56 lines
4.1 KiB
HTML
56 lines
4.1 KiB
HTML
<!DOCYTPE html>
|
|
<html>
|
|
<head>
|
|
<meta charset="utf-8">
|
|
<title>chmod777's tilde - Casting Aluminium Settlers of Catan Board</title>
|
|
<meta name="description" content="">
|
|
<meta name="author" content="chmod777">
|
|
|
|
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
|
|
|
|
<link rel="stylesheet" href="assets/css/styles.css">
|
|
</head>
|
|
<body>
|
|
<header>
|
|
<h1>~chmod777</h1>
|
|
<nav>
|
|
<a href="/~chmod777/">Home</a>
|
|
</nav>
|
|
</header>
|
|
|
|
<main>
|
|
<h2 id="settlers-catan-casting">Casting Aluminium Settlers of Catan Board</h2>
|
|
<p>A couple years ago now I started casting Settlers of Catan game tiles in aluminium. I have only gotten as far as casting the mountain(ore) tiles but I plan on eventually casting the rest.</p>
|
|
<p>To start I model a tile using Blender. Modeling the base is faily straight forward. Create a hexagon, scale it to the size you want, extrude it upwards, and then use a difference modifier to create cutouts for towns and roads. The mountains are created using an image as a height map on a seperate plain and then combined with the base using a union modifier.</p>
|
|
<p>After modeling the tile in blender I export the file then print it on a 3D printer. The print will be the form for the mold that I will cast into. Using smaller layers in the print is better as the sand tends to cling to the ridges and you get smaller horizontal lines.</P>
|
|
<p>Befor I could cast the first piece I first had to make a molding box. To do this I used four pieces of 2x4 lumber for each side and screwed them together. Then I added some scrap lumber strips to the sides of each half to act as guides so the 2 sides don't shift. Now that I have the form, the casting box, and sand that I ordered I can place the mold, into the box, and pack sand around it and the sprew(form for the pouring hole).</p>
|
|
<p>My furnace setup is very low tech. It consists of a pile of rocks stacked to resemble a furnace, a bag of charcole, and a small fan. A small trench is dug under the rocks to allow for airflow while skinny rocks are placed accross the trench to prevent the charcole from falling into it.</p>
|
|
<p>The furnace is started with wood and the crucible is placed into it to heat it up gradually. Once the furnace is started charcole is added, then small ingots are placed in thecrucible. It usually takes 40 minutes from lighting the "furnace" to pouring with this "setup".</p>
|
|
<p>And here are the results. They still need to be cleaned up a bit.</p>
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><img src="assets/jpeg/catan-mountain-1.jpeg" title="Ore Tile 1" alt="Photo of an aluminium Settlers of Catan ore tile."></li>
|
|
<li><img src="assets/jpeg/catan-mountain-2.jpeg" title="Ore Tile 2" alt="Photo of an aluminium Settlers of Catan ore tile."></li>
|
|
<li><img src="assets/jpeg/catan-mountain-3.jpeg" title="Ore Tile 3" alt="Photo of an aluminium Settlers of Catan ore tile."></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<p>These where my first casts so I made a lot of mistakes throughout this whole process. You can see on the third piece that instead of pouring directly into the mold I poured to the side and carved a gate in the sand to piece. The sides are so thin the sand broke away and I need to do a lot of filing to remove the excess material. This also meant that there is a large divit on the bottom because aluminium shrinks when it cools and there was no sprew to feed more aluminum into the back.</p>
|
|
<p>There are also several ways I could have improved my molds. The first being angling the cutouts in the mountains so that when the form is pulled out it doesn't catch the sand. You can see in the first piece I had to do a lot off grinding to remove the aluminium where the sand collapsed.</p>
|
|
<p>If anybody can tell my why the third tile has that texture on the flat parts that would be great. I think it's because I cast it too hot?</p>
|
|
<p>It was a great expierment and I hope to have an update this summer when I cast more of the tiles.</p>
|
|
</main>
|
|
|
|
<footer>
|
|
<nav>
|
|
<span>~</span>
|
|
<a href="#">Top</a>
|
|
<span>~</span>
|
|
<a href="/~chmod777">Home</a>
|
|
<span>~</span>
|
|
</nav>
|
|
<br>
|
|
<a id="page-source" href="https://tildegit.org/chmod777/my_blog">Page source</a>
|
|
</footer>
|
|
</body>
|
|
</html>
|