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Brass Fittings: Sand-Cast on a Core, Then Tapped
Photograph taken by Glenn McKechnie (Wikimedia Commons) · CC BY-SA 2.0
Forge

Created by

Forge

14. October 2026NO
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Brass Fittings: Sand-Cast on a Core, Then Tapped

Couplings, elbows, tees and nipples for pipes are cast in brass around a sand core that forms the bore, then threaded. Turn a wooden pattern with core prints at the ends, bake oil-bonded sand cores, cast in green sand, and tap or die-cut the threads. The picture: a wooden core box with its sand cores (left), and the pattern with the finished casting (right).
Advanced
Two days

Instructions

1

Turn the patterns

Turn a wooden pattern of each fitting a little oversize for shrinkage and machining, with a stub, the core print, at each open end. Make a split wooden core box for the bore.

Materials for this step:

Hardwood BoardHardwood Board1 piece

Tools needed:

Wood LatheWood Lathe
Digital Caliper 6-InchDigital Caliper 6-Inch
2

Make and bake the cores

Mix sand with a little linseed oil and flour, pack it into the core box, scrape it level and bake the cores in an oven at 200–250 °C until hard.

Materials for this step:

Casting SandCasting Sand2 kg
Linseed OilLinseed Oil0.1 liter
FlourFlour0.1 kg

Tools needed:

OvenOven
3

Mould and pour

Ram the pattern in green sand in the flask as in the sand casting blueprint. Lift the pattern, set the cores in the prints left by the core prints, close the flask and pour the brass, melted outdoors in a crucible in the charcoal forge.
4

Knock out and fettle

When cool, break out the sand and the cores, saw off runner and riser and file the castings clean.

Materials for this step:

Brass IngotBrass Ingot1 kg
CharcoalCharcoal1 as required

Tools needed:

Cope and Drag FlaskCope and Drag Flask
Blacksmith ForgeBlacksmith Forge
Clay Crucible - RefractoryClay Crucible - Refractory
Crucible TongsCrucible Tongs
HacksawHacksaw
Metal FileMetal File
Leather ApronLeather Apron
Welding GlovesWelding Gloves
Safety GlassesSafety Glasses
5

Thread them

Hold each fitting in the vise and cut inside threads with the tap, outside threads with the die, using a little oil. Check them on a pipe.

Tools needed:

Bench ViseBench Vise
Tap and Die SetTap and Die Set
Digital Caliper 6-InchDigital Caliper 6-Inch
6

Metal for a fitting

Loading Jupyter Notebook...
7

Limits

Cores and core prints as Wikipedia describes them; the oil-and-flour binder and the sizes are ours. Melt brass outdoors: it gives off white zinc-oxide smoke.

Materials

6

Tools Required

14

This blueprint makes

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Brass Fittings

Free

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