Sand casting question

I kinda new to this sand casting hobbie... I bought or made almost everything I need to start this new hobbie... I twiddled with drywall mix and made some really good flywheel engine flywheels this way... My question is what can I use for parting sand ??? I like to buy everything local and no one around this area even knows what it is... I don't know myself... Is something special or can I use different things ???

Thanks. Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Beitz
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Lots of stuff has been used as a parting dust.......from cornstarch, to baby powder, to regular flour, to dust off the rafters, to finely screened regular sand to using the burnt sand after a mold is shook open, baking soda, graphite, diamaceous earth and even greensand binder be it bentonite or Petrobond resins, the plumbago or carbon black or even the colors used in concrete works, as does powdered carpenters chalk which you can buy by the gallon jug in most any builder supply store. Some work fine some not so fine.....the organic stuff tends to rot after awhile and makes your greensand sour smelling.......You can order parting dust from BCS online, and its not expensive, and a 5 pound pail will last a long long time..............IIRC I pay about $1.00 a pound for the parting dust they sell locally....... Visit my website:

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Reply to
Roy

The best parting sand that I've used is baked sand! I take some natural bonded sand, bake it completely dry, and break up the chunks. It works better than the parting dust that I paid money for.

Reply to
Gary Brady

About a month age I took a weekend class in bronze casting. We used corn starch and it worked very well. Another poster, Roy, mentioned all kinds of materials. I was quite surprised at the variety of materials one could use!

Hope you have fun! I'm going to start my foundry after my current set of projects is done, say in Jan !

Kev> I kinda new to this sand casting hobbie... I bought or made almost

Reply to
Pete Martin

The object is to create a non stick surface between the pattern and the mold and to make a non stick surface between mold halves.........so theoretically most anything that will do that that is in the form of a dry fine powder or granule and is not readily combustible would work.....Yes flour and cornstarch etc is able to burn,. and some things like this will add gas to the cavity and can result in porosity, but these things do work for the most part........I know quite a few folks that used wood flour, and cornstarch at first, but after a period of time their sand smelled pretty darn bad..........I guess if it puish come to shove and I was not able to buy any, my first choise would be fine baked sand, or baby powder followed by diamaceous earth. Just be carefull if using DE as it is very abrasive and sharp, and is known to irritate eyes if the dust gets into them........ Visit my website:

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Reply to
Roy

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