I Didn't Like the Pulleys on My Drill Press

[Crusty]

So I decided to make new ones, casting them in aluminum and then machining to final form.

So first I needed a furnace to melt aluminum. I made one from a Homeless Depot bucket, some Kaowool and a refractory coating. I needed a propane burner too so I made one from steel pipe and other scrap steel with a hair dryer for a blower. I used the handle valve from a propane torch to control the gas into my furnace and a waste gate on the feed tube controls the air into the burner.

So then I needed things for casting. I bought a crucible then I made lifting tongs and a pouring shank for it, as well as a pair of general grabbing tongs, a stir rod and a dross remover, along with a mold for ingots.

What else? I need a flask to mold the parts in so I made one.

I needed greensand for molding so I sifted and mixed up two tubs of facing and bulk greensand plus made a screen sifter.

OK then, I intended to use the lost foam process so I needed a hot wire cutter to make the forms. I made this one using a 16 banjo string which seems about the right resistance for the 12v, 2 amp battery charger.

What else? I needed some aluminum to cast so I bought a Kia engine from a junkyard, disassembled it and then broke it down into chunks which would fit into the crucible.

And the spirit sayeth unto me "Goest thou forth and cast thine ingots upon the mold, and so I did for the most part though I slipped on some lion scat and struggled to finish a weak sixth.

Those are 5lb ingots and I got 11 of them from that engine. The aluminum seems to cast well.

So finally I was ready to try to make some castings. Here's a couple after rough machining and one straight out of the mold. It took a couple of attempts and the lost foam process left pretty rough surfaces so I'll likely use the traditional greensand casting method in the future, though making foam forms is a time saver over wooden ones.

And here are my pulleys with the external machining done.

And here they are fitted to my DP finally.