Part II: Making the Carriage

	Here is the pattern for the carriage. It is wood and "natural" wood putty smeared with regular wood glue to smooth out the outside. The white stuff in the image is leftover parting dust.
	Here's the bottom.
	Rather than make the pattern all one piece, I decided on a "split" pattern so the mold would be using to make. Even though it does take a little more work to set up the pattern, I've found that split patterns are worth the effort. I drilled holes in each of the bearing pads and pushed pieces of toothpick through the holes. I drilled slightly larger corresponding holes in the main pattern for the toothpicks. This keeps the pattern together when ramming the mold.
	The carriage pattern (without the bearing pads) is set up in the drag and ...
	...rammed with green sand.
	The split pattern approach makes things easy because the pattern is flush with the top of the drag. There is no "coping out" to do -- scraping out sand down to the parting line.
	The bearing pads are easily fitted to the pattern with the toothpicks. I also just stuck the sprue onto the pattern without a gate. No riser either.
	The next step is simply to ram up the cope. I used a wire to stab vent holes into the sand and spoon to scoop out a cup on top of the sprue. The cup is way off-center because the sprue ended up a little too close to the edge.
	When I lifted the cope, one of the bearing pads stuck to the pattern instead of remaining in the cope. A little of sand broke off too. Oh, well. Just a little bit of post-cast filing to do.
	Here is the mold just about ready for pouring. I've removed the pattern and the sprue and blown out the loose sand.
	Now the mold is ready for the aluminum.
	I couldn't resist a couple more furnace shots. Things are getting hot.
	The aluminum has melted and a thin layer of dross needs to be scooped off.
	Now we are ready!
	The aluminum went in very nicely. The flask was a little too small for this part and there wasn't enough sand between the aluminum and the wood. You can see some smoke on the right hand side.
	Yup. The wood burned a bit. But not too bad really.
	The carriage fresh from the sand.
	Here is the top of the carriage.
	And here is the bottom. I think it turned out OK.
Back to the carriage.

Questions? Comments?