into pot>

Trial test>

In, and turns free>

Next up the short link onto pot, this is a crank arrangement and although a crank style link like this is not 100% linear in respect to the rate of throttle opening to the rate the pot will turn because of the crank angle at the start and full open position, its hardly worth worrying about, but worth a mention.

Im making this in Carbon fibre with a foam core. I could just make it in aluminium but I want to try out carbon over foam also including inserts.

The bush sticks out .5mm either side, once the carbon is applied and vacuumed this protrusion amount secures the bush in the carbon skin. The carbon can then be sanded leaving the bush flat with the surrounding fibre. It is then both stuck there, located, and with the case of the bush going onto the pot spindle, unable to turn in the link.

Serrating the pot bush so it gets locked in place>

Before I hit this with some fibre Im going to heat the pot bush to remove all the oil I can from it so that it bonds better(Phosphor bronze has oil in it for better bearing performance) The pot bush wont be turning on shaft but locked on so it doesn't matter if I do this.

Im also Interested for down the line projects, in the weight comparison between the above carbon/foam link when done, and a link the same shape, but in alloy.

Hope to carbon this up later.

Brian.

[polov8]

Most win ever!

[chippievw]

Quote, originally posted by polov8 »

Most win ever!

Keeps me out of trouble Andy

Onto the fibre...

Because this is a small part going in a small vacuum bag I thought the vacuum pump(its big) was a bit of an overkill to suck the air out so I improvised>

1 old silicone tube...plunger removed,

The longest wood screw ya ever saw in your life!>

Vacuum pump done! >

Nozzle taped into cut corner of ziploc>

Done, works good, and holds vacuum,

The various bits you've seen before>

Bit of shoe polish on the inside of bag>

One side laid up>

Turned over and onto other side, Ill be leaving about 5mm of a lip/flange around edge when trimming where both sides meet>

All done and inside>

Checked, then I pulled out plunger as far as I could, worked really well for a basic setup>

Ill crack it open tomorrow and trim her up, from looking at it, it looks like it'll be ok.

Brian.

[wantacad]

lol...that is awsome...

[RRSB_1971]

You do some all-some work with your router.

Can you show us a Picture of your router stand setup & some measurements would be nice as well.

Until this I have never thought of using a router to this, could have used this idea 10 years ago, when I was using a drill press to try and mill stuff down. What a pain that was.

Where are you getting your bits to fit your router.

I was wondering how come you don't chamfer your the holes you drill especially the ones you are tapping. It would keep the threads from being pull above the surface. Just a though, not try to be rude or anything like that.

[chippievw]

Quote, originally posted by RRSB_1971 »

You do some all-some work with your router. Can you show us a Picture of your router stand setup & some measurements would be nice as well. Until this I have never thought of using a router to this, could have used this idea 10 years ago, when I was using a drill press to try and mill stuff down. What a pain that was. Where are you getting your bits to fit your router. I was wondering how come you don't chamfer your the holes you drill especially the ones you are tapping. It would keep the threads from being pull above the surface. Just a though, not try to be rude or anything like that.

Picture of router below, hope it explains it, if not Ill take more for you

The bits are normal tct items for wood, twin straight flute, bits must be good quality though, that is, plenty of tungsten, and good support behind the tungsten.

When tapping 6061 alloy I noticed on a test bit, if you do countersink/de-burr it pulls a ridge up in the countersink when tapped, and I ended up with two con-centric circles then. You cant smooth these flat as the pulled up bit is in the countersink and level with the surface, and it looks messy, Im going to go over the lot when done and smooth out everything, then chase the threaded holes to clear them.

I probably could get my hands on a better countersink bit thats a bit more controllable but the shops around here have limited types, and most are cheap/crap .... Hope this makes sense..

Dried good, going to give it another day to harden up fully then Ill start trimming>

Did a bit with the scavenge pump, as I said, I want to keep the bottom end parts moving along as well as the bits for the head...

Cut off the sprues and marked drill holes, theres a fair few stages involved with these in the line of boring and jigging so it all has to be thought out>

First bout of drilling>

A picture of the reamer, its a perfect fit...

With the parts pinned together I drilled the other hole...

Drilled>

All drilled and counter-bored for screw heads>

Notice its the three hole deal again for mounting when machining, three legged stool never rocks...

Starting into it...

First pass at .50mm>

And the second and final pass>

I got them all machined as above, either side, three parts in total>

Ill be drilling the 6mm holes in them larger later, which will mean they'll then be 90 degrees to the newly machined faces...

I might lap all the faces yet Ill see, although the camera doesn't show it, they're dead flat despite the crazy appearance!>

You can kinda see where my inlets and outlets need to be above and below rotors>

Two 6mm rods>

Its now possible to drill the inlets and outlets>

I had to pack one side to get the correct angle on the opposite side>

Enlarging for fittings, Ill be tapping these later, hole is 32mm deep>

All done, inlets and outlets on both>

Brian.

Modified by chippievw at 7:26 PM 4-26-2010

[turbinepowered]

Are you at all worried about porosity of the castings?

[Quintin@USRT]

1am....i went thru this whole thread...i love u.

[frechem]

I love how you only have to do stuff just once and it comes out perfect every time.

[chippievw]

Quote, originally posted by turbinepowered »

Are you at all worried about porosity of the castings?

Im not really to be honest, the degassing operation when melting reduces not only hydrogen but oxides as well, that coupled with good stout risers, sprues, and vents help a lot. On bigger castings more precautions have to be taken but on small stuff its really not an issue. So far when machining I haven't come on any pits, pores, or voids so so far so good. I did come on a few when cutting up the alloy block mind you, small bubbles, maybe 1mm in diameter here and there. I dont know if this answers your question?
From what Ive seen with my own from working them, drilling/tapping/cutting/milling, they dont differ from oem castings at this point.

@ Quintin@USRT, you picked a bad time to start reading

@ frechem, no mis-haps or failures as yet, so I aint hiding anything, it would be pretty easy spot if I did though as a new part would differ slightly from one if I did screw up due to the uniqueness of each part. If something does go wrong for whatever reason Ill post that up too, I believe mistakes are great teachers, so Ill share as with the rest of the stuff

More later this eve,

Brian.

[chippievw]

I cut the flange bit off a spare pump case to get a better idea of where the inlet and outlets need to be>

Rotors fitted, inlet/outlet shape is very clear>

Bit too close of a close-up...

Inlet drilled to 16mm, it meets the first drilling below it>

Bit of porting with the 12mm carbide ball, handcleaner works good to stop it clogging, or wd40 if its a small job like this>

Poor picture...

Quick check>

Drilling the outlet, 12mm hole fitted here, Ill be opening it up to scribed line>

Ported it, and moved to the dremel to get into the corners>

Like so! >

Top view, bit of fettling to do yet but almost done on this one, the other one (cast section) will be the very same. Picture of the tap there too, for the fittings>

Brian.

[MikkiJayne]

I may have missed this, but how are you going to seal up the brass throttle plate in the aluminium housing? Is the PTFE strip good enough or is there something else? I've always wondered about this aspect of slide throttles tbh.

[chippievw]

Quote, originally posted by MikkiJayne »

I may have missed this, but how are you going to seal up the brass throttle plate in the aluminium housing? Is the PTFE strip good enough or is there something else? I've always wondered about this aspect of slide throttles tbh.

Yup, ptfe is bonded to underside of throttle plate, and that sides in tracks, and has a nice bit of pressure on it too at idle to help it seal. Air will have to take a long route to actually get past it if you know what I mean. By which time the engine will need more air at that stage anyway. I do expect a bit to go by but Im hoping and wont stop until I see a 900-1000(cam) idle speed. Looking at how its all fitting I dont see any problems, I hope

Moar!>

Got the second one done(ported) the same as the first>

Tapped the inlets/outlets>

The cast taps real good>

All pinned for a quick look at things>

Drilling holes to 8mm and counter-boring the lower hole>

Time to dowel them together for boring the mainshaft pilot hole, Ill be reaming this, and also cutting a large counter-bore in the first section for bearings and oil seal,
The spring pins>
These are spring steel and almost impossible to cut up in this state, so a quick run with the blow torch to red and let cool naturally anneals it back to semi soft again, making it easy cut.

Counter-bored the 8mm holes to 10mm for the dowels/positioners

Heated the cut pieces again to cherry red and quenched them in water, this makes them attain there 'spring' again,

Tapped in,

Section placed on,

Sharp tap,

Two more tapped in,

You can see how they now locate casing,

Another intact casing tapped onto them, and an oil oil pump drive spindle...

Ball bearing held into factory centre drilled hole with some grease, fitted spindle down into casing(its the fit for hole!) as above and gave it a tap, the ball left an indent where the shaft centre will now have to be drilled, tomorrow hopefully...

Brian

[MikkiJayne]

Nice trick with the ball bearing!

[RRSB_1971]

Thanks for the shot of the router table, I was always trying to slid the vice in my vertical drill press - what a pain. I have a router table - but it would be hard to do what your doing. Your way makes allot more since with a router. I was thinking the router was stationary like my table.

Guess what tool I'm building next.

About how big & thick is the Plexiglas.

So simple

[chippievw]

Quote, originally posted by RRSB_1971 »

Thanks for the shot of the router table, I was always trying to slid the vice in my vertical drill press - what a pain. I have a router table - but it would be hard to do what your doing. Your way makes allot more since with a router. I was thinking the router was stationary like my table. Guess what tool I'm building next. About how big & thick is the Plexiglas. So simple

Ah its about 14mm I think, around 5/8 approx. Its tufnol too. I find it the best way to do stuff like this, make sure your two sleighs/battens are exact your leaving it down on and away you go, you can even screw a batten to the plastic and run it off sleighs to give you parallel machining, a mill would do this in a second and I should prob really use mine instead, but I get a kick outa doing it this way Alloy cuts like cheese

Boring update...>

Got the main shaft holes bored...

Pilot drilling,

Reaming,

You can see the finish the reamer leaves,

Compared to the drill bit...

Stacked to check clearances,

Checked holes for squareness in respect to shaft and rotors using a small bit of lapping paste between rotor and section, its a very fine grinding paste much like valve grinding paste used for jobs like these, a couple of turns of the rotor highlights a circle an etched and that it is indeed square/ok,

Did this with all sections,

The oil grooves milled to oil rotor/section interface, also done on the two section,

And the oil drilling from outlet to end hole where the shaft spins, I thought this was the best place to tap it from as the pipe up to tank will always be full of oil even after shutdown so the bearing should always be wet even if the car is sitting for a while, again, also done on the centre section. The same pipe up will also seal the rotors with this same back feed/head pressure so they'll never run dry or not pump on startup. There will always be a small amount of oil in the pipe to run back and keep things wet.

Stacked and all spins free.

Ive to cut two more oil grooves yet, and also drill out the end section for the bearings/oil seals. I can then lock the rotors to shaft, bolt the lot together and machine the base where it sits onto the mounting bracket.
Getting there slowly...

Brian.

[Brian.G]

Well its nice to have this place back!! You may have noticed I changed my profile name at this time also. I prefer it this way from now on as it is my 'real' name after all. Nothing has changed otherwise. I have the change noted in my profile also. This does mean Im back to 0 on the post count but that doesn't bother me a bit.

More stuff>

Scored these on ebay last week, I got them for around 2.50each, cheaper than hydraulic fittings at the time on there! They're m18x1.5 one end, and an -8 the other. There also alloy, anodized black.







Screwed in temporary, Ive to face off the cast yet under hex portion on fitting...







I had an insane job trying to find bearings with a 14mm bore but I got them in the end, these are open and not shielded as I intend oiling them from the pump itself, that also means that they need an oil seal, like your crank/cam oil seals so I had to get them too, funny enough, I had no bother finding oil seals for a 14mm shaft...







These have to be fitted/pressed into a counter-bore of course in the section itself. If I had the skimmer finished the boring set would be ideal for this job, but I haven't it finished yet so I had to come up with another plan to keep things moving, so here it is>

One old oil pump shaft, remember this is also 14mm,



Rotor driven off/removed,



You can see its a bit bigger in diameter than the rotor...



I cut off all but one tooth...



Grinding to cutter profile,



With shaft inserted and bearing dropped on I can see were my ballpark cutter diameter needs to be,



Checked and finished with the diamond hone, Im pretty used of making cutters for the spindle moulder so it was pretty quick grinding this,





With the oil shaft cut at the waisted section I can now mount it in the drill stand, drove on the rotor again,



Test, fits snug, and it should too! (reamed)



One turn by hand to check cutting angles are ok,



Mounted in the stand, went down approx 1mm to check diameter, I need it a bit smaller than bearing for a press fit, it actually came out at 25.750mm(I think)



Boring,



I got It bored to my depth but the memory card was full, I now need to counter bore the top section of hole for the oil seal, much the same plan as above.

[Brian.G]

Time for the oil seal counter-bore, the diameter of this was bigger than the rotors so I couldnt use them as a cutter, so I made a basic fly cutter using the same oil pump shaft/spindle as I did when boring the bearing housing,

Tapping shaft,



12.9 m8 bolt threads in, tip ground to cutter profile,











Bored,



Tip reground to form a lip at bottom of hole to provide seal there too as oil seal counterbore just hits m8 allen head counter-bore,



Done,



Snug press fit,



And the final bore on the bearing counter-bore to provide pressfit,



Brian.G

[turbinepowered]

Wow... I wouldn't even have the slightest idea how to make a cutter profile. Bravo!

[polov8]

The HUGE problem with this thread, is that the more I see, the more things I can think of to make, and the fact that all your stuff is being made without expensive or complex equipment just makes it worse! Do you not know I have enough to do without giving me evil ideas?

Very inconsiderate......

[wantacad]

putting this thread back in my watched topics.

[sleees345]

Amazing work. I'm in love.

Subscribed.

[rweird]

i love this.

[secondgen]

Are you going to have those oil pump (cast) pieces hardcoated or anything to resist wear? Curious as to just how dense the metal comes out with the self-made parts. Looking great as always! Love your ingenuity with the cutting tools!

[turbinepowered]

Are you going to cast your dry sump pan, too?

[MikkiJayne]

Amazing stuff!

Your ingenuity is inspiring

[Brian.G]

Secondgen
Im going to anodise to protect a little more yes. Heat treating is no good once the part sees more than 130 degrees c for a period of time, which this will internally(It should anyway after a hard rip)

Turbinepowered, Im not sure, I always hated alloy sumps for breakage reasons, since this will be up a little more and the fact all my Mk2s always run standard ride height I may cast it, but Im not sure, I originally thought of making it from 316 stainless, no rock would crack or go through that. I need to decide on that one yet.

MikkiJayne, its pretty basic stuff really, I think? Maybe its not, I cant tell whats 'normal stuff to be at' anymore...

Moar>

FINALLY got the bolts i wanted(got 4), I could have used threaded bar, but its a bit agricultural i feel. These are tidier but a bit harder got than I had expected...



They fit the counterbores fairly snug,





They end just flush at rear of pump. I could have tapped end section but Im going to sink a steel nut in there instead, doing it this way made boring the sections easier as they were all done in one drilling operation.



Counterbored>



Nut points marked>







Dremel





In,





Mocked it up to see if it all lines with shaft inserted, thankfully it does spin free with bearing pressed in also and everything in place,







And on its side showing the bases of sections where I can now mill them flat the fact its all bolted together, the pulleys Im using are off an AHW 1.4 16v engine, the bigger sprocket is off the camshaft, and the smaller the crank pulley, I reamed the bigger one to 14mm so All I need do is lock it on there. Ive to groove shaft for a circlip between bearings, and also lock rotors to shaft, drill one more oil way, mill and tap the base for mounting to bracket, clean them all up do a final assemble, strip them all again and I think Im going to clear anodise all parts to save them a bit. Not too bad really, sounds a lot, but its handy enough.
I also have to make up two shoulders on the crank pulley to keep belt on there.




Updates regular again now that Ive all the bits I need for the next few weeks,

Brian.

[MikkiJayne]

I will hazard a guess that you have some way of anodising the parts at home that will be equally impressive as everything else you have done so far?

(and no, to 99.9999999% of people including, I suspect, most of us on here what you are able to do with limited tools and resources is not "normal" - its verging on black magic! )

[ABA Scirocco]

Unfortunately, cast aluminium doesn't anodize very well, it has something to do with the crystalline structure of the metal and the other elements that are alloyed into the aluminium to improve it's casting properties such as fluidity etc.

But you're right about Brian, his resourcefulness and skills do border on freakish. However, I do understand what he's talking about when he says he's not sure what normal stuff is. I'm always amazed at the whole world of possibilities that open up when you learn a new skill, like casting or welding, what once seemed freakish suddenly becomes doable and after a little practice, seems normal.

[Brian.G]

I put in the last two pictures above that I somehow forgot yesterday...

@MikkiJayne, yes Ill be anodising them here of course!!!!! Point taken on the 'normal' stuff!!

@ABA Scirocco, Lm25 anodises just fine and its the 2nd best casting alloy to do so with(I verified this to be sure with a few guys in Hong Kong as I was unsure). The problem lies on if you try dye it after you anodise, it dyes patchy and speckled because of the silicon. But That wont bother me, because Ill just be clear anodising, which I believe leaves it more or less the same stone/sliver/grey colour. I wont know until I do it on a test bit first though.
I still feel though that there is no need to treat these for wear issues but I will all the same for external protection if nothing else. Lm25 has a good bit of silicon for its great antiwear properties as is.
I cant agree with you more on the above, once you start doing stuff you cant stop.......building an entire engine seems very possible at the minute to be honest, pistons, rods, block the works...hmmmmmm...I may need to cheat and use the bridgeport for some parts but its very doable I feel.

[ABA Scirocco]

By not anodizing well, I actually meant the uptake of colour. I've done a bit of anodizing, undyed anodized aluminium is a dull gray often with a slightly goldish hue.

[Brian.G]

I get ya, well as you know on this part Im not worried too much on colour, but Ill be colouring some of the throttle bits once I make up my mind which colour/parts, black Id say but Ill see. There all 6061 alloy so Ill have no probs colourwise there.

Im still undecided on what material to make the sump from...

[MikkiJayne]

Now I'm going to be like a cat on a hot tin roof waiting for your post on DIY anodising....