Daddy's girl

[redman]

Just one tip be for pressing the blank or as I would say slug. Drill out a little bit to get it started. On both sides of the mold in the same place on each side. My mentor always told me one forth as wide as the blank and one forth as deep as the blank. If the aluminium is very hard then you will need a very hard blank if it is soft then you can press something as soft as Marine Brass.

As others have said it looks good to this point. Don't rush it plan and do it right once. Me I have made every mistake there is to make at least once and some twice. I learned at the school of hard knocks that is what happens when you are hard headed. It is easier to learn from others mistakes that it is from your own.

Redman

 

[DrCrappie]

I was just about to ask if that would be a good idea, to pre-drill a little so you're not pressing the entire amount...
Great minds think alike!

 

[redman]

The Aluminium that I like to use is a Aircraft grade that is soft and that is 3/4 inch thick. I have several bars of it and you can press just about any metal into it. Bad part is that it needs to be resurfaced about ever 3 to 4 thousand hooks poured. I got mine back in 1980's and it was a Alcoa product. Don't even know if they make it any more. It is great to work with. Back in the late 1980's and early 1990's Alcoa made a one inch by 3/8 inch bar for the solar industry. I got my hands on a 4 foot bar of that and it made very good molds was soft and easy to work with. They sold this Aluminium in home improvement stores. Used brazing rods as locator pins and pressed it all with a 5 ton hydraulic car jack. Made many a molds with it and at that time sold them for $20 a piece. Thought I was sitting in High Cotton. Lols

Redman

 

[Helianthus]

Thanks redmen, my plan is to bore out some before pressing and next time I will use the aircraft. Likewise, I'm hard headed. I'm already learning so much.

I'm starting over on the blank again. I was having problems with getting it symmetrical enough to my liking. Also, wasn't liking the flatness on the sides. So, after thinking about material, redear had said he used a old drill bit. Since I had no old drill bits big enough, I went and spent $3 on a 2 1/2 and 1/4 diameter steel rod. I find it waaayyy easier to carve while attached to the main piece. With the 1/4 diameter, I'll be able to carve the head and then cut it off. That's the idea at least. Will try and post the pics of what I've done and how I didn't like.

 

[redman]

We would chuck up a piece of soft tool steel in a Unimat lathe. Turn the head and polish temper and harden it before we would press the head. On the small heads we would just use the harder Marine Brass. Part of the secret to having the mold press and the heads come out with out sticking is to use a very brite and polished jig blank. Can any one say tin oxide. Baking soda will work but this stuff take a long time to put on a brite shine. It has to be so that you can see yourself in it almost like a mirror. Something that I maybe didn't make clear in Redear's thread. I use to go thur allot of 1200 grit sand paper. The tin oxide needs to be mixed with oil to make a paste. In the trade it was called diamondtine.
Don't know if it is made any more. Still have a full big bottle of it left from my days as a watchmaker. I would use a hard Maple stick charged with tin oxide to polish the blank.

Redman

Redman

 

[DrCrappie]

What about using a dremel tool, with a buffing wheel with a fine polish paste on it, spinning at a high rpm to polish it while it is spinning in the lathe? I think that would make for a very fast way to polish the blank!

 

[redear]

oh yeah that would work for polishing, the emery cloth thing is fast too, heck with the lathe and a dremel tool making a conical shaped blank is easy, or a person could spin it on a drill press too and work it with the dremel that way. all these tools cost money but it was worth it to me. I had the dremel for 10 years and hardly ever used it until this mold thing, it was a safety prize at work and I picked it out of a catalogue they gave me, the cutting wheel which is only about 1" diam. was bought extra at home depot, and it has a quick detach mandrel that is kinda handy, it's not a heavy duty setup by any means but for these little blanks it's perfect.