Aluminum Sand Rammer

This is my second sand casting after a few experiments some successful other less with sea sand. last week I got 25kg Petrobond sand and I have to say their is no comperession and I am realy satisfied with the results.
This time I wanted to make an Aluminum Sand Rammer for my sand casting projects. I was thinking of making a pattern from wood and then I came across hard wood stair banister that was "waiting" in my shed for special occasion. Just by looking at it I could see the tool that I was looking for in my head. I cut it to a good working size and beveled one side for easy ramming of the flask corners. I also made a new wooden flask for this project.

I started by placing the pattern in the Drag and filling it with Petrobond ramming it well.
After drag was covered to the top I turned it over and used spoon to notch and smooth half way down the pattern. After smoothing it with the spoon I filled the Cope all the way up ramming it.

Next very gently I lifted the Cope and the pattern, Nerve wracking job. Beautiful result ;-)
I made pouring sprue to feed the molten aluminum in and small vent hole.
I used a clamp to keep Flask tight and poured the molten aluminum into the flask and the extra into the slim ingot tray that I welded.

Now this is the hardest part, WAITING for the metal to cool before opening the flask...
Still a bit hot but the result of my second sand casting amazed me, BEAUTIFUL aluminum sand rammer. In the image you can see the Parting line between the Cope and Drag.
After light cleaning I have a new tool ready for use.