Chunk Jewel Lamp

Discussion in 'Lost wax casting' started by Jason, Feb 3, 2019.

  1. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Glass showed up. The "striking red" isnt very striking. I'm asking frantz glass if this is their red.... I kinda doubt it. The blue, green and orange are winners. Now if I can just turn these rods into ugly chunks. :D

    20190220_134637.jpg

    20190220_134631.jpg
     
  2. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    Maybe it will turn red after its heated and cooled??
     
  3. Jason

    Jason Gold

    yup.. frantz said it would.. good deal.
     
  4. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    Blah beat me to the punch! Yes it should change colors when heated. Glass is magic that way.

    That's quite a lot of glass rod you have there. You going to slump it with an oxy/acetylene torch onto the mold?

    So, random trivia fact I learned yesterday while watching an archeology show. Apparently glass is cast into ingots as well. An ingot of glass. Weird!
     
  5. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I think so. I'll heat up a rod without a mold and see what kind of blob I can make first.
    I'm busy running glass today. I HATE the smell of this stuff...

    20190220_172308.jpg
     
  6. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    Yeah it smells like shit. Stinks up the garage for days. Makes you feel sick. I used a p100 respirator which helped a bit but still not great.

    You using glass or fabric with the resin? Looks like its going to be a good mold though. Good parting line and nice registration groove.

    I should post an update of the octopus. I've been making it for the last couple days. Getting close to molding it stage.

    I've got a jar left of that rebound stuff left over from when I made the eagle mold last year. I wonder if it is still good? If it isn't that's going to suck it cost me 30 something bucks. Maybe I can use it for an outer coat that doesn't matter that much.
     
  7. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    This will be interesting if it turns out.

    .
     
  8. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Where's your faith man? If you are seeing something I'm not, please let me know. Wouldn't be the first time I pull a dumbass move in front of half the world.

    Hey Zap, R25 is suppose to have a 2year shelf life... If you didn't taint your bottles it's probably still good. If the bottles are unopened, it's definitely still good. I'm using polyester resin with 2 layers of glass cloth followed by a layer of chopped glass. I learned something recently about Amazon. You can buy R25 for 30bucks, but rR40 costs $45. BOTH of these are sold by smooth-on for around $30. Why this is stumps me. Unless you have big undercuts, 40 is the way to go. I thought I bought R40 for this tree, but was surprised when I opened the box. No biggie, I ran it all and didn't need to bulk it up with chopped crap.
     
  9. PatJ

    PatJ Silver

    I say that because when I try stuff like that, it never turns out.
    And a lot of the stuff I try does not turn out, but I have not been at it that long either.
    I am sure you will make it work one way or the other, and it is perseverance that often gets the job done.

    .
     
  10. Jason

    Jason Gold

    ..... and to think my parents gave me the stink eye when I would take art classes in college.:(:rolleyes::D
     
  11. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    Art classes?! Cheater! My college never had those. Back in my day we walked up hills both ways over the broken remains of scrapped art programs due to budget issues.

    I think it is factory sealed. 2 years huh? So that's good news. Cash in my pocket. I have rebound 25 as well. I will probably need it for the tentacle because there are a lot of small undercuts.

    I still wonder the best way to pour waxes. Have you tried spraying mold release before pouring in wax into a mold? Does it help reduce defects and micro bubbles?

    Also are you vacuuming your silicone or just applying it after mixing? Any issues with bubbles?
     
  12. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Well, my high school had ceramics and a decent 3d arts class. Then in college, we had to take art or music appreciation. I also did ceramics in college for a couple years. It was expensive, but worth the money. I went to a college right by palm beach so it was fairly high end and they invested pretty heavy in their art dept. I was interested in bronze work THEN, but I should have pushed the college for a foundry dept. Oh well.

    I have never tried mold release prior to pouring wax into silicone. It's just not necessary. If you are experiencing micro bubbles, it could be pouring temp, seasoning of the mold or in the mold itself. I don't vacuum my silicone, but I do try not to whip air into it when mixing it. That would certainly lead to a mold that's not smooth. What mold release are you spraying your stuff down with prior to applying silicone? I've been using Mold ease 200 and no issues so far. The instructions for that stuff does say to spray and brush smooth, wait a few minutes, then light spray before applying silicone. just a thought.;)

    The only wax pouring issue I had was long ago with the jewelry box. I was getting delamination of the layers of wax due to f'd up heat. Now I practically smoke my wax (210+) and shut it off. I dump in, swish, count to 10 and dump. Take five drags off my crack pipe and then do it again with the slightly cooler wax. Repeat 4-5 times until I get the thickness I want.

    Let's see what happens with this tree now. I purposely avoiding adding the texture to the tree in clay because I'm going to do the branches directly in wax and I want the texture to match the trunk. So I the wax pulls coming out of this mold should be smooth.

    Finished the stinkyass fiberglass tonight.
    Demold tomorrow.
    20190221_002000.jpg
     
  13. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    Bubbles always seem to be there no matter pouring temp. Not sure why. Just on the surface layer not deep in the wax. You notice them more when you go to flame polish the wax after demolding. Try it out and see if you don't have the same issue. They are tough to see at first. It may also be the wax you are using. What kind do you slush cast with? Looks like mine but who knows.

    I used the same mold release when making the rubber mold.

    I haven't tried it when pouring wax but I may try something like it and see if it helps with the bubbles.
     
  14. Jason

    Jason Gold

    BOOM! And that boys is how its done! Hey zap.. no bubbles. :p

    20190221_141304.jpg

    20190221_170638.jpg
     
  15. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    Damn that came out nice!

    Lot of work went into that. I hope you manage to sell a few to make up the cost of time!

    Interesting. Maybe brushing it on reduces bubbles. Surprised you don't vacuum and get good results.

    Speaking of. My friend just got his vacuum chamber and it is soooo nice. Makes me think mine must have a leak somewhere because it only pulls -27.5 not the full -30. The acrylic is cracked and crazed so maybe air gets into the chamber that way. Maybe that's why the lab i got it from threw it out....

    How many slush layers? How thick is the wax?
     
  16. Jason

    Jason Gold

    I didnt brush this mold. I only took a blue wipe with alcohol on it and gave it a 10second swipe. Closed it up and started pouring. My wax was 210 when I started. I never count on the first to work out, this time it did. I'll take lucky over good anyday.

    If my vac pump wont pull 30, I swap them out back at horrible freight. Can you say BOX SWAP?
     
  17. Zapins

    Zapins Gold

    You have a 2 stage pump? Only 2 stage pumps pull close to 30. The single stages suck. So just to be clear, you don't vacuum at all before brushing the rubber on and you don't get little bubbles?
     
  18. Jason

    Jason Gold

    That's correct, I do not vac the silicone.

    The pump I have is 3cfm and I pull HVAC stuff to around 500microns. When you get this low, you need a micron gauge. The crappy pump I have from HF works, but it's slow as molasses. It can take me almost 2hrs to pull down a home system. Always do the copper work first and complete the little crap while its sucking.

    If you aren't doing HVAC work, a cheap pump is plenty for silicones, investments and your D*k pump.:p:D:eek:
     
  19. DavidF

    DavidF Administrator Staff Member Banner Member

    That did come out pretty nice...
    Well, you know...
    For a guy that only needs a 3 cfm vacuum pump anyways. ... ;)
     
    Tobho Mott and Jason like this.
  20. Jason

    Jason Gold

    Striking red is a winner. Funny how it turns almost black and cold back to this. The three pieces was a small chunk just left on the bench. Not annealed it split up naturally as it cooled. Baby steps... I like the color!

    20190222_142032.jpg
     

Share This Page