[MR] lost wax casting class - interested?

[David Wendelken]

Thanks to Xavier I now have a forge that can melt copper, silver or bronze!
J

 

We had five successful lost wax castings to test it out.  Hooray!

 

If you are interested in learning to do lost wax casting, I’m willing to set
up a few classes.

 

At this point, I’m trying to gauge the level of interest and identify who’s
interested so I can work with them on a class schedule.

 

You can bring your own supplies or use mine.

 

I can’t do huge items, but jewelry or buckle-sized items are well within my
equipment limits.

 

If you aren’t sure what lost wax casting is, it’s pretty simple.  You carve
a model of what you want to make in wax.   The model is sprued up with more
tubes of wax.

The sprued model is placed in a metal flask and investment (think
plaster-of-paris for high temperatures) is poured in to cover it up.  When
dry, the flasks are placed upside down in a burn-out kiln to melt the wax
model and sprues out.    (The sprues connect the model to the outside of the
flask.)  The flasks are removed from the burnout kiln and placed face-up.
Metal, in this case, bronze or silver, is melted and poured into the flasks.
The entire flask, still might hot at around 1200 degrees, is tossed into a
bucket of water to steam-boil the investment off your cast metal object.
You saw off the sprues (and save them for the next cast), then file the
object to smooth it out.

 

We have plenty of books that show small cast metal objects from a variety of
cultures that can be made using this process.

 

Class time can be divided into three parts:

 

1)      Researching what to make.

2)      Making the model and sprueing it up.

3)      Casting the object with molten metal.

 

It’s a bit tricky for me to estimate how much time you’ll need to research
or make a model.  I may be able to help you research you give me an idea of
what kind of item you want to make and what time period/culture it should be
from.  How long it takes to a make a model depends on the complexity of what
you decide to make and how fast you work.  Expect 4 hours to make a ring
model of some complexity.

Casting time is pretty easy to guess.  It takes about a ½ hour to fill the
flask.  At that point, we have to wait 2 hrs for it to harden, then about 7
hours in the burnout kiln.  Casting is really quick, we can cast 3 to 5
flasks an hour. (My kiln will hold 5 to 6 flasks, I’m not sure about the
6th.)

 

At that point, the sprues have to be sawed off and the item filed and
polished.

 

In principle, the entire class could be done in one very, very long day.
Realistically, I could do the investment and burnout kiln before the 2nd
class, so people could skip the 9 hours of wait time in the middle. 

(Of course, we could also spend that time making more wax models for the
next casting.  Working in the shop on other projects while the burnout kiln
is melting the wax is pretty noxious, so that’s not a pleasant option.
Actually, a bit of the smell works its way into the house, too. L  Such is
the price we pay for our art. J)

 

I’ve attached a price list for the consumable materials you’ll be using.

 

Reply to me privately if interested.   We’ll get the interested folks
together and negotiate class dates, times, and whether to aim for one long
day or two classes.

 

 

Andras Salamandra 

Attilium (Fayetteville, NC)

 

 

Market prices (with shipping included) as of today (metal prices do vary
from day to day):

 

Casting Bronze is $12.00 a pound.

Casting Fine Silver is $22.50 an ounce.

Wax is $1.00 for a ring-sized piece, proportionally more for bigger items.

Investment is $4 a flask.  A flask can hold multiple items, depending upon
their size and shape.

 

Let’s assume you’re on a tight budget, so you want to make something in
bronze, which is about 30 times cheaper than silver:

 

$2.00:  Investment cost, because you share a flask with a classmate.

$1.00: Wax.

$1.50: 2 ounces of bronze.

$4.50: Total

 

The same item in silver might cost about:

 

$  2.00:  Investment cost, because you share a flask with a classmate.

$  1.00: Wax.

$45.00: 2 ounces of bronze.

$48.00: Total

 

I say “about”, because 2 ounces of silver isn’t the same volume as two
ounces of bronze, and I’m too lazy to do the math to cover the difference in
costs. J

 

And, of course, sharing a casting flask is a lot like sharing “The Ring”.
Only one of you can actually pour the molten metal, which is a way cool
thing to do, so keep that in mind