Foundries

Good morning all. I'm looking for a foundry that can produce a batch of about 30 Aluminium castings from a single (split) pattern at a reasonable price. I'm based on the Wiltshire/Oxfordshire border. Any suggestions? I am presently using Alpro in Birmingham, reasonable castings but could be better.

I contributed to a thread some months ago on exactly the same subject. My contribution was DM Foundries at Stroud. They have just decided to shut up shop. Other foundries I have used have gone the same way. I've been in contact with other foundries, they are just too expensive. They want multiple patterns so they can produce several castings in one "box".

John

Have you seriously considered making them yourself? Chuck's book the Backyard Foundry inspired me to have a go and i successfully made the castings for a 5 inch gauge Crampton. Aluminium is easy compared to iron. You can get a perfectly good furnace on eBay for £200 including the gas fittings and run it on propane. You could melt the aluminium in a stainless steel pot using old car wheels as material. Myfordboy has very good videos on Youtube about the process.

That's how they can do them at a reasonable cost, easy and quick to do a batch on a match plate in one go, far more labour intensive and therefore costly for them to be done as individual patterns.

Can you not take a silicon mould of your pattern halves and cast up say 6 resin copies and then stick them to a match board, add the runners and away you go.

www.owlcastings.co.uk

www.hadleighcastings.com

These two would be worth looking at.

Manor Foundry in Ilkeston

I will watch this thread as I also use Alpro. I am happy with Alpro but may one day need someone closer to home.

Many thanks for the replies. I was hoping for some suggestions closer to home. I like to visit a foundry to discuss details as to where runners and risers are positioned, type of sand used and so on.

I've heard good things about Manor Foundry, too far away though, likewise Hadleigh. As for Owlcastings, they need to get their website sorted, I lost patience with it!

I've considered buying melting and molding equipment but no. Time and space are at a premium, it takes time to develop the technique to produce castings of the required quality. As for melting down scrap aluminium, I want to know what I'm working with. Sometimes I have the castings heat treated.

As for multiple patterns, more work. At the moment its a small batch infrequently made. That may change in the future then multiple patterns may well be viable, preferably metal for durability.

John

I will look at Manor as they are not to far from me should the need arrive. I spent my last 13 years before retiring working for a pressure die foundry who also did some gravity work Sadly they only do the pressure die work now.

I would not contemplate back yard casting if a hint of quality is required, I have seen what is involved with getting good castings from known materiel.