Sandbagger's Iron Man builds - Now in STEEL.

[BuildsByBaz]

Right.. back to the refractory. I screwed in some self-tappers to give the insulation blanket something to hang on to. The lid is lined and the two have enough excess poking out that they form a spongy seal when the lid is closed, locking in all the heat.

Tonight I will paint on some sealer that sets hard on the inside of the blanket and place a nice flat fire-brick on the bottom to support the crucible.

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Painting the inside of the insulation with refractory cement.

Drying overnight.

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Started sculpting the clay patterns over the little cardboard inners. It's an art, but hopefully I'm a fast learner. I'll let these two dry until morning, give them a sand and see how they look and if they have cracked at all.

 

[PEPAKURA TURTLE]

sorry I was in a rush... How much did the whole thing cost? How much would you sell it for?

 

[BuildsByBaz]

It's still costing me and you can have it for twenty million U.S. Dollars.

SB.

 

[PEPAKURA TURTLE]

Wow... You could buy a car with that amount lol

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Testing the forge for the first time.

Warming up.

Inside the furnace.

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Pouring the molten aluminium.

Ingots for convenience later.

 

[Alkatraz]

What are you using as a crucible?

 

[BuildsByBaz]

What are you using as a crucible?

A dirty great lump of steel pipe with steel plate welded on the bottom and a couple of bolt heads welded to the side.

- - - Updated - - -

Finger armour patterns for sand-casting. These are still wet, but once dry I will sand them smooth then imprint them in the casting sand, ready to pour in the aluminium.

I've made the wall thickness and edge length a little generous, to give me room to refine the aluminium cast later with files and sanding.

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Cracking on through the wee hours of night.

 

[WolfS117]

Can't believe how good this looks

 

[PEPAKURA TURTLE]

Can't believe how good this looks

of course it's good...why is it that expensive then?

you can have it for twenty million U.S. Dollars.

SB.

 

[RYNO 666]

of course it's good...why is it that expensive then?

Because he would never want to sell it.

Sent from my 0PJA2 using Tapatalk

 

[PEPAKURA TURTLE]

Because he would never want to sell it.

Sent from my 0PJA2 using Tapatalk

Exactly lol why would he sell it? It's been...Idk several years?

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Exactly lol why would he sell it? It's been...Idk several years?

Well you asked!!

 

[PEPAKURA TURTLE]

3 in fact...so short for this build...how much all nighters do you do?

 

[Rooster]

Do you have any plans to replicate this process? Or is this going to be one-of-a-kind?

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Once is enough.

 

[BuildsByBaz]

Splitting migrane all morning so didn't get to try anything today until an hour ago and *&$@# !!! That's not going to work either! The clay over card inners all cracked and fell apart when dried. I can't press them into sand for casting as they disintegrate with the slightest pressure. I tried coating them in lacquer but that didn't work either.

I thought I would try cutting them out of foam for lost foam casting, but the blades I tried all just hack the foam to horribility. I really don't want to now have to make a hot-wire cutter.

More thinking outside the box including the time-consuming and tedious lost wax method. I have a couple more ideas to try. Posting up failures is just as important as posting up the successes.