Lost Foam Casting

This is something we started playing around with before we moved to making the CNC router.  Now that we have the router, we have access to patterns for sand casting or lost foam investment casting :)

The background of the first image shows the yellow foam shape pressed into the sand.  The furnace is made from an old 8kg gas bottle with refractory material typically used for pizza ovens.  The burner is a home made gas burner.

The casting was pretty messy, but it cleaned up alright with a grinder,

It made a nice lamp when coupled with a $20 lamp from kmart and a gear shaft from my mates Holden Astra gearbox that he blow up.  (Parts of the casing were melted down to form the base).