Anyone know a metal casting shop doing aluminum or magnesium for a few dozen small parts ?

Hi ,  my buddy is looking for a shop that does metal casting  , 

one project is an aluminum Knock off , He has had them cast before and the shop used the excess molten aluminum to cast them , its an easy project for that ,

also need some simple oil pump covers and a few other things , 

the local Magnesium caster  is so far behind he does not even want to take any more work as he is behind on the magnesium aircraft parts he makes  , we need to make some valve covers and a few other parts , 

He has simple molds , and can do the finish machining , just needs raw castings .

These projects just need to get done , a few weeks, a few months is OK , its just a few missing pieces of a puzzle that has been sitting unfinished for years , 

The New Year Resolution is to get these projects done by the summer

Thanks for your ideas

The aluminum is easily capable for the two of you.  May take a couple pours before you get something good.  Any reason to not roll your own?

No clue on the magnesium. 

My brother volunteers for a local streetcar museum, and has used Windy Hills foundry in Mississippi for various small runs of castings with good results.  https://windyhillfoundry.com  Windy Hills has their own YouTube channel, and also appear fairly often on Keith Rucker's Vintage Machinery YouTube channel.  I'm not sure what his turnaround time is, he seems to be pretty busy.

In reply to Mr_Asa 

thanks for your reply

It's mostly the time and that we are 350 miles away from each other ,

it really is a "pick your battles" thing , it's easier to pay someone what they know then to go thru the learning process ,  

Some of these projects have sat for years because of a missing part or two , 

In reply to californiamilleghia :

More than fair.  Maybe keep it in your back pocket at least?  If nothing else, it'll help prevent "a year or two" from growing to three or four.

Could also check in with your local college arts depts.  May actively have a casting program or know local folks to help?

Mr_Asa said:

The aluminum is easily capable for the two of you.  May take a couple pours before you get something good.  Any reason to not roll your own?

No clue on the magnesium. 

I like this. The most GRM response ever. 

OP: "I need a few parts made"

ASA: "How about a new hobby instead?"

You might want to check out https://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php DIY casting/foundry site run by Kelly Coffield.  He has a smallish youtube channel for lost foam investment casting and does a lot of retro ford intakes.  You might be able to have him make some parts or find someone on his forum that would take on a small job.

RacetruckRon said:

You might want to check out https://forums.thehomefoundry.org/index.php DIY casting/foundry site run by Kelly Coffield.  He has a smallish youtube channel for lost foam investment casting and does a lot of retro ford intakes.  You might be able to have him make some parts or find someone on his forum that would take on a small job.

I'd bet there is something local to them on FB as well.

Trent said:

Mr_Asa said:

The aluminum is easily capable for the two of you.  May take a couple pours before you get something good.  Any reason to not roll your own?

No clue on the magnesium. 

I like this. The most GRM response ever. 

OP: "I need a few parts made"

ASA: "How about a new hobby instead?"

My buddy  has done some casting in high school , so he understands the process , 

But he has so much restoration work to do on his bosses cars that setting up to do casting  does not work out time wise ,  

And  so many casting places have gone out of business in the last few years .

Supreme Castings in Milwaukee.  Definitely aluminum and brass/bronze, not sure on magnesium.  They already do short run stuff and hot rod stuff so its in their wheelhouse.

Your tooling or theirs.  

Really good guys that will take care of you, I have been working with them for almost 15 years and they run a lot of parts for me.  

https://supremecast.com/

I can do aluminum castings. Seriously. I have the gear and the experience. Not sure on what scale youre looking for (1 pc or 100?), but I might be interested. Caveat is that I have to work outside, and when its very cold,  that can be tricky (but not impossible).

Funny that I indeed caught the casting bug because someone on GRM about a decade ago suggested "why not do it yourself" to me when I was asking a similar question, and here we are...

Stuff Ive cast:

• SR20DE MAF Adapter:

• Belt Buckle

• 14mm wrench because I was bored and wanted to see if I could get the lettering detail

4cylndrfury , sent you a message , please let me know if you got it , Thanks

Received and replied. Looks like a cool project!

I'm curious about this, too, as the idea of having someone draw up the plans for a liquid cooled cylinder/head assembly for a Yamaha RD400 and then someone to cast them and someone else to finish machine/sleeve them has caught my imagination...

stroker said:

I'm curious about this, too, as the idea of having someone draw up the plans for a liquid cooled cylinder/head assembly for a Yamaha RD400 and then someone to cast them and someone else to finish machine/sleeve them has caught my imagination...

patterning that kind of casting would be a real project - getting the cores for the water passages to be in the right place and the piece cast properly without tearing when it cools is a real engineering feat. 3D rendering and printing would be your friend here for the prototyping and patterning. Would be really fun to cast though!

My question becomes "would it be easier/cheaper to have them CNC'd"?

QuasiMofo (John Brown) said:

My question becomes "would it be easier/cheaper to have them CNC'd"?

Still need the design.  If I were going to financially commit to that project I'd go for a 500cc top end...  I mean, compared to the FrankenFerrari 308 project, how hard could it be?  :)