local foundry ???

[werowance]

I see a lot of posts where people take their patterns to a "local foundry" and have them professionally cast. I live in the USA in particular Southwest Virginia. I have never known of a foundry within 100 miles that a person can just walk in with a pattern and arrange to have it cast. there is or was a Carter carburetor plant that I believe casts carburetor parts but other than that I know of nothing anywhere that can cast parts. (and I doubt I can get them to cast parts for me)

so I was just curious, where and how are folks getting parts cast other than by backyard casting in the USA? seems foundry work is a thing of the past.

I read in old copies of popular mechanics and science where they are making something and in the instructions it will tell you to take it to your local foundry to have it cast in whatever metal it calls for so evidently most towns had a foundry you could just walk in back in the day.

I would also like to hear about how it is in other countries, for example it seems Australia still has a lot of local foundries or it could be that I am just seeing the same persons posts who happens to live near a foundry that hasn't shut down yet.

 

[fourstroke]

Hi Werowance
I wondered about the same thing when I wanted to have some patterns cast in iron that I cant do at home
I live in the central belt of Scotland and an internet search found three foundries within 45 minuites of where I live
The one I chose did a great job, they have been in the same place forever and seem to specialise in bespoke castings. I never thought it would be so easy or reasonably priced, it was as easy as taking the pattern to them and agreeing a price
Dougie

 

[Cogsy]

I live in Perth, Western Australia and I would have doubted there would be any foundries here, but a quick google search turned up 4 in the local area, with 2 being large manufacturing companies and 2 being small 'niche' foundries that would be easily approachable by hobbyists like ourselves. I'm amazed but it's good to know, thanks for making me search.

 

[aonemarine]

I gave up on the local foundries years ago. The larger foundries don't want to be bothered with walk in one off parts or are priced so astronomically high you walk out with nothing other than tightly clenched butt cheeks. The EPA and OSHA did a number to the smaller foundries here in the states so many of them went out. Still though there are some smaller foundries that duck the radar and hang in there. Nothing wrong with a back yard foundry man as long as you know who you are dealing with and the quality of the work they do. I've seen many back yard guys that can easily trump the quality of the commercial guys.
So what is it that you are thinking of having cast and in what alloy? Most foundries specialize....

 

[bmac2]

Hi werowance.
I was surprised to learn that there are still 8 commercial foundries still working in my area. Unfortunately they are all setup for large production runs.
Try looking for the places that do cast signs and plaques. Most major centers will have at least one. They are setup to do “one of” casting and they all seem to do aluminum, brass and bronze. I know of 2 in my area that are more than willing to do the casting if you:
- Provide your own pattern
- Are willing to wait so they can toss it in with another run.
- Will take them as cast.
If you can, try to drop in and show them what you want to do rather than just talking to them on the phone. These guys can be very helpful and hobby friendly.

 

[barnesrickw]

I have 9 foundries in my county alone (Muskegon Michigan). Several say "no order too small" or similar on their websites. I'm glad you asked this so I happened to check because I'm looking for some possible casting work in the future.

 

[vederstein]

Indiana (USA) is a major manufacturing state. But alas, no low run foundries here in Indianapolis.

>sigh<

...Ved.

 

[werowance]

I hope that I did not sound insulting to "back yard" metal casters. because I have definitely seen a lot of talent on this forum alone in back yard metal casters. they amaze me with their skill and talent. but even finding a local backyard caster seems to be a difficult thing.

the suggestion to find a shop that casts plaques or signs is a good one. I think one of the smaller local hardware stores will order house number sings cast, I may pop in and ask what foundry they use to do that, hopefully its a local one.

and to answer the question of what I need cast, well I was considering 2 things. first I wanted some flywheels cast, now I know that I can buy them already cast from several places like pm research and such, but I cant buy them exactly the way I want. and I was also considering a small run of glow airplane engines. so just thinking of those 2 things got me to looking into where and how folks are getting things cast in their areas and how the USA seems to be loosing a lot of local shops and was curious about how it was in the rest of the world as I have barely traveled away from the east coast of America.

 

[aonemarine]

try doing a search, but avoid the word "foundry" Instead use sand castings, or the specific alloy like bronze castings for a search term.

 

[pkastagehand]

I have 9 foundries in my county alone (Muskegon Michigan). Several say "no order too small" or similar on their websites. I'm glad you asked this so I happened to check because I'm looking for some possible casting work in the future.

I'm in Holland MI. I had some Pennsy A3 wheels cast a few years ago. Holland Pattern is right here in town. Not sure where their actual foundry is. I got my wheels for free because they were apologetic about taking so long to get them to me. Castings were OK, not stellar; they said they had problems getting the mold out because of the small size and their sand was maybe a bit coarse for that kind of work. But they piggyback on to someone else's pour for those small jobs which was also part of the reason for delay.

 

[barnesrickw]

I'm in Holland MI. I had some Pennsy A3 wheels cast a few years ago. Holland Pattern is right here in town. Not sure where their actual foundry is. I got my wheels for free because they were apologetic about taking so long to get them to me. Castings were OK, not stellar; they said they had problems getting the mold out because of the small size and their sand was maybe a bit coarse for that kind of work. But they piggyback on to someone else's pour for those small jobs which was also part of the reason for delay.

We just must live in foundry heaven.

 

[barnesrickw]

I'm in Holland MI. I had some Pennsy A3 wheels cast a few years ago. Holland Pattern is right here in town. Not sure where their actual foundry is. I got my wheels for free because they were apologetic about taking so long to get them to me. Castings were OK, not stellar; they said they had problems getting the mold out because of the small size and their sand was maybe a bit coarse for that kind of work. But they piggyback on to someone else's pour for those small jobs which was also part of the reason for delay.

We just must live in foundry heaven. Well, actually we had many, many foundries in Muskegon at one time.

 

[Tin Falcon]

try doing a search, but avoid the word "foundry" Instead use sand castings, or the specific alloy like bronze castings for a search term.

Valid point I did a google search for local foundries.

Some good results and not so good.
one foundry the web site consists of a name address and phone number.

Another on Sampson St Philadelphia. So not surprised to see they do mostly jewelry and precious metal work. FYI Sampson st is the traditional jewelry district in Philly.

Another couple hits were some high end craft companies nothing to do or very little to do with metal casting. and there was an investment company that came up. Money investments not investment casting.
30 years ago there was a foundry in my town. And 60 years ago there was still a company that built metal forming presses.
Tin

 

[littlelocos]

Believe it or not, there is a small foundry right here in Hagerstown, MD - Blaine Window Hardware (www.blainewindow.com). They cast red brass, aluminum, and white manganese bronze (aka White Tombasil). They did some casting for me a few years ago for my Parsell & Weed project.

I have a meeting set up with another small foundry in York, PA next week to talk about having kits cast for us. (Cochrane Foundry)

Cattail Foundry in Lancaster County, PA (and run by an Amish family) will even cast loose patterns or cast from old or broken parts. Nice article here:
http://www.farmcollector.com/steam-...-a-thank-you-to-all-from-cattail-foundry.aspx

Another smaller foundry I've thought about contacting is in Baltimore American Alloy Foundry (http://www.americanalloyfoundry.com/)

If you look hard enough, the small foundries are still out there.

Enjoy,
Todd.

 

[kadora]

here in Slovakia we have some small foundries mainly for
zinc castings.
Fortunately near my city is small company specialized
in pattern production for bigger foundries and they have
little foundry to verify some of their patterns.
After long discussion with company owner he finally agreed to cast from my patterns but minimal order 20 sets of castings.
I have found that the best way is to cast on your own .