A successful test cut after eliminating an earlier problem that turned out to be an assembly error. There's still a lot more tweaking that can be done, but it's pretty usable at this point.

On February 5 I cut steel on it for the first time. It's reversed because this is meant to be the crusher head for the CanBot, a can-crushing device the robotics team made. The (overly ambitious) idea was that it would stamp the team number into the crushed cans.

First, the pattern for the casting I hoped to do that weekend: a tree of a dozen small open-frame pieces on a central sprue.

And a single piece, which is what each keychain will be.

A partially successful casting on the morning of April 27th. This is the robot part in the crucible, melting.

Breaking the investment flask open to see what came out.

And the aluminum tree itself. I only got 8 out of 12 pieces to come out, so I need to do another. I think maybe the graphite gasket I made didn't give a good seal, and I didn't get as much vacuum as I could have.

After fettling, the pieces got powder coated, and here they are curing in a toaster oven.

I finished the senior gifts on May 15th. I still have a largish brick of the aluminum left over from the melted-down part, since I didn't use much of it. It's a part we removed because we were over weight, and I plan to bring it in to show people just how much aluminum it was.

The plan was to melt down some of the broken parts from that year's robot and cast keychains in the shape of the game piece, and maybe laser something onto them if there was time. This project was way more of a pain than I thought it would be, but I learned a fair amount, so I'll call it a win.

here's the finished keychain, presented to the seniors at the wrap-up banquet on May 19.

Here's my casting setup under the deck on the night of August 16, 2023: the propane furnace with its lid glowing, the tongs, and a wooden sand flask ready for the pour.

And the result, still sitting in its sand mold.

It's about 2" long. It's okay, with a few minor defects. I may try again.

Here's the flower itself, on a board among the shavings it was made from, a couple of days before.

And the plaque with the flower attached, before I trimmed it down. I'm not thrilled with the look of the poplar, but I was out of time to do better.

To address the issue with the above unit wearing out, in October 2023 I made a couple of 3D-printed versions. First up was a prototype. It shows one of the drill bushings that I made to guide the drill, since if the mild steel I was using on the original version didn't stand up, the plastic definitely wouldn't.

My 3D printer has more than enough accuracy to place the holes. I measured the prototype and found it had placed that bushing to within 0.001" of the correct location, and since the bushing is reamed, the whole thing is probably within about 0.005" as far as putting the hole in the right place.

Of course, jigs get abused. The kids broke one and I broke another. In early November, I think this was at least version 5. Visible in the fifth hole from the left is the locating pin I made, so the jig can be used to make series of holes that are longer than the jig.