I decided to upgrade my kitchen stool handle by changing it to a large aluminum ball handle. Last year I sand casted two aluminum balls, I used my sons plastic toy ball as a
pattern ;-)
Since then I didn't really have a use for those aluminum balls but I kept them knowing I would find some use for them. In this first set of images you can see the sand casting process. I used
petrobond (oil bonded sand).
Creating the sand mold impression of the balls was a very simple process, however its not a split pattern so it took a bit longer to carve the sand up to the middle of the ball.
After the molten aluminum cooled down I opened the wooden flask and cut off the
riser with a hacksaw. Then I cleaned the extra aluminum using a metal file and an electric sander.
After cleaning the aluminum ball I used my tap and die set to make a threaded hole in the aluminum ball. Once that was done I polished it and attached it into place.
