The surgery was a success(?) the feet are sprued separately like so. The body will take longer to sprue up. I'll get to that later. 20180320_233629-1 by Zapins, on Flickr 20180320_233616-1 by Zapins, on Flickr
Good going doctor... how about a vent on each end of that log back up to the cup?? Repeat after me.. Metal in, air out...
Im feeling a lot better about this set up. As j-j-jason says, a couple of vents from the tips wont do any harm and for the 2 minutes it takes you might as well.
I made 2 copies. One is a pseudo bottom fed version (4 image collage) and one is a direct feed version which I will add a few risers to before casting. What do you think. Bets on which will cast better? I already know the bottom fed one will suck to clean up. I may get a chance to cast it in 2 to 3 weeks time.
Bottom one I think. Yup, lots of cleanup work, but it won't be that bad. I don't mind running a dremel to restore shape. I put on some hearing protection and a face shield and just kinda space out. I have found the tiny tiny bronze shavings/dust make my arms itch. I wear a long sleeve shirt and that has stopped it. I do that grinding work at my little tig welding table. I keep my tig machine covered when grinding bronze. I need to round up a foredom. I have a handheld old school grinder called a Dumore, but it gets super hot and is heavy as hell to hold after half an hour. It's going up on fleabay. The dremel does work good, and it's nice and light, has plenty of power and much cheaper than a foredom. On your top bird, I would be tempted to attach 4 sprues from the lip of the hole up to the main sprue. Better would be a sprue on those to the top of the cup. I know, shell breathes, yada yada yada... Can't wait to see you pour this turkey. You ARE going to film it right?
Yeah I'll be filming it. Probably a night time pour. I'll add more sprues to the direct pour copy later. I'm waiting on the pouring cups to cool. Neither of them will fit my burnout furnace which is going to cause me troubles ugh. I might boil the molds and then bake them in my larger kiln instead of burning out. Like normal. Do you think I need to drill holes if use the boil out method? The dremel shards eat my arms up too. Very itchy. I wonder if a foredom is better. I have wondered for years about them but they are a lot pricier.
It's not really the dremel shards that screw with me as I'm spinning those cheap chinese burrs and diamond burrs. It's the bronze dust. The boil method does work, but I have only done this once and wouldn't risk it personally on these birds. If you boil, you don't need to drill holes. The big thing is the pouring cup must be UP I forgot how long that thing is, but you will need a big ass pot! Drill a bunch of 1/8" relief holes and stick him on a stand with some water under it and hit it with a weed burner. After dewax, just be damn sure you fill those stupid holes before you add more slurry or you'll get what I got with fox #2. (Still can't believe I did that stupid stunt) Now I have to cast another fox for myself. I should just give fritz the 500bucks and buy #1 off him.
Yeah ugh mistakes happen haha. I might drill holes. I never have before but these are pretty large and I wonder if my spruing work was efficient enough. I might just add some blind wax rods to the body, coat them, then snap them off to provide an exit for the wax. I might just weld up a steel shape to boil or maybe make another burnout furnace. Lowes might still have firebrick for sale. I could make one from that pretty easily. Either way I think my kiln would be big enough to bake the stuff once boiled or burned out. Maybe I'll go back over the birds and add a ton more feeder sprues just to be sure it casts. Lot of effort into making copies. It would be nice to have one or two to sell and pay for tools.
That's a good idea about snapping off fingers. Shell is pretty porous, but when the labor is this high, I would take every precaution and oversprue the piss outta him.... Failure is not an option on these! Get that Etsy store setup, he'll sell. If he is not sold by this winter, I have a friend that runs a high end hunting lodge here and is willing to display pieces for sale to his people staying at the lodge. 15% seller fee is pretty standard for this sort of thing. The only thing you'd be out if it doesn't sell would be shipping. I think Fritz is going to ship something down later this year. He is another option as he is opening up a gallery and will need inventory. A snazzy video of the creation of this bird to go along with it and it's a WINNER! Let me know if I can help out.
Thanks. At least I still have one in the running. Knowing my luck it will break on burnout or one claw won't cast and it will be ruined. Will see though. This wax is crazy brittle. One wrong move and your piece is on the floor.
Its behaving ok so far. I'm using the shop vac to dry the inside of the shell out. The aquarium bubblers didn't force enough air in but the vac is working well. I hope for the best but expect some other crap to pop up and mess it up. Will see though! Stiff upper lip. I'm building the sandblasting cabinet at the moment. As the eagle dries.
3rd coat went on ok. I finished making the sandblasting cabinet from harbor freight. I also siliconed the hell out of every seam I could find. I'm going to make the necessary modifications to it tomorrow and set up the compressor and try get 2 coats of shell on the birds. I think I will shoot for 7 or 8 coats. Also built a tool shelf and mounted it on the wall. Now I can keep my work bench organized. I have an electrician coming tomorrow to inspect the place and possibly get started this weekend to set up more power lines for the garage. I also got a nice old style shutoff box from the flea market I might direct wire something to. I can post more pics tomorrow.
Photos of my new shelf, inside of harbor freight sandblasting cabinet with the new lights and switch I Jerry rigged. And more shell pics 4th coat and drying. I think I'm going to shoot for 7 or 8 coats. The electrician came today and had a look he said they can come back this weekend or early next week to wire the new 100 amp sub panel onto the garage. Total cost is 500 for work and permit. Even though I have all materials. Oh well at least it gets done and insurance is intact. I need to get working in the lifting tongs for the big crucible and sort out the burnout kiln. Unfortunately I have a mole on my arm being cut out tomorrow at noon so I hope that doesn't slow me down too much.
If you find your sandblast box shocks you. I saw if you attach a piece of copper wire from the gun to the metal box, it should stop that. Where I live, it's so damn dry, I get zapped by mine some times. Are they coming with lights these days or did you add those? They look hot....
I added the lights. The original one sucked bad. They are warm. I grounded the case when I wired the lights up so that should take care of static shocks. The issue I am having is the silicone caulking didn't stick well to the painted interior. It comes off easily if rubbed.
