C&C tiberium wars Advanced flame tank

[Loki]

Nice!!!!
I thought that you were going to cuy the pieces with a CNC router, but Laser is a great option!
Question: How thick are those metal sheets?

Im Lovin it

[cyclonite]

Nice!!!!
Question: How thick are those metal sheets?

bottom plate >> 2 mm Stainless steel
the rest 3 mm Stainless steel

[Mach]

Woah, subscribed. I will be most seriously impressed when you get those tracks to work. Meshing gears is second only to iris windows in complexity. Watching....

[cyclonite]

I plan on making a few aluminium tank components myself.
Among them are a number of difficult shapes like:

• A ball bearing mount
• The tracks
• Cover plates

The idea is to make molds out of wood and then make aluminium casts of their shapes.

I have done some research, what is nessecairy to melt aluminium and how to cast it.

Aluminium melts at a temperature of 660 degrees celcius.
And with a normal gasflame it is difficult to obtain temperatures like that (or higher).
That is why a furnace is needed.

I shopped for some special materials like insulation cloth which withstands temperatures up to 1400 degrees.
Special fire resistant cement.
A crucible to melt the aluminium in.
Aluminium cleaning material.

At a local hardware store I bought a steel bucket to build an furnace.

In the top of the bucket I drilled a hole to let the gasses pass through.
The bolts will be used to hang the bucket in a frame.

The frame is made out of some old scrap metal.

The completed frame...

A note to myself, this is why you wear protection glasses.

I made some sort of suspension bridge construction to lift the bucket from the crucible.

This is how the bucket goed up, it can be attached to the frame so you have your hands free while casting.

This is the special insulation which withstands high temperatures.

I've drawn the inside of the bucket on the the insulation.

After cutting it out, some cement on the cloth and the inside of the bucket.

Then I stuck it to the wall of the bucket and had it cure for a day.

Meanwhile I had begun to make the tools to handle the extremely hot crucible.
I bent some rebar and welded some plates to it to make an axle.

Welded it..

A special bracket is made to attach to the plier, this will prevent the crucible from falling out when casting.

This is how the plier will sit on the crucible.

Thats all for this update.
Next update is of the refining of the aluminium.
I am really curious about the results

Meanwhile I asked a friend if he could mill the tracks out of wood, to use as a positive mold in the future...

[raistnox]

you should check out this sight its got some pretty good info on metal casting http://www.backyardmetalcasting.com/

[silverdemon]

This is amazing! The idea is neat and the tools you used so far are awesome!

I'm definitely following this one!

[cyclonite]

I wanted to refine my aluminium first to obtain a reasonable quality by mixing good quality together with scrap aluminium.

This is the setup of the system, 6 bricks are used to keep the funace extremely stable.
and 3 heat resistant bricks are used to set the crucible on.

The torch is now on, the best thing is my IR -thermometer indicates the outside wall doesn't get very hot, this insulation is doing its work.

You can see the hot flames rushing out of the pot, things are getting hot now!.

I don't know what this black stond exactly is, at the shop I was told it is used to clear the aluminium of any oxide.
When sturred through the aluminium mixture the inpurities will start floating at the top.
This should be scooped off , till you see nice shiny liquid aluminium.

Now I am wrapping the cleaning agent in the aluminum foil so it can be dropped in the crucible.

When working with liquid aluminium: DON'T forget to use you anti brain scanner hat.

Next I mix and stir the liquid aluminium a bit so the impurities start floating.

Then the impurities can be scooped from the liquid.

Then the aluminium can be cast into forms I use : "mom's patented cake cups "
The aluminium starts out shiny but a dull film starts to develop very fast while it cools.


a nice video of the whole proces.

You can see the crucible is kind of hot.

After some pours we have nice refined nuggets which can be used later...


sand casting and first pour

I want to make sandcasts and thus I needed some tools to create these casts.

I started by creating some casting molds made from plywood, the casting molds excist out of 2 parts which can be lifted from each other to remove the molded object(s).

The mold is marked so you wont make a mistake, how it is put on.

Next up were 2 small (conical) wooden objects which are easely to remove from the cast.
one is the pour and the other is used as riser.

Now it is time for the first cast, this gear will be casted and will now function als the mold.

I dispense some graphite on the mold so it can be removed easely from the sandcast.

I use this red (oil containing) sand the create the sand mold.

Next the sand needs to be hammered onto the mold till is it rock solid and no more bubbles exist.

This is now rock solid but the rest has to be filled to prevent the sand from falling out when ramming the other side.

The excess had to be removed to leave a flat surface.

like this...

Next the mold needs to be flipped over.

next the top has to be filled, you can see why the riser and pour are used... they are sitting cold on the gear here...

After ramming the other side the casting can be removed again ... now the remove the mold itself.

You can see the riser and pour on this photo.
They will be removed before the pour...

Heating up the furnace...

This is the tricky bit.. removing the mold itself... it can be a bit sticking to the sand....

Now both parts are put back on each other... the can see the graphite and some shape of the gear...

The aluminium is hot now ... so lets get ready....

I have made a movie of another pour... but is it very explanitory...

You can see the sand smoking...

The gear can be seen now.

The black sand has been burned and cannot be used anymore ,,, the rest is still good.

You can see the result here... not quite as sharp as the original ... but you can make out they belong to each other

[Mach]

Awesome, awesome work! Love the process and the video.

[x88x]

Wow, awesome work and very ambitious project! I'll definitely be following this one.

[Couch3ater]

Lovin' from the oven. =D