FILENAMES: pattern.jpg DESCRIPTION: This is a picture of a casting foundry pattern. Posted by John Stevenson . John provided the following description: ----------------------------------------------------------------------- On Wed, 15 Nov 2000 23:24:27 GMT, berd_kalamunda@techemail.com (Rolie Baldock) wrote: >I just consulted with a foundry and they sent me off to a commercial >friendly patternmaker. The result of these deliberations was that for >one off pattern making and casting is simply horrendously expensive >particularly for the case I need. They strongly recommend what I >originally intended: fabricating the case by MIG welding. From these >discussions I now see that fabricating it is so simple, I should never >have considered anything else. > Make your own patterns up and shop around for a foundry. castings aren't as dear as a lot of people think. I regularly do one and two off's as castings, Its still far cheaper than buying plate stock and machining it all away. Look at http://www.metalworking.com/dropbox/pattern.jpg I have posted a photo of a couple of simple patterns. Both these were two off's. To get an idea of scale there is a cordless drill on the bed of the machine. The smaller of the two cost 12 UKP each, about $18 and the larger one which is also thicker at 1.5" was about 32 UKP each, again about $48.00 To do this latter one out of plate would have cost around 100 UKP just for the material plus a lot of machining time. The patterns are just two pieces of what we know as MDF [ Medium Density Fibreboard ] glued together and milled to shape with a router bit with a 3 degree draft angle ground on. If I'm pressed for the part I can usually get the pattern made one day and get the part cast the following day. -- Regards, John Stevenson Nottingham, England