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| Andrew Wildman:
Whilst perusing the contents of the local autojumble I was inspired to build a lead hammer. Theses seem to be very hard to find for a sensible price so I thought I would have a go building one. Probably this will be a fairly quick build. I purchased by donor hammer for the princely sum of 50p I cleaned it up and cut down the head. this will form the handle for the hammer. I am planning to make a plaster mould to cast the lead. I don't see why this wont work (as long as the mould is fully dried out) but I have never done it before so we will see. This is the set up for making the plaster mould. I am using a rubber mallet as a pattern. I will cast the lower half of the plaster mould, let it dry, sandwich a layer of cling film and the cast the top half. The mallet can then be removed. I can then peel off the cling film, tie the two halves of the mould together and cut a riser in the cast. The handle can be sandwiched in the mould and the lead poured. This is the set up to cast the mould. |
| PK:
Not sure about lead. But you have to do more than just let the plaster dry if you use aluminium. But al melts at double the temp of lead.... It'll be interesting to see how you go.. |
| Pete49:
I'll be watching :clap: Just be sure its completely dry or it won't go well for you. Like aluminium it will splatter on contact with water, not as badly but still burn you badly. Pete |
| raynerd:
Great post... Interesting idea and something I've thought about doing! |
| Andrew Wildman:
So I completed the mould, decided it was too big and re did it with a smaller pattern. I baked the plaster cast in the oven for a couple of hours and also pre heated it with the torch before the pour to dry it out but it still steamed when I put the lead in. The hammer came out ok - well it was hammer shaped, but it wont win any prizes for quality casting. I had to smash the mould to get it apart, however here are the mould halves: I may re cast it when the hammer gets bashed up a bit, but for the time being it will serve it's purpose! Here are a few lessons I learned: -The mould needs to be really dry - If I will do it gain I will bake it for longer at a higher temp. -The alignment of the two halves needs to be really positive. Even with the little cast in 'pins' it wandered slightly -I should have tied the two halves together. I just relied on a few lumps of steel stock to hold it in place but the top half did wander slightly during the pour. |
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