Need Help Blueprinting A Part

I should add my crucible is big enough to melt down an entire 4cylinder head, I could do some calculations to see if my crucible would hold that amount if you guys think it might be worth a shot?
Some of the aluminum knuckles I've seen are one hell of alot thinner than this part and hold up just fine but I'm open to ideas!
 
@4gsr ive got those tools I've just never done anything this complex I've done alot more blueprint reading than I have making my own but I'd much rather do it myself and learn something in the process and maybe even expand my tooling that part itself is cast iron same stuff they would use for the block. What it's made out of doesn't really matter tho I would just like to remake it in aluminum there are aluminum automotive knuckles so I know it can be done I was planning on having a steel sleeve splined and pressed into the aluminum knuckle for the bearing.
I deffinetly plan on making it beefier but still have to keep the holes in the same place and on the same angle
I wouldn't have thought 12" cube of aluminum would be that heavy! What are my opyions with that if any?
Don't cast a cube. Cast a rough shape (but plan on machining away all the as-cast surfaces). You don't have to attempt a thinwall casting to cut down a lot on volume.
 
I was only saying a cube cuz each part is roughly 12x12x6 but I've never casted parts only melted metal for scrapping purposes lol I do know the basics of green sand casting tho and a simple cube would be easy was my thinking...
 
I would use the bearing bore for center and the longer lug for for alignment in one axis. Then take all the dimension I could. It would be nice and easy to turn in different direction as needed if you made a fixture to hold the part. The fixture could be made of wood if it was easier. The fixture can be laid flat or clamped to an angle iron to get dimensions.
As far as casting a block, I would consider lost foam casting to make a part just slightly oversize of the part itself.
 
I completely forgot about foam casting! That's not a bad idea at all. I still think it would be cool to machine this from a solid block of aluminum just to be able to say this part used to be a solid block of aluminum :p
 
I don't think a cast aluminum part is going to be strong enough.
I attempted to look up the GM aluminum steering knuckle and was surprised to find dorman replacements in cast iron with this advertising: Dorman-improved to address weakness in the original aluminum construction.
I've bought a few Pontiacs and impalas that were totaled out from a hit that broke the aluminum steering knuckle.
The effort required to do this may not be worth the reward.
 
For sure the aluminum knuckles will break if you crash them but then again that's only an issue if you get into an accident. the knuckle breaking in that situation might not even be bad thing though as forces from the crash will be taken up by the broken part rather than transmitting that force to the driver. this is a dedicated track car so I just want to get my unsprung weight down and there are plenty of cast aluminum knuckled vehicles that hold up just fine, I'd rather a solid block over cast but I'm willing to explore my options. Please don't take this the wrong way I'm not trying to be rude in anyway but I'm not asking if its safe to do or not I'm just asking how to go abouts making the part...
 
I recently bought a wreaked 2012 impala. Wheel torn loose on passengers side. at first glance I thought "another broke aluminum knuckle" .. Was surprised to see the aluminum knuckle and caliper all fine. Steel lower control arm broken in half. Direction of impact has a lot to do with it. Most of the broken knuckles were side impacts.

One of the biggest challenges to make that out of a block of aluminum would be to really think through the steps. There may be machining that could be done in one setup that shouldn't be done because it will be a clamping or reference surface for a later operation.
Bore of the bearing being 90 degrees to the caliper mount is probably your most critical set up. Most other surfaces can be adjusted for on the car. You may even want to change the angle of the lower ball joint attachment hole depending on the ride height of the car. I've seen plenty of cam style strut bolts to make adjustment possible, or just having the hole elongated so camber can be set (usually elongated the hole in the strut). I don't think it will be as difficult as it first appears.
 
@rgray that was my thinking and why I decided to farm out the question, process of operation here is going to be critical!
I have camber adjustment through my coilovers, my lower strut mount and my control arms. ride height is different from stock but angle of arms are pretty close to the same as my coilovers allow completely independent adjustment of ride height, spring load, camber, caster, compression and rebound also I've got extended monoball pins instead of ball joints so that's not really an issue. What I did want to do is move the little arm for the tierod attachment down and flip the taper upsidedown this is another thing that's going to be critical as the angle that arm is on is crucial to the vehicles cornering ability due to Ackerman's principal.
My first hurdle however is where do I get something 12x12x6 is that even available?
 
Neglecting any safety issues since this is only going to be used on the race track, I might try a bit different approach.

First weigh the part, then calculate the volume by putting it in a bucket of water. Mark the high water mark and, remove the part and add water to the high water mark using a graduated measuring device (measuring cup). Now you have the weight and volume. Then figure out how much material you would have to remove to get the weight down to the same equivalent volume in aluminum.

In many parts you can remove a lot of material that is not needed in the un-stressed areas by drilling holes and making pockets to form I-beam sections in the stressed areas.

To make this part from scratch from a solid block is not something I would want to do without a CNC, even then it would require a few setups and fixtures. A 4 axis machine would be best.

If you had a 3-axis DRO on your mill, you could use a touch probe to generate a point cloud and plug that into a 3-D cad program to generate the part. Other than that, I'm going the have to agree with @4gsr that you will need some precision measuring tools.

Unless you are equipped to do high pressure aluminum casting, I would not even attempt to make that part that way. Sand cast aluminum is too porous to make a part with the strength needed. Carving it out of a block of 7075 would be a long process, but possible, even on a manual machine.
 
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