polishing sandcast brass

[kswan]

Thanks, ordered wax cast butt plate and trigger guard from Dave.

 

[Capt. Jas.]

Judging Goehring's parts by their finish as cast, I'd say they're investment or wax cast......Fred

They are just really good sand castings.
Reeves calls them "rough sand castings of 70/30 yellow brass"

 

[Vaino]

I stand corrected......thanks.....Fred

 

[Capt. Jas.]

I stand corrected......thanks.....Fred

They are the cleanest sandcast parts on the market. I had to go back to his flyer to verify.

 

[b737tvc]

Fred how do you get a hold of Reeves? Website?

Chris

 

[54ball]

Reeves is like many of the old timers in this business, no web-site.

You may can find a number for him. Usually he is at the big shows like Dixons or at Friendship where he has a pamplet and parts list. Maybe someone has it and the contact info for you.

Last I heard he was retiring and the family was taking over. I also heard the foundry that did the casting has closed so future products may be in doubt.

 

[Vaino]

He doesn't have a website, but his tel no ......717.684.2022. I also heard he was retiring, so don't know if the tel no is valid. Try it anyways......Fred

 

[dave_person]

Hi Kswan,
There are good reasons to use wax cast parts and there are good reasons to use sand cast. Reeves Goehring's castings are very good sand castings based on originals. With a fine sand or clay, the cast part can be very smooth. Wax castings are fine if you can get the design you want and you don't intend to modify it very much. Many of the sand cast parts have a lot of extra metal, which can be very useful if you intend to modify it very much. Wax casts are often very thin in spots making reshaping them risky. I found this stuff out the hard way. Today, I buy Reeve's castings if he has what I want, wax castings if they suit the job and sand castings if they are best to meet my objectives. As a last resort, I cast my own. I sometimes have to do that for pistols and 17th century guns.

dave

 

[Zonie]

Maybe things have changed but about 10 to 20 years ago, many of the investment castings were made from bronze, not brass.

Bronze is more difficult to file than brass. It is also more likely to crack if it is bent.

Bronze can look just like brass but when you try to file it, the file won't bite into it easily.
A stroke of the file feels like the material is slick or greasy.

If a person has an investment casting that shows these characteristics, keep any attempt to bend it to a minimum.

 

[dave_person]

Hi Zonie,
You are right about many wax cast part in the past. I remember one that was really gold colored rather than yellow and did not match any of the parts I made from sheet yellow brass. However, virtually all of the wax cast hardware I've used over the last few years seems to be a good color match. They may contain some tin but at least they look right when finished. My biggest beef with wax cast stuff is that recently I've encountered butt plates in which the heel or dome is almost paper thin. In one, I could not drill a counter sunk hole for a wood screw because there was not enough thickness for the counter sink. On another, while trying to clean up and polish the octagonal flats on the tang, I filed through the metal in one spot. I think there are some quality control issues at the foundries.

dave

 

[pooch156]

I ordered & received a sand cast butt plate and trigger guard from TOTW. I have worked with sand cast parts before. Yes they take work to make them right. I have no problem with that. But these parts are so far out of proportion that I just can't make them right. I don't mind the little sand holes or pits as I think that gives the parts character. Being rough is not the problem. I simply could not make the flats on the top of the butt plate right. The bottom of the butt plate is paper thin. Maybe, just maybe I can save the trigger guard but it doesn't look promising. These are the worst castings I've ever seen.