Any recommendations/help with aluminum casting?

All,

The Horsa glider cockpit at the Jet Age Museum is slowly pressing on after a quite 18 months and one of the upcoming tasks is to finish off the rudder bar mounts and linkages so we can get everything buttoned up below the floor.

These were originally cast alloy (the sort I don’t know but as it’s a Horsa, it would have been “cheap”) and then just faced and drilled. I’ve made a CAD model up from reverse engineered Airspeed drawings and had a friend 3D print it in ABS plastic for test fitting and just so we can get a tactile sense for what we’re dealing with.

Next step is to get it cast so I thought I’d throw it out to the forum, especially the cockpit builders, who might have some experience at getting this done in the UK.

Basically I’m looking to send a 3D “master” (minus the holes) somewhere that can pack it in sand, pull it out and cast two copies it in some reasonable cheap aluminium.

I’m aware aluminium shrinks so I’d need advice on how much to scale up the master before 3D printing it. Part itself takes up about 5.25″ x 2″ x 3.5″ and has a volume of 18.6 cu/in.

Any leads, recommendations of folks you’ve used in the past? Needs to be in the UK for VAT reasons.