Attempting to cast a lightsaber in aluminum. Need mold help!

[Owk1]

Hey everyone. For some time I have been working machining my favorite lightsaber on my woodturning lathe. The Luke/ Obi Shared Stunt lightsaber. This fugly saber has a special place in my heart and I have always wanted a replica using the same techniques and materials as the real prop was made. I have some metal casting experience but have only done one piece molds and the lost foam method. I'm having some issues and was hoping someone here could point me in the right direction . My first question is for anyone who has metal casting mold making experience whats the best way to make a mold for this saber without cutting the wooden master in half? my goal is to make it a open top pourable mold if at all possible. the emitter the grip down to the booster, and the pommel will all be separate molds the hollowed out ad assembeled. I will post pictures of my wood master as soon as I can. its about 40% finished.
any advice would be greatly appreciated!, thanks

 

[James Kenobi 1138]

Have you looked on YouTube?

 

[Owk1]

Yes but all the videos I've seen show the pattern cut into two separate pieces. I'm really trying to avoid cutting the saber in half for fear of ruining it.

 

[swgeek]

You could make a rubber mold, cast up two in urethane, then split those in two.

 

[Owk1]

Could I possible submerge part of the saber in clay like you do a 2 part silicone mold accept with sand ?

 

[Mr Mold Maker]

Lost wax casting is what you're looking for my friend. There are very many books and videos covering the topic.

To heavily simplify it: Make a silicone mold of the wooden master, cast a wax copy, make a stone mold of the wax copy, melt the wax out, pour in molten aluminum, and done!

 

[Luuke]

Caution: Unless you really know what you're doing, I seriously would advise against melting aluminum and trying to cast it yourself. This is not something to be taken lightly. Contact a foundry and see if they can do it for you and what options they have. Working with molten metal can cause some extremely serious and life altering injury.

 

[Duncanator]

I'm not trying to talk you out of your project, but to the best of my knowledge that saber was lathed out of aluminum, not cast. The castings were done in resin.

That being said; I love learning new techniques!

 

[Owk1]

The shared stunt has long been reported to have been cast aluminum by the floor effects team for anh. The v2 was also cast alum but the cast was cleaned up on a metal lathe the shared stunt even has the seam lines on the grips. I have done dozens of metal castings but only using the lost foam method. I have been planning this for some time the saber will be cut into several pieces and cast individual parts and then will be assembled together most of my parts can be easily molded like the emitter pommel will use either green sand or a hydrocal sand mix but longer parts like the grips will be more of a challenge to mold