On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:36:45 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


"Leon Fisk" wrote in message
.. .
On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 16:08:17 -0400, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

snip Lost Foam description
The first I heard of it was at about the same time, maybe 1978, when I was
an editor at _American Machinist_. My vague recollection was that it first
came as a press release from Ford Motor Company about work they were doing
with the process.

This would have been ~1976 and I doubt if a high school shop
class was using any cutting edge techniques

Now that I'm thinking about it, I also saw mention of it somewhere else at
about the same time. It may have been Caterpillar.

Anyway, the idea was around, and people were experimenting with it. Ford had
pioneered the production "thin-wall" casting of iron with their
Fairlane/Mustang/Cobra etc. small-block (221, 260, 289, etc.) as early as
1961 or so and they were in the forefront of production casting technology
at the time.
========
google on "lost foam" for 163k hits
to start click on
http://www.lostfoam.com/content/feat...s/article1.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost-foam_casting
http://ezinearticles.com/?Lost-Wax-a...sses.&id=85804
http://www.enigmetallic.com/LFMC.htm
http://www.sculpture.net/community/a...hp/t-4880.html

some tips on improving surface finish
http://www.theworkshop.ca/metcastmac...FMC4/LFMC4.htm


Unka' George [George McDuffee]
============
Merchants have no country.
The mere spot they stand on
does not constitute so strong an attachment
as that from which they draw their gains.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826),
U.S. president. Letter, 17 March 1814.