Lost Foam Casting: Foam Preparation

Choosing, Shaping and Adapting Foam for Casting

What type of foam should be used in lost foam casting? How can it be cut and shaped and smoothed? Are there any ways to improve it to ensure more successful castings?

These and other questions are answered in this video below as I prepared a wheel pattern to form a perfect foam copy, ready for eventual transformation into an aluminium casting using my home metal foundry. It really is a case of the more you put in - the more you get out!

Poor foam preparation including the wrong choice of foam can result in hours of work after casting, cutting, grinding, filing the metal to achieve the desired shape. But if the foam is properly prepared, less time is spent of metalwork.