Quick Update - Casting Complete !

Quick update - Cold Cylinder Casting is complete.  All initial castings has been finished.  We finished up the castings this last weekend with the cold cylinder casting.  Its the largest casting of the engine at about 40 lbs (cast weight) -  We used a more traditional method of casting for this part due to its size.  We used a traditional cope and drag method with casting sand with sodium silicate additive.  The additive when exposed to CO2 turns the sand sold like a rock.  Very slick stuff.  The down side is that the sand, with the additive, can only be used once, which adds cost to the part, about $12 for the sand and $15 dollars for the cope and drag.  We are still at about $50 for the 40lb part - which is not bad.  We will re-visit the lost foam process for this part when we get a little more time.

Next steps are to finish the machining of all the cast parts and repair any casting defects that may be exposed by the machining then on to assembly !

Here are a few shots of the Cold Cylinder as it comes out of casting and starts the machining process -

Also, Catherine did capture the last pour for this part and posted it,  if your interested see link below - yes, we have spoken to her about keeping the camera oriented properly -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W4OG7U5Ai0

More to come shortly.

Tim