Custom castings

[Mitchg07261995]

I'm in the middle of designing a vtwin motorcycle engine for my board track racer project and I have a dilemma. I need custom castings made for my parts, but I do not have the equipment or the know how to do any of it myself and I don't know where to go to get these parts made. Is there a place where you guys go for creating custom castings for your own designed parts?

 

[brotherbear]

I would be interested in helping with design and or pattern making with you ( I have carved and constructed many plugs for casting although I am not a mold-maker ) I have some designs of early motorcycle engines I am working on with the intention of casting parts for working scale models. I would enjoy working on full size replications, adaptations and new designs as well. I am a Prop-maker by trade and an artist by vocation.

 

[Mitchg07261995]

Thanks for the reply brother bear. I've updated my drawing. The engine is very loosely based on an engine I found in a book that was published in 1906.
Hopefully we could work something out, I hope to work with you as my father in law and I could use all the help we can get

 

[jkimberln]

You could write to the University of Northern Iowa and see what they can offer.
http://www.uni.edu/chas/academics/metal-casting-center
They printed a sand mold for a friend of mine for a rare motorcycle piston and got it cast in iron for him. So if you have a DXF or STL drawing, or some such, they might be able to help.

JerryK

 

[brotherbear]

Would you be referring to the book "Motor Bicycle Building" edited by Paul N. Hasluck? I downloaded a PDF of that book about a week ago, other than a quick page-thru Ive not had a chance to read it although I am looking forward to it.
Lyndell

 

[Mitchg07261995]

Ok, found out more information today. I talked to a relative that owns a machine shop in Albert lea Minnesota called ks engineering and he is willing to help machine my parts when I get the castings made, but he is going to charge me $80 per hour.
Jerryk, thanks for the input. I'll start colaberating with them once I have my drawings finished. I'm planning on using the cylinder/piston set as described in the book that I have about scratchbuilding from the ground up a motor cycle from 1906

 

[Mitchg07261995]

That's the book Im referring to, it's pretty decent has great illustration in it.
How much you charge me for custom casting brotherbear

 

[Mitchg07261995]

We'll turns that the cad software I'm using isn't free :wall: now they want $100 just to get back into my drawings a work on them. So now all I can do is view the models I made. But I can't even look at dimensions of the actual 3D model I designed.
Luckily I finished the model of my crankcase and can finish drawing everything by hand.
I'm going to go to office max on Monday to have full size prints of my model and on Wednesday I'm talking to a gentleman here in town that custom makes motorcycles, hopefully he will help me manufacture the frames I need
Here's the most current drawings I have for my engine. Displacement is going to be 938ccm

 

[Mitchg07261995]

What do you guys think about the overall design thus far

 

[brotherbear]

I'm not able to provide any casting at all my offer is for pattern making and or design work. Any foundry you select will specify what they require from you depending on the scope of the job some foundry's will only work with mold-ready plugs others will make there own plugs in-house from a part you give them or from your drawings and everything in between. Most progressive company's today will take your DXF files and rapid-prototype them using a CNC 3D printer for the patterns. When you have found a foundry that's willing to work with you they will specify options you may have for your involvement with there processes and just what they need.
Lyndell

 

[petertha]

.. turns that the cad software I'm using isn't free...now they want $100 just to get back into my drawings a work on them.

Ouch. And what cad software is that you're referring to?

 

[Mitchg07261995]

I'm not able to provide any casting at all my offer is for pattern making and or design work. Any foundry you select will specify what they require from you depending on the scope of the job some foundry's will only work with mold-ready plugs others will make there own plugs in-house from a part you give them or from your drawings and everything in between. Most progressive company's today will take your DXF files and rapid-prototype them using a CNC 3D printer for the patterns. When you have found a foundry that's willing to work with you they will specify options you may have for your involvement with there processes and just what they need.
Lyndell

That's fine, what would you charge for the patterns?

 

[Mitchg07261995]

Ouch. And what cad software is that you're referring to?

It's, onshape. I had it for my iPad mini

 

[RonGinger]

Onshape is free for hobby use. I am using it to design the CNC lathe conversion and its fine. I have about a dozen sheets of drawings. They allow 5 documents, where a document is a full project.

It does cost money for commercial use. I d not remember the registration asking me if I was hobby or commercial. I dont know how they will tell when I should pay, but I have never been asked to upgrade.

 

[Jasonb]

You might wantto take a look a sometime member here TomT's posts about the single he made from the book you mention here and also the later V twin he is working on here

And Flashback Fabrications site is good for making a boardtracker engine

http://flashbackfab.com/excelsior-project-paul-brodie/

 

[brotherbear]

The scope of the work has to be defined before any cost can be considered, I have a day job so my involvement would be cost-plus (cost of material plus whatever value is placed on my time/skills) send me ether a dimensional sketch or mechanical drawing and we can go from there.
You may be happier with an outfit like,
http://www.huntington.com.tw/metal/casting.htm?gclid=CJP2m6SIqMsCFZNhfgodWPEL6Q
Lyndell

 

[pickleford75]

I think learning the art of metal casting is a great way to expand the capablities of our hobby after only a year I managed to cast my own v-8 engine block...

 

[Charles Lamont]

We'll turns that the cad software I'm using isn't free

Onshape is free so long as you keep your private files under 100Mb total.
To do this you may need to regularly make copies of your files and then delete the old version. This gets rid of all the stored working steps. I find I typically reduce a file from say 25Mb to 5Mb. You have to leave headroom for the copy at full size initially, and the servers then soon perform the clearing out.

 

[Mitchg07261995]

I think learning the art of metal casting is a great way to expand the capablities of our hobby after only a year I managed to cast my own v-8 engine block...

I've been toying around with that idea for a little bit today, but I'm not sure where to start. How would i go about making a set of wooden patterns for all the parts i need?

 

[pickleford75]

I've been toying around with that idea for a little bit today, but I'm not sure where to start. How would i go about making a set of wooden patterns for all the parts i need?

I dont have any pictures of my patterns and core boxes right now but I can take some for you... theres is a website for a gentleman in Washington I belive that sells foundry kits at a pretty reasonable price www.foundry101.com great starter kits and lots of info.