Ok, so I am building a traditions St. Louis hawken as a learning project. Not bad, more work than I thought, lots of fun problem solving and the like..
The thing most vexing about the kit was/is the nose cap. The one that came in the kit was very poorly cast, and when they had done their finishing, they had caused it to be quite uneven in thickness side to side. I called them and they sent me another, it was better but still about 25% thinner on the left side then the right. I was going to place an order to Log Cabin Shop, so I added a new Hawken cap from them, from a T/C.. it was much better in the deminsions for the sides of the stock, but was shorter top to bottom, and I felt it would make the wood under my ramrod hole very thin, to thin.
Sooo.. after rooting around in here, I decided that casting a nose cap was a desirable skill, to be used later, so why not learn it now?
Here goes.. Bought 1.1 pounds of jewlery grade pewter from the epay.. bought cast iron melting pot at Sportsmans Warehouse, then "unseasoned" it.
Got some time alone with the wife's oven and did some experimenting.. pewter was good and melted and flowed well at 550F. Cast a "new" ingot in a piece of pine I bored a couple holes in for the purpose. Lined a hole with manila folder and cast a "tall" ingot. No problems, no flames, no burns or marks on the wood. So, come saturday, had a couple shooting buds over for some venison chilli and some bourbon.. before we started on those chores, I popped the question about casting a cap, and they were like "heck yeah! your wife's gone to get a massage, lets play in the kitchen!!" so, here is the evidence..
1st a shot of the formage.. It's just a couple shims to get things where I wanted, poplar wood, painters tape, some aluminum foil in a couple strategic spots to avoid sticking and 1 thickness of manila folder.
The stand apparatus to hold it upright..
Poured and cooling..Allowed oven to preheat for 30 minutes, with pot inside, added billet, allowed 15 minutes for it to come up to temperature.
Allowed it to cool for 1 easy tumbler of Woodford Reserve, sipped.. Then unmolded..
Ate chilli, drank another celebratory glass of bourbon, Ridgmont 1792.. hey! it was a celebration!
Been working on clean up and shapeing.. here is where it's at today.. Note the "inlet" of the under rib, doubt it's PC in any way, but I like it.
another view..
anyways.. thats my story on the cast nose cap..
The thing most vexing about the kit was/is the nose cap. The one that came in the kit was very poorly cast, and when they had done their finishing, they had caused it to be quite uneven in thickness side to side. I called them and they sent me another, it was better but still about 25% thinner on the left side then the right. I was going to place an order to Log Cabin Shop, so I added a new Hawken cap from them, from a T/C.. it was much better in the deminsions for the sides of the stock, but was shorter top to bottom, and I felt it would make the wood under my ramrod hole very thin, to thin.
Sooo.. after rooting around in here, I decided that casting a nose cap was a desirable skill, to be used later, so why not learn it now?
Here goes.. Bought 1.1 pounds of jewlery grade pewter from the epay.. bought cast iron melting pot at Sportsmans Warehouse, then "unseasoned" it.
Got some time alone with the wife's oven and did some experimenting.. pewter was good and melted and flowed well at 550F. Cast a "new" ingot in a piece of pine I bored a couple holes in for the purpose. Lined a hole with manila folder and cast a "tall" ingot. No problems, no flames, no burns or marks on the wood. So, come saturday, had a couple shooting buds over for some venison chilli and some bourbon.. before we started on those chores, I popped the question about casting a cap, and they were like "heck yeah! your wife's gone to get a massage, lets play in the kitchen!!" so, here is the evidence..
1st a shot of the formage.. It's just a couple shims to get things where I wanted, poplar wood, painters tape, some aluminum foil in a couple strategic spots to avoid sticking and 1 thickness of manila folder.
The stand apparatus to hold it upright..
Poured and cooling..Allowed oven to preheat for 30 minutes, with pot inside, added billet, allowed 15 minutes for it to come up to temperature.
Allowed it to cool for 1 easy tumbler of Woodford Reserve, sipped.. Then unmolded..
Ate chilli, drank another celebratory glass of bourbon, Ridgmont 1792.. hey! it was a celebration!
Been working on clean up and shapeing.. here is where it's at today.. Note the "inlet" of the under rib, doubt it's PC in any way, but I like it.
another view..
anyways.. thats my story on the cast nose cap..
