Brooklyn1 wrote:
>
> On Fri, 22 Feb 2013 17:51:53 -0500, Dave Smith
> > wrote:
>
> >You make you own mold. A friend of mine worked at a foundry where they
> >cast a lot of brass, bronze and similar alloys. Somewhere along the line
> >he came across an old porthole. He made arrangements with the owner to
> >make some duplicates on the side. He ended up selling quite a few of
> >those portholes to people who were refurbishing old sailboats.
>
> Making the mold costs a lot more than that piece is worth... I don't
> believe your barroom story.

If you have access to a facility that does casting,
it's simple as dirt. It's called sand casting.
You can easily make a mold from pretty much any
solid object in the sand, and then pour the metal
into that. The cost of the mold is almost nothing
in term of time and materials. The hard part is
getting access to the facility.