Shoutout to the guy in Toledo who showed me his sand mix

I used to pack facing sand by feel, thinking more was better for mold strength. He let me run a test with his exact 30% bentonite blend, and the surface finish was way cleaner with less gas holes. Now I weigh my mix for every job instead of guessing. Anyone else switch to measuring after seeing the difference?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor1423d ago

Right? I was the same as @hunt.quinn, my "by feel" method was just a recipe for bad casts. A cheap scale changed everything.

hunt.quinn23d ago

Oh man, I was the same way for years. I figured as long as the sand felt right in my hand, it was good enough. Then I had a casting come out with so many holes it looked like Swiss cheese, and I finally broke down and got a scale. The difference in consistency is just night and day. It's one of those things you don't realize you're doing wrong until you see the right way. Now I feel silly for all the time I wasted guessing.

the_patricia23d ago

Saw a video once where a guy tested weighed vs unweighed sand mixes side by side. The weighed batch had way fewer defects, just like @hunt.quinn said. It's crazy how much a cheap kitchen scale can fix. My stubborn self took forever to admit eyeballing it was a problem. Now I won't even start a project without weighing everything first.