How to Make a Steel Mold for Molten Metals

Some time ago I’ve made a small steel mold for casting ingots and now decided to make a second one. This one will be much bigger. When it’s ready it will be possible to cast lead, aluminum, brass, bronze and copper. Such steel molds are very important because when, for example you made your home foundry, bought or made a crucible and ready to melt some metal, you can unexpectedly find out that you don’t have where to pour molten metal. I faced with this challenge. :) It's good to use green sand casting or lost foam casting but it’s much easier to do all this by melting ingots and not “dirty” alloy scrap.

Step 1: U-Section

For this mould I took U-Section and cut off a piece of it. It’s important to make right angles, so it will be much easier to extract ingots.

Step 2: A Rusted Sheet

After this, I sanded a rusted sheet and cut off two pieces, which would be used as long sides of the mold.

Step 3: Welding

The next step was to weld all sides together.

Step 4: Making a Handle

When it was done, I cut off a piece of rod and welded it to the mold.

Step 5: Slack Lime

The final stage was to cover inside surface with slack lime. It will help to extract bar after it becomes solid.