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Unpopular opinion: skip the fancy mold release sprays for green sand
I was at a shop in Cleveland last month and one of the old guys told me he just uses a light mist of water on his patterns instead of buying expensive release agents. He said he's been doing it for 25 years and his molds come out cleaner than the guys using spray cans. I tried it on a run of 50 cast iron brackets this week and honestly the water worked better than the $18 can I was using before. No sticking, no residue buildup on the pattern, just a quick spritz with a spray bottle. Has anyone else tried this or am I missing something that will bite me later?
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ray61310d ago
Have you noticed any issues with rust forming on your patterns after using water? I tried this method a few years back on some steel patterns and had to stop because they started corroding after repeated use. Otherwise, for aluminum or wood patterns it works great and saves a ton of money.
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nathan_kim10d ago
Ray mentioned rust on steel patterns, but the real trick nobody talks about is how the water temp matters. I found that using warm water makes the patterns dry way faster because it evaporates quicker, less time for rust to start forming. Cold water just sits there and soaks in more, at least with my stuff. Also if you're gonna use water on steel, hit it with some wd-40 or even just air compressor blast right after, makes a huge difference.
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white.keith10d ago
Oh man, same thing happened to me @ray613! I switched to mostly aluminum patterns after ruining a couple good steel ones the same way, it's such a pain when you forget to dry them off. Water works awesome for cleaning up but you really gotta stay on top of drying and oiling the steel stuff right after.
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