One afternoon i had my mold ready. Fired up the forge, and melted down some aluminum. Then i realized how wildly unprepared i was for dealing with molten metal. i managed to pour a little bit, but that was a fairly dumb risk.
came up with a new plan for a side loading forge, smaller crucible and better tongs. Then i went and bought a little sherline mill.
The book on casting is amazing, and i have no doubt most people can build real tools. but it's going to take a long time, and it's going to take several tries to get anything worth anything.
I don't regret any of the time i spent on it. And perhaps i should have given it a few more weekends. i feel like i got far enough along to get a sense of the scale of what Gingery did. It's amazing. I think he undersells how much skill he built up over 50(?) years. And i think anyone attempting this will realize how painfully unskilled they are. But there's enough there. you can get there if you're willing to put in the time.