Flywheel Casting Pattern

prusaprinters

This print will be of very limited general use, but I thought the approach might be of interest to others contemplating a similar project. The project was to create a mold pattern which would be used to cast a flywheel in cast iron (the actual casting to be done by a foundry). The flywheel was designed to be a replica of the flywheel used on the first engine built by Henry Ford (see photos). More on that engine here: https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/224715 Since the flywheel was too large to print in one piece, It was divided into sections which were then glued together. Splitting the circular sections in half was actually an advantage as it made for smoother printing on the curved sections (along with variable layer height). Projections and pins were used to align the parts for gluing. The flywheel was also printed slightly oversize to allow for shrinkage in the casting. The individual sections were glued together (see photos), and then sprayed with autobody filler and sanded (see photo). Note that this was not made as a split pattern (per the direction of the foundry). As can be seen from the photos, the results of the casting were very good. The OnShape 3D CAD files for this : https://cad.onshape.com/documents/24da24eddb014b7f8dda5c26/w/442f23ae20ee55814036c3ae/e/4eb269c69508a9f9d896bcb6 Print instructionsThe parts were printed in PLA using variable later height.