Another finned cover for shovelheads.

This looks like the same type of cover Johnny Chop used on his True Blue bike. The starting bid for this item was $450.00 where I found it. I think I can do a little better than that. If there is something being made by someone today, I wont be doing a re-pop of it. Just wont go there! However if it's not being manufactured today, I'll consider it fare game. I think this particular cover is being made in Europe? I'll have to check on that though. I have enough of my own ideas that I will never get em all cast in my lifetime as it is. Why waste time even trying to rip off someones hard work and sweat? I sure as hell wouldn't like it if it were done to me!

Hell, even if I don't get to cast everything I want to there will at least be a pic of every vintage part I wanted to do on here!

Welcome to Blue Collar Motos Metal Foundry!

OK! Got things changed over to the new address! Not everything is as clean as it was. I'm using Windows Vista now, and it didn't cooperate with me in changing over the info. The posts are broken up a bit but still easy enough to figure out, I hope. I have a bunch of stuff to post, but all the pix are still in the old computer. I'll be changing things over little by little, and going back to posting something once a day.

Title change on the way.

   Just got a call from one of my friends over at Foundry Moto. Turns out the club has a ligitimate issue with me using the name the way it appears now. The way I looked at it was my name "Blue Collar Moto" and this is going to be my "foundry." I can see their point though. If it were anybody else I would of told them to pound sand but I dig these guys. We have partied together more than a few times and they have always had my respect. So no longer will the name be "Blue Collar Moto Foundry." I'm going to be talking to the guys to come up with a solution we can bouth agree with. I will be changing the link and transfering the posts I have already made as soon as we all can come up with a solution. I'll leave the new link up here for a week before I delete this blog. Thanks for contacting me asap with this issue. Would of been a real pain in the ass to change things a month from now.

Stuff is stuff, but stuff with fins is cool! I got these pix from Shovelhead Steve over on the Horse Board. Haven't had time to go looking for any pix of other stuff I want to do yet. I'll keep posting pix as I come by them.

This first cover is super sweet! Would be a bit high in price due to the machine work involved, although I'm sure it would be less than a like new old cover from the 70s.

I'm gonna be making split rocker boxes for both Ironheads and Shovelheads. The time it took me to split the rocker boxes on my Ironhead was just crazy! A cast part would be much easier to do and take only about 1/10th the man hours to complete.

Who dont like War Bird taillights on their chopper? I'm gonna check into casting the lenses after I have been doing this for a while. Glass would be king bird!

Fins, fins, and more fins!

Two of the first Victims

Old rusted out peanut tank Ive had sitting around the place for the past ten years.

A set of fat-bobs went into making this tear drop.

I used a wire and a paint marker to scribe the parting line where I will cut the tanks in half. I cant cut them here though without getting my ass evicted. The landlord has no sense of humor when it comes to grinders and sawzalls. I'm thinking I could make a rubber mold and take the patterns out of them in plaster till I move to the new shop. It would be nice to have at least some things ready to go before the move!

Gate and Vent Options

   My first idea on how to run the gates and venting system was to just use large enough vent risers to help fill the part with liquid metal during the solidification process. The thicker parts (mounting points) need to have metal flowing into them up till the time they turn solid. If not the shrinkage would most likely cause distortions in these thicker areas of the part as they cool and shrink. I also was thinking about running the Sprue down the center of the mold and sending the runners and gates to each of the mounting points. I'm sure the pattern would fill up just fine that way but, since the walls of the tank have such a large and relatively thin area throughout the mold, I decided to go with a bottom fed gating system. By feeding the largest section (front of tank) from underneath, its my hope to have very little turbulence in the metal as it flows threw the mold. I'm probably over thinking this but I know turbulence is bad, and it will probably be easier to gate the mold this way anyhow. 

  So then I started reading about directional solidification. What that is, is where the metal first starts to go from a liquid to a solid and continues to solidify from that point on threw the part. By adding chunks of metal to the mold you can decide where the solidification process begins. In my gas tank mold I would want to add the chill plates to the tank mounting points. The advantages in doing this are, the way the metal sets up with a chill plate makes for a more mechanicaly strong area. It has to do with the way the metal molicules lighn up during solidification. Thats another topic for another post though. Also, by chilling the larger parts (not close to the gate. Wouldnt want to stop metal flow threw the supply gates.) first, there is less of a chance that they will deform from a lack of liquid metal in their center during silidification due to shrinkage. Another plus for using chill plates, and one of the biggest is in the amount of metal needed to fill the mold. If I were to just put big ol risers on top of the mounting points, I could probably kiss a pound of aluminum good by for each mold I fill during a melt. That would have me melting enough extra aluminum to make the large riser concept not such a good idea. More melting time, more metal, more slag, etc, to deal with over all. If I were only planning on casting one part per melt then it wouldnt matter much. However I plan on spending a good five hours pouring as many molds I can make each time I fire up the furnace.

  I would use more vents with the chill plates, but they get poked in with a coat hanger size wire, so its not a big deal. I'm also planning on using Petrobonded sand. The pertobond uses oil rather than water to hydrate and does not create steam. Since there is no steam, less venting is permittable. The finish with Petrobond is finer as well, cutting down on finish work to the part after casting. The sand is a smaller grain because it doesen't need to be as permiable as regular water based green sand.