Mechanical Engineering Department:: NIT Silchar

ME 212- MANUFACTURING LABORATORY

3rd Semester (Mechanical Engineering)
Experiment No.02
Title: Pattern making
Aim: To design a wooden pattern to cast Aluminium metal by considering machining and
shrinkage allowances and also to make a wooden pattern of the designed size by using Wood
Turning Lathe.
Material required: Wooden piece
Machine tool and equipment required: Wood turning lathe, Hack saw, Steel rule, outside
caliper, Sand paper, Firmer chisel, Mortise chisel, Round chisel.
Theory:
Pattern is a replica of the object to be cast, used to prepare the cavity into which molten
material will be poured during the casting process. Typically, materials used for pattern making
are wood, metals and plastics. Wax and Plaster of Paris are also used, but only for specialized
applications.
Desirable characteristics of a good pattern material:

• Easily worked, shaped and joined

• Light in weight & low cost.
• Strong, hard & durable
• Resistance to wear and abrasion
• Resistance to corrosion and to chemical reactions
• Dimensionally stable & unaffected by variations in temperature and humidity
The following factors affect the choice of a pattern: (i) Number of Castings to be produced.
(ii) Size and complexity of the shape and size of casting (iii) Type of molding and castings
method to be used. (iv) Machining operation (v) Characteristics of castings
The common types of patterns are: Single piece pattern, Split piece pattern, Match plate
pattern, Gated pattern, loose piece pattern, Sweep pattern, Skeleton pattern, etc.
 The patterns are not made the exact size as the desired casting because such a pattern
would produce undersize casting. When a pattern is prepared, certain allowances are given on the
sizes specified in the drawing so that the finished and machined casting produced from the
pattern will conform to the specified sizes. While designing pattern, the allowances commonly
considered are:
a. Shrinkage Allowance: Generally metals shrink in size during solidification and cooling in the
mould. So casting becomes smaller than the pattern and the mould cavity. Therefore, to
compensate for this, mould and the pattern should be made larger than the casting by the amount
of shrinkage. The amount of compensation for shrinkage is called the shrinkage allowance.
b. Machining Allowance: In case the casting designed to be machined, they are cast over-sized
in those dimensions shown in the finished working drawings. Where machining is done, the
machined part is made extra thick which is called machining allowance. Machining allowance is
given due to the following reasons:
1. Castings get oxidised inside mould and during heat treatment. Scale thus formed requires to
be removed. 2. for removing surface roughness, slag, dirt and other imperfections from the
casting. 3. for obtaining exact dimensions on the casting. 4. To achieve desired surface finish
on the casting
c. Draft Allowance: When a pattern is drawn from a mould, there is always a possibility of
damaging the edges of the mould. Draft is taper made on the vertical faces of a pattern to make
easier drawing of pattern out of the mould
d. Shaking Allowance: When the pattern is shaken for easy withdrawal, the mould cavity, hence
the casting is slightly increased in size. In order to compensate for this increase, the pattern
should be initially made slightly smaller.
For small and medium sized castings, this allowance can be ignored. But for large sized and
precision castings, however, shaking allowance is to be considered. The amount of this
allowance is given based on previous experience.
e. Distortion Allowance: Sometimes castings, because of their size, shape and type of metal,
tend to warp or distort during the cooling period depending on the cooling speed. This is due to
the uneven shrinkage of different parts of the casting. Expecting the amount of wrapage, a
pattern may be made with allowance of wrapage. It is called camber.
Procedure:
A. Pattern Design:
1. A pattern layout is first made from the given casting drawing of the final machined
component. Pattern layout is drawn to full scale, selecting sufficient views needed to cover
the entire object. The various allowances are then added in the different views.
2. For fitting in assembly, the final casting needs to be machined on many external/internal
surfaces. Therefore, the pattern dimensions are increased by an amount equal to machining
allowance
3. To compensate for the shrinkage of metal in the mould cavity shrinkage allowance
depending on the metal to cast is incorporated in the pattern layout on all dimensions.
Casting drawing of the final machined component:

Final Dimension of the Machining Shrinkage Final dimension

machined component(mm) allowance allowance on the pattern
A (mm) (mm) (mm)
B C A+B+C
Dimensions of the Pattern after considering machining allowance and shrinkage
allowances:

B. Pattern Making:
1) Cut out a wooden piece of length 200 mm and cross section 50×50 mm
2) Chisel the corner edges and fix the wooden piece on wood turning lathe Machine.
3) Before fixing it on the lathe, mark the centre of the wooden piece and then attach it to the
lathe so that grooves fixed to the lathe correctly, join the centre of the wooden block.
4) After fixing, start the lathe machine and bring down the wooden piece in to 40 mm diameter.
5) Then mark distances of the grooves as required by the pattern according to the diagram,
reduce the job into required shape.
6) For finishing, sand paper is used to smoothen the surface of wooden piece and hence a perfect
finished pattern is obtained.
PRECAUTIONS:
1) Initially before removing the corners the edges of wooden piece are chiseled to avoid jerking.
2) Constant depth should be maintained using chiseling process.
3) While chiseling the speed should be constantly maintained so as to avoid sudden changes in
turning operation.
RESULT: The wooden pattern has been designed and made to cast aluminium metal.
 Appendix
Table 1 Machining allowances on patterns for sand castings
Allowance, mm
Dimension, mm
Bore Surface
Cast iron
Upto 300 3.0 3.0
301 to 500 5.0 4.0
501 to 900 6.0 5.0
Cast steel
Upto 150 3.0 3.0
151 to 500 6.0 5.5
501 to 900 7.0 6.0
Non ferrous
Upto 200 2.0 1.5
201 to 300 2.5 1.5
301 to 900 3.0 2.5

Table 2 Shrinkage allowances for various metals

Material Pattern dimension Section thickness Shrinkage allowance
mm mm mm/m
Grey cast iron Upto 600 - 10.5
600 to 1200 - 8.5
Over 1200 - 7.0
White cast iron - - 16.0 to 23.0
Ductile iron - - 8.3 to 10.4
Malleable iron - 6 11.8
9 10.5
12 9.2
15 7.9
18 6.6
22 4.0
 25 2.6
Plain carbon steel Upto 600 - 21.0
600 to 1800 - 16.0
Over 1800 - 13.0
Chromium steel - - 20.0
Manganese steel - - 25.0 to 38.0
Aluminium - - 13.0
Aluminium bronze - - 20.0 to 23.0
Copper - - 16.0
Brass - - 15.5
Bronze - - 15.5 to 22.0
Gunmetal - - 10.0 to 16.0
Manganese bronze - - 15.6
Silicon bronze - - 10.4
Tin bronze - - 10.4
Chromium copper - - 20.8
Lead - - 26.0
Monel - - 20.0
Magnesium - - 13.0
Magnesium alloys - - 16.0
White metal - - 6.0
Zinc - - 10.0 to 15.0