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This is a brief outline of my lost wax casting technique. There are several ways to cast, this is just the way I do it as a one woman show!You can vie...
The beginning of one of my flowers
Another flower ring, almost finished
This flower is all sprued! Spruing allows the wax to melt out of the mold and for the metal to get to your piece! not having enough sprues or having t...
After all sprues have been attached its now time to weigh them. This if very important and is often forgotten. The weight of the wax is used to determ...
After the waxes are weighed, its time to attach them to the sprue base or button.
Then the flask is lowered over the waxes. It is important that there is at least 1/4" of space between the edge of the flask and the waxes. Now believ...
You need to know the size of your flask and how much investment you will need. For this sweet little flask, I only need a 1/2lb and 3.5oz of water. Me...
Now weigh out the investment. Investment contains silica - so you should wear a dust mask if you don't have exhaust. I got this cute blue scale for ve...
Set the timer for 8 minutes. This is the longest that your investment should be disturbed. Once it starts setting up, you don't want to be messing wit...
Now that you've mixed for 3 inutes, vacuum the investment for 2 min - this is the first step in vacuuming. Bubbles are good - this is the vacuum getti...
Now, pour the investment in to the flask. Its a good idea to have tape around the top of your flask to keep the investment from bubbling over and maki...
Now for the vacuuming of the flask! If you are vacuuming more than one flask of the same size, make sure to mark them. I use a piece of chalk to write...
Once the flask is ready - it goes in the kiln and starts the burnout process. Burnout times are anywhere from 5 - 12 hours. The 5 hour burnout is perf...
Once the kiln has been holding at 1000 degrees for an hour, its time to start heating up the crucible and the metal. Make sure the crucible is red hot...
When the metal has melted, give it a pinch of flux, a stir with a carbon stirring rod (and make sure to heat it up first or the metal will stick to it...
Note the hands free set up I made with some nice fire bricks!
Now with my hands free, I can get the flask out of the kiln. Make sure to check to see that the pathways are clear - if burning out natural material, ...
Place the flask upside down on the casting table (same as investing table, just make sure the toggle switch is flipped to "Cast") with the holes facin...
Position the crucible over the flask - make to always keep the torch on the metal. Removing the torch can cause oxygen to get in and that is bad. As y...
Once the metal is poured, turn off the torch and the vacuum pump. Release the vacuum by flipping the toggle off of cast and move the flask away to let...
Now that the metal has cooled a bit and is no longer red (generally 2 - 5 minutes) it is time to quench. Make sure the flask is completely under the w...
I use a toothbrush to get the bulk of the investment off.Soaking them in vinegar is a great inexpensive way to remove the investment and to clean the ...
And now its time to clean them up! removing the sprues, grinding, filing, sanding, adding texture to camouflage where the sprue had been, adding a pat...
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Posted:
Oct 28, 2008
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Bravo!!