I need to have a small part casted out of aluminum 6061. The part consists of all round tubing. I'm welding 1 1/4" round stock 1/8" wall to the ends of an 11" piece of 7/8" round tubing .058 wall. The 1 1/4" round stock is 1 1/2" in length. The 11" piece is slightly arched. Can this be casted? If so what are the up front costs? How clean would the part look? Will there be lots of burs to clean up? Can I weld this to another piece of aluminum? All replies appreciated. Thanks..
aluminum casting question?
Apr 30, 2005
1 Replies
snipped-for-privacy@canoeoutriggers.com wrote in news:1114874932.506620.5010 @g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:
That is not a good candidate for casting. A minimum of ~4 mm (0.157") wall thickness is needed, in a very properly controlled casting set-up in order to avoid cold shunts, etc. In a piece that long, you would be looking at a MUCH thicker wall being needed, unless you were doing die casting. The problem is heat loss. On a thin section like that the aluminum will cool rapidly, usually before it gets the cavity filled, so you wind up with gaps (voids) and cold shunts (cold flow) in the casting.
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