Key Casting

[Exodus5000]

I thought it would be fun to mess around with casting some keys. Anyone ever have any success with this?

I would need to learn what to use as a mold, green sand, wax... etc, and what type of metal to use, aluminum is my guess.

I would need a process to melt the metal, I dont think heating it over the stove will do much. I'm going to keep researching this for a bit, If anyone has any info, please post.

[CaptHook]

Theres a consumer market product called petrabond, its a casting sand. This would be your best bet for a molding material. Check out ebay for casting molds, these are frames if you will, that you will need, smallest one you can find. You will also need a small furnace, a crucible, ram block to ram the mold with, a pouring stand (can be homemade), crucible tongs, flux, a casting spoon, spru and riser cutter, pyrometer, molding board....hmmmmm Im trying to think if Im leaving anything out..... oh yeah, safety gear. At minimum you will need welding gloves and heavy leather boots with a face shield.
Just remember, flux at 1500 f and pour around 1300 degrees.
Still seem like a good idea?????
Chuck

[Chucklz]

There is the oft discussed "Clamshell" kit.

[logosys]

I thought it would be fun to mess around with casting some keys. Anyone ever have any success with this?

I would need to learn what to use as a mold, green sand, wax... etc, and what type of metal to use, aluminum is my guess.

I would need a process to melt the metal, I dont think heating it over the stove will do much. I'm going to keep researching this for a bit, If anyone has any info, please post.

You actually might need Nickel Silver as the key mat'l. Aluminum is probably too soft...

[randmguy]

Actually aluminum works pretty well for keys...In the 70's through the early 90's mobile home locks came with aluminum keys and I know lots of folks who never bothered to change them out for nickle-brass. An advantage was that the key always wore out and not the lock...Just gauge the old key and cut it by code.

[Exodus5000]

Chucklz, the clam-1 key mold kit. I think that's what i'm looking for, however I cant seem to find it anywhwere. Only one place, but it's way overpriced.

[Romstar]

You need wood or aluminum to make the mould halfs from. They you need high temperature clay to fill it with. Old style plasticine works very well.

Then, a low temperature alloy is require to cast the key.

One option is wheel weights. It is a low temperature alloy that will melt on most stove tops, electric or gas.

PM me for a copy of the book on this topic.

Romstar

[Hojo]

Howdy all, I do a bit of blacksmithing every once and a while and I just figured you could make a clay mold, as clay will hold, and wax would melt, and you would need something to take the heat out slowly....If it goes to fast It will make the key brittle.

Well anyways, I would say if you got the clay nice and hot + with a blowtorch use brasing rod, which is made from Bronze, an alloy of copper and zinc, I think....anyways, get a keyblank and a block of clay, or plaster now that I think of it, clay would work best in this method, but could be tweaked to suite plaster, so with your block of clay cut in half with thin wire(provides a clean cut and flat, very important. Also make sure the clay is pure and not from the ground, as ground clay usually has sticks and stuff in it...better off buying a small bag) with the two peices push the key into one side, making sure it fills all the gaps, then, get some extra clay and smear it into the other (the showing side) of the key, then slap on the other block of clay, leaving the key stuck in there, now give it a few hits to pack it in tightly, then let the clay dry a little, then try to pull the key out....this could be tricky, then after that get your blow torch and heat up the clay and brazing rod and melt it into the mold little by little, leave it overnight, or a untill its cold and then smash away the clay....if you did it with plaster, mix up some plaster and tap all the aire out of it, hang the key in there and come back when its dry, I would reccomend you get something to hold the key still as if it moves it will stuff up the mold....after it dry's hard, do the sam as above....Good luck, Im not sure if this will work, I might try it this weekend, if it does ill post some pictures

[CaptHook]

Im confused here, are you wanting to make castings of already cut keys, or are you wanting to make some blanks?
Chuck

[Exodus5000]

Im confused here, are you wanting to make castings of already cut keys, or are you wanting to make some blanks?
Chuck

Castings of already cut keys. I figured I'de make one for my front door, since I dont already have a key for it. You think I could cast a key accurate enough to work on your standard schlage deadbolt? Thanks for the suggestions everyone, it's given me a pretty good idea how I want to do this...

[CaptHook]

For an already cut key, the lost wax method is the way to go. Im not familiar with the clamshell kit Chucklz mentioned, but Im assuming its the same principal. Talk to a jeweler who makes their own stuff, they can give you a good start on this method. It basically consists of creating a plaster cast mold of the key, from which you can make your wax "blank". From there, make your sand mold around the wax leaving it in place. Cut your sprue and riser, pour your metal, and the wax melts out of the way. Key comes out with a very good finish, and if the mold was rammed good, the cuts should be accurate.
Chuck

[funboy79015]

I believe that for lost wax casting the mold is fired first in order to remove the wax then the metal is poured, but that is just what I remember from a couple of years ago when my sister was taking a jewelery making class.

[CaptHook]

Different variation of investment casting. My way avoids using ceramic slip as the mold (which as you mentioned has to be fired), just plaster of paris to make wax blanks.
Chuck

[OpenSays-a-me]

I'v tinkered about with this a little myself.

Flipping past the clamshell kit in my lockmasters always makes me think about the old movies where they would make casts of the old warded lock keys in soap and wax.

One weekend I got inspired to dig around the house for supplies for an inpromptu experiment.

For the mold... I used Sculpey.



This stuff is just great for all kinds of purposes. Pliable out of the package, and sets hard in the home oven in like 15 minutes.

I used the super-scientific "sandwich" method to mold the key. Just made a couple blocks of clay large enough to cover the key about 3 fold and mashed the key between them. Then seperated the halfs and removed the key. Took a few experiments and some pam cookign spray to get the mold right.

One of the molds I made an image of the entire key. The other I made an image of the key from the keyring hole down. (leaving an opening at the top of the mold when the two finished sides were pressed together)

Baking in the oven hardens the clay without shrinkage, but it's fairly brittle. You can't be manhandling the molds after curing.

For filler, I tried a few things. 1. Lead fishing weights and a common spoon. 2. JB weld and a ziploc makeshift cake decorator. 3. More sculpey clay.

-For the jb weld method... I mixed up a heapin' helpin. Slopped it as best I could into a ziploc freezer bag with the corner cut out, and applied it as carefully as I could to both sides of the full key mold. Leaving JUST a little more than needed to fill the recess and pressed them together. I then sandwiched the whole thing between 2 boards and clamped it with vice grips just strong enough to hold it and let it sit overnight, and the better part of the next day.

-Using the lead weights... I sandwiched the mold together between two small boards and vice grips same as the jb weld method... leaving the open hole at the top. I melted the lead fishing weights over the stove in a large kitchen spoon and tried as best I could to pour it into the hole. This took me a while and was pretty messy.. but I was making do with what I had.

- I was pretty tricky trying to make a cast of the key with more sculpey, but once again with some fooling about I got a perfect copy of the mold. The sculpey key was the prettiest of the three, But I dared not risk it on any of my locks.

The jb weld key, and the lead key actually worked. They required a bit of cleaning up, from excess material seepage. (especially the JB key which ended up a small bit wider than the keyhoe) They were both pretty soft of course, so i used a tension wrench to turn them, but they manipulated the lock effectively.

Anyway, It was pretty fun... I'v had a few more ideas to improve upon my experiment... but with no practical usage they have just remained ideas.

Hope at least some of that made sense.. I don't have the energy left to go back and check it for errors.

[Chucklz]

For a low temperature alloy, one may want to look into Wood's metal. Its used in sprinkler systems, and also is available online, check fisher scientific.

It is a soft alloy, so it wont withstand brutal treatment, nor do I think any Schlage L or similar blank would turn out acceptably, but it should be servicible for most keys.

Woods metal melts at somewhere around 70 C, so you would really have a hard time horribly disfiguring yourself, or reducing your home to a pile of ash. Now having said that... I'm just going to wait for the stories.........