Todays Project - What did you do today?

[Hawkeye]

Time to get a start on the muffler. The body will be a piece of 2" EMT with cast end pieces. I turned the foam pattern today. I had glued three pieces of 1" blue foam together a few days ago. I left the centre one longer to clamp it in the 4-jaw. Note the metal plates to keep the jaws from crushing the foam. The other end has a wooden disk stuck to it with carpet tape.
   

I cranked the lathe up to over 1200 RPM and turned the foam to include both end caps. I'm hoping it will pour cleanly with plenty of space for the smoke and fumes to rise. It cut kind of roughly and needed sanding to smooth it out.
   

I had picked up some drywall mud some time ago. I mixed it up thin enough to flow and dipped the pattern in it. I had formed a pickle fork out of #11 steel wire to hold the piece for this process. I was standing there turning the whole thing around and learning the significance of the note on the box, "Hardens in 90 minutes." Turns out thinning it down extends that time considerably. I thought using heat might slow the flow, but I needed both hands to keep turning the piece so it wouldn't drip on the floor. I made it downstairs and stuck the cord for the hot air gun in my teeth and headed back upstairs. The hot air did stiffen the mud so that it eventually stopped moving. The rest of the batch is still loose.
   

Next time, the pour (hopefully).