Hey Zap, When you go to cut the excess fiberglass shell edges and sand them, your going to want to do that outside as it Will dust out your work area and you’ll be scratching your ass for the next 12 months.
Good to know. Does it come out if you wash the clothes alone or will it just get into the washer and drier? Or should I save these clothes a spot in the trash bin?
Usually the fibers just get embedded into the fabric so they become rags. I quickly learned to wear a tyvac jump suit when messing with fiberglass. If you end up with fiberglass particals embedded into your skin take a piece of the stickiest duct tape you can find and press it on to the area of your body and rip it off quickly. Use a clean section of the tape for every attempt at removing the glass strands/particles.
Hmm ok. Well I guess I'll use them as rags then or project clothes I never wash. Hopefully I won't use fiberglass too often. I might go with something else later for the outer shell, fiberglass is kind of a pain and I really didn't enjoy working with it.
You can't pay me enough to play with epoxy resins or anything else that has isocyanates in it ever again. I became highly allergic to the stuff due to isocyanate sensitization. If you have to play with fiberglass again just buy one of those cheap jump suits from Lowes or HD. Cheaper than having to throw a set of clothes out.
I have a 2nd washing machine used for workshop rags and three red T shirts and some old shorts for fibreglass work. The shirts actually glitter in the sun, it sort of looks like when a spider has crawled across something and left a strand of web behind. Trimming the edges with tin snips helps minimise fibres getting loose if the fibreglass is thin enough to cut. I've heard of a guy who gets really sick with just a whiff of isocyanates from spray painting that could be blocks away from him. He was using a lot of 2 pack paints in the 1980's and became permanently sensitised, it makes him nauseous.
No whatsapp... sorry. Add a pound for the stick... I say 3lbs.. Bird, stick and no sprues. I'll take my claw in BRONZE please so I can hang it on my keys. That'd be badass.
Will see what I can do about the claw. I started popping out claw copies. They are coming out well, especially when I brush on the first layer to get all the bubbles out. Yeah I think I'll try buy a big tub of that plasipaste next time. The fiberglass wasn't cheap ($80 for two gallons and the cloth was like 50 more, and plastic containers to hold the mix, gloves, paper towels, etc). The fiberglass was also a huge pain in the ass (literally), and got everywhere and stunk up the house. So that alone is probably worth the "increased cost" of plastipaste which I think I could use to make a mold in 1 layer instead of multiple layers of fiberglass. Worth it in my opinion. Too bad about the whatsapp. You could download it you know its a free app. I might start another thread on the forum and see if anyone wants to start a whatsapp group, or I suppose we could be old school and start a group text. Would be fun I think. I had a look at the hole in the bird's foot and it is pretty small. About 7/8" across. I'm wondering if that is going to be a large enough pour hole. As the wax builds up its going to narrow the pouring hole quite a lot. I wonder how to fix this issue. Perhaps a funnel to bypass the small opening? Looks like I'm going to run out of time this trip and won't be casting the bird for a couple months. Just not enough time to pop out a wax, chase it and then ceramic shell it, cast it, weld it, grind and polish. I'll probably be back in a couple months time and can do it then. For now I'll just work on making the waxes. I got 2 coats of wax into the wood mold and painted the details on the bird with wax then got tired and called it a night. I'll probably shelve the molds for a few days until next week so I can drive back down to Tennessee. Then I'll continue with making bird copies. No rush now I suppose. It might even give me a bit of time to finish some other minor projects like my welding helper 3rd arm thing, or my fish tanks. I'll post some pics of the claw molds. And I've been filming a lot of this mold making stuff, so I'll put it all together into a video at some point.
Good plan. Sounds like your old deadline was really more of just a mildly inconvenient line anyhow. Jeff
How many are you planning on popping out? If you keep the number low, maybe we can get Fritz to get one in a high end gallery out west! In the jewelry world, we call it putting something on memo. It's a free way to get some good inventory as long as the insurance will cover it for the "just in case" I was telling OCD recently that I absolutely HATE repetition. After the first, the challenge is gone to me and then it becomes work. I'm cool with a handful of something if I think I can make a couple bucks, but that's about it.
How many? Not sure, but definitely not that many. Like all my sculptures I make them mainly for myself. I can't see making more than 5 birds, 10 at the max ever even if they are selling for crazy cash. Just too much damn work to make them even with a mold. And its like $200 bucks in bronze costs alone to make a bird if it comes out at 40-50 pounds finished weight. A gallery might be cool to do. I was planning on selling some of my hummingbird sculptures to fund my tig welder and wet saw (that I already bought....). Might get some of those in there. Who is Fritz? How does insurance on this kind of thing work?
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLLmnOl3ZVDhtGIvhTN1GCw I've been talking to him for the past few months. He has been sending all his work out to foundries, but he's about to start doing this at home like the rest of us. He's working on opening a high end gallery in the black hills. Once it opens, I bet he will be needing inventory and it might be a good place to try a bird. Get one finished and let's see what he says.
See what I want to know is how do they get that nice brown patina on bronze? I'd like that color on my bird instead of liver of sulfur. I'll keep him in mind.
Yeah it's a good patina. I think it's REALLY slow application of........ Yup! Liver of Sulfur. Name something else that produces brown? IF it's really watered down, it turns color super slow. Barry said it took the patineur 3hrs, so that's my guess. I'll ask him what that guy used on it. I did this tonight. It's off to the jewelry shop in florida. They had some little plastic frame with "I Do" in a case and everyone asked to buy it. Let's see what happens. I've set the price. If it's not met, I'll keep it and give it to someone in the family. My wife claimed this frames twin. I won't be making any more. 2 was enough.
Oh that's very nice. Turned out great! You applied LOS slowly and got brown? I'm guessing you didn't heat the bronze up then. Hot bronze causes it to go black instantly. Or did you dilute to get brown? What's the asking price if I may ask?
I heat the bronze to about 200degrees. I mix the LoS very weak in hot water. I apply the LoS with a brush. That's really about it. I buff it back with a scotch brite pad and a soft brass brush. As they say, Repeat as necessary. After I get it where I want it. I let it cool, then hit it with a light touch of heat and brush on my bowling alley wax. (thin coat just to cover it) Allow it to completely cool and with a soft towel, buff the wax back to a shine. If you get streaks in the wax, reheat, cool and buff again. I'm sticking to wax for inside pieces as it's the traditional method. I still don't know if this is the correct method, but it's what is working for me at the moment and people usually like this look.
For wax get some bees wax, use a cheese grater on it. Then mix it with turpentine until you get a honey consistency. Use that to brush on the hot metal. The turpentine evaporates and leaves the bees wax behind then you burnish it with a cloth to remove excess wax. That is the traditional ancient method for sealing bronze. I have used it and it works well. I will try diluting mine more. How much are you listing the frame for by the way?
