Awesome Casting

Burls Art is back with another unusual handcrafted guitar. For his latest build, he melted 50 pounds of braided copper wire and tin, then poured the molten metal into Petrobond molds to cast its neck and body. He made a mistake with the first casting, but fortunately, metal is easily recycled, and a do-over was possible. The finished guitar weighs nearly 40 pounds.

Like some of his previous projects, metalsmith Seth Robinson made this bronze skull mask using lost PLA casting. He started with a 3D model by Zane Rogers, which he 3D printed, coated in ceramic slurry, and baked in a kiln to remove the plastic. After that, he filled the shell with a mix of copper/tin, cracked off the coating, then cleaned up the excess metal.

Answering the question, “Is that an aluminum banana in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?,” Brigid walks us through the steps of casting a perfect replica of the yellow fruit out of aluminum. The process involves placing a real banana in sand, delicately removing it, pouring in molten metal, trimming off the excess, then polishing it to a shine.

This video from Jack Mack Woodturning shows how the artist turned hundreds of sheets of colored paper and resin into a unique bowl. After cutting chunks of the composite into pieces, Jack placed them in an other bowl of resin, then turned the dried shape on a lathe to create the finished piece.

When it comes to cups, disposable styrofoam ones are some of the most wasteful. Robinson Foundry has a solution to the problem – instead of making them out of difficult-to-recycle polystyrene, cast them out of molten metal. We love those aluminum packing peanuts too.

After casting a metal bolt with double threads, Robinson Foundry is back to show off another unusual bolt design. This oversize bolt has a maze thread pattern, which requires a complex sequence of moves to remove its nut. Like many of his other builds, he created ceramic molds over 3D prints, which he melted away.

Cast metal versions of organic forms can look awesome, like this seashell that Seth Robinson made. The process involved placing a marlin spike shell into a sand mold. After melting aluminum and pouring it into the mold, he removed the casting and cleaned up the excess metal to reveal what the insides of the shell look like.

If you’ve been to a firing range, you’ll see countless shell casings littering the ground. Seth over at Robinson Foundry wanted to put these to use, so he melted down the brass casings and turned them into custom coins. He created the shapes by 3D printing coin models, then placed them into a sand mold for casting.

While most of the videos on the Internet that involve thermite end up destroying stuff, The Backyard Scientist decided to use the extremely hot concoction to fire a crucible for casting a sword. The result isn’t the most attractive looking thing, but still an effective weapon.