Cement? They make sand specific for casting. Generally you don’t want to play with heating cement, right?
Comment on genius
Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 3 days ago
3d print part. Finish 3d printed part. Cast the print in cement. Burn the plastic out the new mold. Fill mold with the alloy of your choice. Congrats, many 1000s spent on furnace materials for a 1.5k part.
SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Industrial high precision lost-wax usually has a mold made from many layers, often either done in traditional monlith casting frames (big slabs of cement or plaster or casting sand or etc) or formed by dipping the parts into various cement slurries (a bit like a candle. The first few layers are generally a low-additive “print coat” made from ceramics akin to porcelain (that won’t react with the material being cast), and then for strength they’re bulked up with thick layers of stuff that usually has been bulked up with sand and recycled shells of precious castings that have been crushed down.)
It’s a fascinating process.
BeardedGingerWonder@feddit.uk 3 days ago
I’m not sure I’ve ever fallen more in love with a process than lost wax casting and it’s foam cousin, from the moment a tutor showed me a polystyrene cylinder head I was hooked lol. I’ll get a setup going some day.
Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 3 days ago
Just a Lemmy shitpost comment, don’t think about it too hard Sure fine sand and a runny plaster, ceramic capture detail. But you still bulk it out with rougher stuff to give the mold heft.
Maybe not cement. But I also wouldn’t recommend doing back yard casting for Life critical parts if you’re asking what your detail capturing materials should be and what your bulking out materials should be.
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 3 days ago
There are Wax Filaments, btw.
Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 3 days ago
No notes, that’s awesome!!!
I have zero intention of getting into 3d printing or back yard casting. But it’s cool that intersection has products.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Discover that cast metal parts won’t meet the mechnaical requirements, gear shears, fall from sky onto local orphanage’s annual puppy adoption drive.
Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 3 days ago
Those orphans aren’t orphans any more… Progress.
Real talk I cast turbine blades for IGT and Aerospace (not an engineer, just a floor worker). It was my impression that inside those turbines is an incredibly hostile environment, and still we cast them. We did some single crystal stuff for the really demanding parts. Is cast metal really that flawed?
bizarroland@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Out of all of the things that you would want to be comfortable with taking risks on, the Jesus Nut on a helicopter is not one of them.
There are no fallbacks if that fails.
The only thing that can save you is a miracle from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, if the Jesus Nut fails on your helicopter while you’re in air.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 3 days ago
No, but metallurgy isn’t a straightforward peocess like they were kinda implying. Gears, especially extremely high performance ones like in aerospace, have partial hardening, surface treatments, even exotic things like mixed alloys to ensure they meet the mechanical demands required of them. You can’t simply cast a gear and expect it to work - in this case if you tried as they were describing you’d likely just have the teeth shear when you tried to take off and you’d be fine, but there’s a real good reason that part costs as much as it does and it’s not just the administrative costs that come with aviation part documentation requirements.
Fedegenerate@lemmynsfw.com 3 days ago
It was me kinda implying it. Just making a shit posting comment in a shit post community.
mkwt@lemmy.world 3 days ago
In some past aerospace work, I’ve seen requirements where, if you do use cast parts, you have to cast extra parts on each lot to use for destructive testing. Specifically to inspect the cross sections for flows or grains or whatever they want to look at.
EchoCranium@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
Back maybe 25 years ago I got to tour inside Howmet in Muskegon, MI as part of a class. They did casting of turbine vanes for jet engines. Damned impressive process, and thorough quality checks x-raying every one for flaws. Finding out that each vane has coolant channels cast in was interesting, and a bit unnerving, since they get operated at temperatures above the melting point of the metal! I always think about that when I get on a plane.
bizarroland@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Dead orphans are still orphans.
SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Just get one of those million dollar printers
Axolotl_cpp@feddit.it 3 days ago
Dissect a mosquito and use its proboscis
brbposting@sh.itjust.works 3 days ago
LOL
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 3 days ago
Bold assumption to make that a home-jobber would get you up into the sky.
bizarroland@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I bet that if you were dedicated enough, you could probably make a home helicopter.
Whether you could survive the first or the tenth flight, that’s a different story, but I bet you could get into the air with something that was homemade.
Warl0k3@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Sure, there’s tons of plans out there for DIY helicopters you can get from the hobby aviation community. Usually the sticking point is making the rotor blades themselves, but I’ve seen some people get off the ground with carbon-fibre laminate blades. Not sure I’d trust them personally but it does work.
bitjunkie@lemmy.world 3 days ago
More interesting than working until I have a heart attack