Question for the metallurgists and casters out there.. I’m attracted to the corrosion resistance, strength, and wear characteristics of aluminum bronze, not so interested in its price, especially if it’s a piece that would require a lot of machining from available sized stock so I started doing some testing.. I cast a few ingots of a blend of electrical wire copper and electrical wire aluminum scrap I had (so pretty pure) to get a feel of how it pours, and noticed that the last part to cool develops cracks. Is this common?, is there an alloying metal that prevents it (zinc, magnesium, lead?) I’m sure that in a rough cast part it would be cut off with the sprue and risers, but it makes me concerned about internal strain in the rest of the casting. Slightly oversized cast bushings, bearings, etc would really cut machining time and waste, and being able to recast the mill tailings would really drop cost. There is alot of bushings in my amphibious parasal design, and it adds up fast.
