casting aluminum plaques

[ArlyA]

With our schools shut down, student are out anyway, I was in our school metal shop today helping the instructor who was casting aluminum plaques that are for a city park, to honor the various service branches. Don't ask me much because I know very little about this whole process. I'm just the helper... The last photo shows the plaques he was making today.

 

[Peter 315]

Nice I did that in high school cast aluminum in sand molds of different objects . We used scrap and melted it. I made some eagles..:thumbsup:

 

[Big Barn]

What a great little foundry area that school has! Thanks for the pics, Arly.

In high school our aluminum casting project was an ashtray which we would turn and finish on the lathe. The vertical mill was used to cut the little indentations for the cigarette to rest.

I never smoked so I may have the terminology wrong.

 

[yomax4]

We made ornaments like ducks, deer and belt buckles. None of them turned out with good detail. We did it with plastic too. Forgot all about that.

 

[ArlyA]

The class does have a bunch of castings or patterns the kids can use. In the photo of us standing looking stupid, you can see a few of the items them can make. They might have 50 different things they can do. Like this brass eagle that came off the Missouri.. Its mine but I gave it to them so they have a copy for casting.

 

[dragoneggs]

Yeah we sand casted a few pieces for a winch during my hands on manufacturing engineering class at UW long ago. Also learned about welding, turning, and machining metals while making my winch. Don't know what happened to that fine piece of 'art'.

 

[ArlyA]

We live in a engineering university town. Mi Tech for those in the Midwest, so we've got to know many of these kids going there some E program. Plenty of them should have gone through this HS shop class program or some "hand-on" learning in general. Shop class is good.

 

[3Ts]

When I was in school we had a woodworking shop class. That was it, no metals. When my kids were in school, they had a woodworking shop as well, but the school closed down all shop classes shortly after that. Something about liability and the kids needing to prepare for college - ??? I think that preparing for college does not eliminate shop. On the contrary, shop will help them understand what it takes to make things.

I made my daughter help in the construction of my barn. She didn't really want to, but later in life she got into architectural design and she told me that, that experience helped her understand what the symbols meant and better understood what was going to be built.

 

[yomax4]

When I was in school we had a woodworking shop class. That was it, no metals. When my kids were in school, they had a woodworking shop as well, but the school closed down all shop classes shortly after that. Something about liability and the kids needing to prepare for college - ??? I think that preparing for college does not eliminate shop. On the contrary, shop will help them understand what it takes to make things.

I made my daughter help in the construction of my barn. She didn't really want to, but later in life she got into architectural design and she told me that, that experience helped her understand what the symbols meant and better understood what was going to be built.

Jr high we had wood class, made tables and crap, metals, made tool boxes and other cool stuff, elctronics, made radios. plastics, made canteens, footballs dishes. That era is long gone.

 

[ArlyA]

Jr high we had wood class, made tables and crap, metals, made tool boxes and other cool stuff, elctronics, made radios. plastics, made canteens, footballs dishes. That era is long gone.

They make all those items in this class. Why do you say its gone?