Cleaning up the castings

These two pics are of the same items...the blue painted one eventually got filed into the one in the middle in the top picture.

Now the real work starts! I sit down at the bench with my little triangular jeweler's files, and clean up the whole casting. It needed every single point to be re-freshed, and all the flat surfaces to be cleaned up with files, sandpaper, and eventually, a high speed buffer. The above picture shows the original black plastic handle, a handle which is well into the process of filing it clean, and the one on the right is what it looked like when it came out of the mould. I spray on blue ink so that I can remember which parts I have done...it all reflects light and is hard to focus on. I was well aware that one sloppy stroke of the file could ruin hours of work!


I understand the proper name for such a casting is called a "finding". That is...something which is actually produced in a "foundry".

I got complacent. I did one perfectly in what....14 hours or so, and the next one went a little faster, only 12 hours. I figured I knew what I was doing, so I cut off the sprues with the hacksaw, and carved the saw into the casting, ruining 12 hours of work in two saw cuts! Doooh!
The third one came along quite well, but because I had already used the two best findings for the job, it took a lot longer, about 18 hours, to finally clean up the "checkering" on the sides, cut the sprues and drill them out, and generally decide I was satisfied with the job.

The second picture up there shows the original, a casting, and my finished filed handle half. This pic was actually taken before I had done the final buffing, and I note that the usual problems of photographing mirrors is coming into play! The bottom edge looks rough, but actually, what it doing is reflecting the rough surface of the cloth it is sitting on!