Lost wax cylinder mold

[Dan Rowe]

I am going to cast my cylinders for the 7/8ths Shay project in silicon bronze. To see the mold and wax parts go to:
www.7-8ths.info/index.php?topic=1262.15

I have to make one more part to fix the section where the steam passage core is removed.

This cylinder is small but the same type of mold will work for larger scales and the mold would be simpler to construct because the parts are larger.
Dan

[pkastagehand]

Wow, looks great!

But it seems like far too much work and trouble to get a couple cylinders. Unless you plan to cast many of them to sell or something?

I actually have a foundry furnace but no place to hook it up and run it. So I make things from solid or use weldments (or silver solderments?)

Paul

[Dan Rowe]

The work shown in the photos is only the tip of the iceberg. A lot of Shay parts can be made efficiently with a vulcanized rubber mold made with a single metal master.

I tried this with the cylinder and failed several times. I considered building the whole thing in wax using Kozo's techniques but that is also a lot of work for a a couple of cylinders.

I drew one of the Shay cylinders form the Lima print in 3D cad to grasp the geometry. It is really just as simple to make negative of a cylinder as the cylinder, the trick is getting the cylinder out of the box in one piece.

I made the cylinder universal so it can be used for the right or left side and I only had to make one mold. There are a lot of projects that could utilize a small fully cored and ported bronze cylinder.

Yes at some point I plan to sell a few Shay 7/8ths Shay parts, but it will be really nice to finish a complete locomotive.
Dan