casting a cafe seat?

[CBPayne]

I don't know if this would actually work. I was thinking about trying it. Maybe your wondering why.
Well I need a cafe seat for my bike, of coarse. I don't have a tig welder and I really suck at fiberglass...I know, I've tried three times. Fiberglass is not for me.
I thought about making it out of sheet metal, I do have a mig welder, kinda wanting the aluminum seat.

So what about casting an aluminum cafe seat in green sand?

 

[Barkingmadspeedshop]

Give it a try document it and learn. I for one would like to see how it works

 

[VonYinzer]

Technically I domt see why it wouldn't work... My only questions would lie with the necessary thickness of the piece and the generally brittle nature of thin cast aluminum. There has to be some flex in the seat. Sure would be neat to see though. Make sure to post up if you do it.

 

[jay_kent]

I'd be down for seeing the process but honestly, fiber glassing a seat is just plain easier to me. But dude, if you can cast a seat, start sand casting some custom engine covers and recover the cost of that seat.

Just saying.

Seriously, photograph the process and build.

 

[J-Rod10]

I share Von's thoughts, I think it'd be brittle.

 

[rockcitycafe]

it would work fine, but weigh about 20lbs, I got pretty good at casting aluminum in school and getting it to flow in thin sections is really tough, it would have to be about 1/4" thick, then you'd wind up removing a lot of material to get the rough surface out... cast aluminum isn't particularly brittle if it's cast carefully, use degasser tabs and a good flux and it should cast fine, but for all the work in building the pattern to mold in the first place, you might as well just do fiberglass.

 

[rockcitycafe]

actually, if you've got a good foundry going, I'll build you a metal seat in trade for casting some parts haha