I hope so, Rob, the cold is so wearing. We had 1 day in the last 4 weeks when the high creeped a couple degrees above freezing. I just don't know if it makes sense to even try casting. We'll see -- we're supposed to top out around freezing early next week. That will seem like a heat wave.
Today I decided to make some new wooden flasks -- I badly burned my old ones (used for aluminum) when I first tried cast iron. Later made steel flasks for CI, but they're shallow and heavy for this casting.
If you look at the pulley pattern and how it tapers, it wants to be molded with the wide end uppermost in the drag. Which would mean gating into the rim, or a sprue directly on the inner boss -- but that has a core in the center. Plus, that's quite a drop for the aluminum to the bottom of the cavity. I'm thinking the walls might wash out.
I was thinking, I wish I could gate in to the bottom of the cavity -- the small end. But that can't be on the parting line, which has to be at the big end, or you wouldn't be able to draw the pattern.
Then I hit on the idea of making a flask exactly the same height as the pulley body, and make a triple layer flask with the pattern in the middle. I could then have access to either end, Sprue down, and gate in to the bottom/small end, and put a riser on top to keep the hub full.
Maybe connect to the rim, too -- I guess it depends where I get a shrink cavity (if I do). First cast is likely to have problems, especially with cold sand.
Probably do multiple MadModder dancy bannana guys if it works first pour.....
