After a whole series of gluing the bits and pieces together with epoxy glue, then adding fillets - again with the epoxy glue, we were ready to paint the whole pattern to make sure that we had a relatively flat surface with no indentations that would tear out the sand when we made the mold. Here's some shots of the pattern compared to the original bronze striker plate. This is a front-end view.
And here's a view of the back.
And here's where we take a look at the innards of the pattern.
Before we take a pattern to the foundry for casting, we want to make sure that the pattern will produce a good mold. So I trucked a bucket of my green sand into Science & Tech last Saturday, along with a small flask (cope and drag), and my mold-making gear. With the help of young Tim Y, I rammed the green sand around the pattern, separated the cope from the drag and pulled the pattern out of the drag.
Voila - a nice clean mold.
We're going to do it all over again next Saturday only this time we'll add some sprues, gates and risers as I think I'm going to have to be the mold-maker on this project. If I had a foundry, I could even be the foundryman.
PS - Many thanx to Jim L. for his photography expertise.
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