metal casting continued 1.2

pouring right into the mold!

metal casting update!

So far casting aluminum has been a task! when we were pouring the aluminum into the molds, it was super hot and I finished making both of my molds so they were ready for metal. I had to add some spouts and vents to make sure my pieces fill up and there is no air bubbles. this was a long process as i had to sand the cups down to fit snug on the outside of the molds. I also had to drill and sand the holes to fit correctly into the molds so the pouring went smoothly into my cast. after doing that we had to clamp the top of the molds and the bottom together very tightly so that they don’t move during the pour. This was a bit difficult but my classmates helped me out and we were able to get them on ! Upon opening my mold I was extremely nervous as I do not usually work with metal. To my surprise when I opened by molds and seen the casted aluminum they look great! However. The smallest octopus has some defects but I am sure I will come up with something to fix it up. Part of the tentacle didn’t quite fill up. The head also did not fill up completely but nothing that’s too bad to fix. These will be sand blasted to get rid off all the burnt sand. As you can see I made three different sizes of octopi which was intended my plan is still the same as my previous posted sketch. I found some nice layered plywood and I am excited to cut it up! I am thinking about dyeing the wood a darker shade but I am not so sure on that yet. Currently I am angle grinding the back of these pieces so that I may pay closer attention to the detail of the hanger hole in the back and also so I can smooth up those edges. The edges are just from the aluminum seeping through the cracks but luckily aluminum is pretty soft so it doesn’t take too much to get these little things off. However I will be spending lots of time grinding and smoothing it out just for aesthetic purposes I prefer a smoother texter at least for this project. If I was able to do this again I would try to make a better ventilation for my smaller octopus as I am assuming that is where something went wrong. but in all I enjoyed this process and I am very happy with my molds and casts!

This is the smallest of my cast that did not quite fill up all the way.

This one was my biggest of the three cast and came out perfectly!

This one also came out so good ! small hole on the top right arm but nothing a little grinding wont fix.