Basic die casting has been practiced by jewelers for centuries. It's essentially the process that Gutenberg used to manufacture type. But that was simple gravity feed.

In 1847 Bruce invented the high speed typecaster. He used a pot of molten type metal in which a cylinder and piston were immersed. Metal was forced into the permanent molds under pressure.

Pressure die casting wasn't used much until World War I forced the Brits to find new ways of manufacturing armaments. It didn't take them long to realize how useful a technique it could be.

Here you get nine articles written between 1922 and 1926 when die casting was still a simple process and the technical magazines were encouraging others in the industry to adopt it.

These articles were chosen in order to reveal the broad fundamentals: the casting machine, the alloys used, the dies and how they were made and used, and potential problems. It covers a lot of ground. It's aimed at the post-WWI beginner.

But what is really encouraging is that quality castings were being mass produced despite how simple the technology was. I can't help but think that the information here could help an amateur develop some type of small die caster. A pot of molten metal can be dangerous, and dies are difficult to make. But it was done then. It can be done now.

If you melt and pour aluminum, you'll find the comments on the casting of aluminum alloys useful: how they are handled and degassed, precautions about temperature, absorption of iron, etc.

Good old pot metal - zinc, lead, tin, Babbitt, typemetal - are examined here, and even aluminum. And you get revealing photos and drawings of die casters, dies, and castings.

I'll never get around to die casting, but I found this fascinating nonetheless. It's early technology, history, and plain ol' useful foundry info. If you enjoy pouring metal, this is worth reading. Maybe you can be the one to top Dave Gingery's series of foundry books by building and documenting a die caster!