Hello! Alright, ill just lay it out. I believe some of the older swage blocks out there were cast iron, right? I think John at blackbear forge mentioned it once. If so, does anyone have advice on casting my own? I'll give some more details.
I have a nice 10kg furnace, and have done a few sand castings already. Nothing large, but I do have large enough drags to do a decent sized swage. I've never melted cast iron, but I know it can be done with the type furnace I have. (I've seen BigStackedD melt and pour it. He uses a devil forge furnace and mine is a cast master. Only difference I can tell is he has a fixed lid with a hinge, and mine just fits snug on. They both look identical besides the paint job. Plus his looks older than mine and slightly beat up from use. So I'm not worried about the actual melt.) My plan I'm working on is looking/getting a Styrofoam mold made or get some large thick stuff and cut it out myself and go from there. Possibly look into plaster. I imagine the lost wax method would be better, but with everything else I'm doing I don't have enough time currently for it. I know that I'll need good sand, and planned on getting some professional green sand or Petrabond (I think it's called) for the project. Since I'm only working with a 10kg crucible the piece would only weigh like 20ish pounds. But that would be a great start for me until I can get a larger/steel one later in my venture.
Basically I'm seeing if cast iron would work, or if anyone has any advice on going about it. Like I said ive done a few small castings before. Little skull from a hollow Halloween decoration,a bunch of ingots, open face coins, sea shells, a little 3d printed gnome. Oh! Maybe a 3d printed mold would work as well... not sure.
Currently im using a log, and a large steel pipe thingy I rounded the top off of and they dont do quite what I'm aiming for. Having one for projects would be great obviously, and it would be another thing I could add to my skill set. If it works out of course. Besides the larger stuff(anvil, vice, power tools ect) I've made most of my tools I use daily already. And if I can really get it nice, possibly make em an item for sale at my spot at the market. But yeah, any advice or suggestions/precautions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you guys/gals and have a great day.