Jeff
There’s a cost factor involved.
I water jet cut mine from plate then machined them to finish, but for the model EX there is not as much detail as the latter cars. And you only need 16.
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www.stanleysteamers.com]
To get quality detail with the investment casting you need a very good mold to cast the wax parts. Also you have to have a foundry that works with the higher metals.
If you use an exiting part, you won’t have the same thing because of the shrinkage.
To do it correctly you need to start from scratch with a new pattern.
Of course today you can draw the part in 3-D to the correct over size for shrinkage and print the mold on a 3-D printer. But this cost money. Then you need the foundry that does the wax and makes the tree.
The universals I made, I made the pattern, and I had a shop make the mold from my pattern, they also did the wax injection and also make the tree, but they had to bring the tree and ceramic mold to a foundry to get it purred. Some one they work with.
I don’t know what the cost is to have someone else to the whole thing. I do some 3-D drawings but I’m not there yet.
I found a 3-D drawing I did of my U-bolt but I never considered using it to do investment castings.
Rolly
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/25/2013 09:38PM by Rolly.