Cutting this PITA wax???????

The first person there is a professional pattternmaker in California, if he says it works, it works!
V/r HT1

 

Send him a link to this thread so he can see that mess I made out of my table saw.

He should get a good laugh out of that one.

 

I think he said bandsaw....

 

LOL, now I have seen it all.
Nice attempt, not bad results all things considered.

 

Here's a cool video with lots of wax cutting and shaping.

 

Yeah but the wax he's cutting isn't 2 inches thick.

 

Wax is easy to cut when warmed to the right temperature. I started buying materials for a wax warmer box with a temperature control on it but still haven't gotten around to welding it all together yet. It uses a cheap 6 dollar aquarium heater element and temperature gauge to keep the heat at a constant 100 f.

Will let you know later how it works out when I get it finished in a couple months.

 

Yeah it doesnt have to be fancy. I'm guessing you will float the wax in the heated water... That'll work.

 

Zap, just move to Florida or Texas and you'll never have to worry about creating soft wax again.

You'll be looking for a frig instead.

On a side note and not wanting to derail but How is your welding coming along?

 

Not a hot water bath. Water makes joining and melting wax together hard (splatters).

I was going to put the heater under a metal cabinet and crank it up. Allowing it to heat the wax box via the warm air from underneath.

OCD my welding progress hasn't changed much recently. I am back in TN doing my rotations until Christmas at the earliest. Won't have access to my workshop in CT until then.

I'm also on a bit of an aquarium binge/phase at the moment. Been breeding a lot of apisto cichlids and am setting up a new 40 gallon aquascape.

 

Well, when you get tired of the aquarium thing, just throw an Oscar in each tank.
No more worries in a couple days.

As for the wax warming, why not just put the wax on a cheap 1/2 sheet pan, stuff it in a box and tape a hair drier to the blox blowing through a hole?

 

Aquariums can get outta control REAL FAST! As I kid, I started with a 35g community tank. 7 aquariums later, I was working full time on them. Sold them all. Later decided to stay with ONE tank. ONE BIG ONE! Less work. Once a week, spend an hour and ya done! Your fish look great zap. Aquarium heaters usually don't last very long outside water buddy. Try a 100 watt light bulb in a box to soften wax. Assuming you can still find a 100 watt bulb. lol

 

Saw this and had to make a couple of comments. I think the right saw for the job is a bandsaw using a skip tooth blade, about a 4 tooth per inch. These blades have a lot of gullet space so the chip rolling up doesn't pack. They also have a lot of set so they cut a kerf wider than the band and don't rub. Finally on a bandsaw the teeth don't heat up nearly as much as they only come in contact with the material for a very short time and then they are cooling from conduction with the wheel surface which is better than air cooling.

 

Here is the intelligent way to handle blocks of wax. (first 30 seconds) the rest is boring crap how to turn it into wax sheets. Ocd did that table saw cut job as a joke. He knew it was going to be a mess

 

I have some dumb wax questions (hopefully this is not a hijack). Where do you get your wax? How much is too much? and what's the cost per pound? Thinking about trying some of this lost wax stuff out. I mean I still screw up 3 out of 4 sand cast....so how much worse can it be

 

Hey CBB... I'm buying it here. https://www.arizonasculpture.com/products.asp?catID=4&subcatID=9 Scroll down and look for 2-AB150 - Microcrystalline Wax
4bucks a pound.... (bronze is 6bucks go figure) Start with 1 slab. They are about 11lbs. or if you want a smaller and cheaper amount but pay more per pound, OCD has been selling 1lb blocks on fleabay. Here is listing. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Brown-Micr...851090?hash=item4418808192:g:tH0AAOSwaLdaaCRe

In the beginning, I HATED working with wax. But with a few tips from the pros, I have made peace with it. Now I can't stand working in clay. Wax holds details like you wouldn't believe. Then the ceramic shell grabs those details. I never had any luck with my sand, not to sound corny, but working ceramic shell is like high definition. I have bronze stuff that has my finger prints in it! Yes it's that good!

 

Crazybilly - the wax I use is premiere backup pastel from remet corporation. It costs about $1 per lb and is sold in 55 pound bags which last ages.

Bronze casting detail is way better than sand casting. Almost as good as jewellery investment casting (thinner than paper/thinner than hair level detail).

 

I saw some knife guy recently make large bronze castings and he was using satincast! Come to find out later, he was dumping that method and making the switch to shell. He's going to $ave a $hitload of money now. lmao..

 

Pretty crazy he used satincast for knives. You have to grind them so much what is the point of getting a perfect surface finish?