Metal Casting
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- robco0
i saw this book that explained the process where a kid sand casts a small table on a beach somewhere. i think he made the table out of wax first and then buried it in the sand, followed by pouring in pewter (i think).
- JSK0
Man that has burn marks written all over it. WEAR TWO CUPS!
- slappy0
We used to melt down coke cans and aluminium from old cars in a home made furnace which was basically a smelting pot, a few ring burners and a stainless collar to trap in some of the heat. We cut the moulds out of polystyrene (with a hot wire), then pack them with sand and then poured in the liquid aluminium.
Bit rough but would work ok. Easy to clean up with sand paper. Be carefull not to drop liquid metal onto concrete as the concrete can pop and explode.
- sorry, I meant clean up the edges with a bastard not sand paper, you know what I mean.slappy
- boobs0
Casting metal is easy. Humans have been doing it for thousands of years. Getting it hot enough to flow into the mold without melting the container is the hard part.
- JSK0
I took jewelery making class. That was fun. I was the only person in class. I guess its not a popular class during highschool. But it seemed more popular in art school.
- pylon0
I took art-metal work classes a million years ago and during my wrought-iron/black-smithing classes we were told not to wear gloves whilst working with the iron because you'd get a better feel for the heat of the iron when working.
When working wrought-iron with leather gloves the leather can super-heat really you only feel it once it's too late. Bare-handed you can tell pretty quickly if the metal is too hot to touch.
This was only for working wrought-iron, though. Casting is totally different...
- Nairn0
Ah, the wonder of wikipedia - who needs school (or common sense) any more? Thanks for those links - I'd missed them on my circuitous trawl :)
Cannonball - I live in a moderately industrial environment, but fair point. I was hoping I could dick around with something relatively small scale and simple (so I was thinking tin and lead, in a flat relief mould) 'til I hit a limit where I'd need either to give up and out-source or know enough and be able enough to get some decent tuition and consider investing in proper equipment. I just want to get it beyond a ..er.. cerebral sojourn (it's late, my language centres are faltering)
- JSK0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cas…
this would give you more methods and key words
- JSK0
Good luck, dont forget about goggles, heavy duty heat resistant gloves, protective apron, face shield, etc
- cannonball0
You cant really do this in your shop, unless of course you work in a foundry. Depending on what you are pouring, you need to heat the metal up to be hot enough to will one of two different types of molds. There is the wax reduction process, and a process that involves pouring into a silica based mold. I would suggest looking up taking a class in the industrial arts somewhere they work with metals.
- Nairn0
aha. Makes sense. At this stage, I'm not horrifically worried about the end quality as I'd just like to get started playing with this, so just want to see whether it's at all possible, after a practical fashion.
You've given me search terms that I can use - starting from nothing, I couldn't get much specific from Google, but it looks like I can now - thanks, guys!
- JSK0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spi…
More pro method but I have made home version also. Which btw, resulted in few thick sweaters burning off because i didnt plug the metal casing tightly. But no burns.
- pylon0
Once you've got your mould, you pour your casting material in and then spin it really quickly so that the centrifugal force forces the liquid metal into all of the tiniest cracks and crevices.
Relying on gravity to cast metal is sure to leave small bubbles and/or lack of detail.
- Nairn0
erm.. I get the sand casting and wax models - but what on earth is the 'spinner' element?
- JSK0
Depends on what kind of letterpress you are trying to make. Different metals have different tolerance in pressing (lasting a while).
Copper is easy to make but wont last long. I wouldnt start with and solid metal per say because you need to have full set up with different mixture to find a good balance.
I started using silver, little more expansive but more durable then copper and melts easily.
Also, melting any metal is not something you do over the stove top or on bbq grill. You need a lot more heat then that.
- JSK0
I absence of spinner, you can use stand alone wax model with sand casing and do drip down but it is not as form fitting as spinner
- Nairn0
One of the things I really want to do is make a letterpress type thing... though I'm a complete goon who didn't go to design school, so have no idea what materials are employed with those things.
- JSK0
Have you thought about using wax, sand and spinner?
You can actually do this easily. Make the set up with ease.
- Nairn0
erm.. nothing so specifically.. yet.
I have the means to make complicated 2d negatives, so have thought about making ..er.. positives, to imprint negatives (in clay), fire that, then pour in some metal.
I'm looking for real idiot-level pointers here :)